The American bishops used to be fairly obvious in their support for the Democratic Party; since Roe v. Wade, they’ve had to mute their liberal leanings to appear relatively unbiased. Well, times have changed. The Democratic Party under Barack Obama has completed its transformation into the party of abortion, the party of gay marriage, the anti-Catholic party.
Dolan has a problem with casting the Democrats or Obama as the Church’s enemy. He emphasizes the need for dialogue, the need to be kind to those who disagree with us. The cardinal is not wrong — Christ himself told us to love our enemies. We should pray for the president and it behooves Catholic leaders to pursue dialogue with those who oppose us. But throwing Obama a party isn’t dialogue, and neither is giving the invocation for a gathering where the “right” to gay marriage and federally funded abortion will be proclaimed fundamental to our American identity. Heck, the very crowd before which Dolan will pray just booed putting any reference to God into the Democratic Party platform.
The Democrats and Obama only want Dolan there to use him, to make their radical, anti-Christian gathering seem more palatable to the electorate. They despise everything Dolan represents. Maybe he and his fellow bishops will realize that demonstrating a little bias isn’t the worst of sins.
John Gerardi is a student at Notre Dame Law School. He writes on topics relating to religion and society. He blogs at Christifidelis Laicus.
