Catholics, chill out: Cardinal Timothy Dolan was invited to give the closing prayer at the Democratic National Convention after all.
Earlier, Dolan's appearance at this week's Republican National Convention made headlines—and the NY Archdiocese made sure to tell everyone that Dolan offered his services to the libruls, too. Spokesman Joseph Zwilling offered, though, with a passive-aggressive poke at the Democrats, "He wanted to make sure that they knew that this was not a partisan act on his part and that he would be just as happy and grateful to accept an invitation from the Democrats as he would to have received one from the Republicans... He has not been contacted by them."
Zwilling now says, "Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on Thursday of this week. It was made clear to the Democratic Convention organizers, as it was to the Republicans, that the Cardinal was coming solely as a pastor, only to pray, not to endorse any party, platform, or candidate. " Well, THANK GOD for that!
As we all know, Dolan has been publicly battling President Obama and his administration over the birth control mandate, which offers women free birth control under insurance plans—including ones offered by religious institutions—and which Dolan thinks is ruining everything. Even though Dolan and dozens of other Catholic dioceses are suing Obama, Dolan still invited him to the Alfred Smith Dinner—the President and Mitt Romney will be speaking there.
