Cardinal Dolan’s blessing, and the Church’s challenge
New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered his highly-anticipated benediction Thursday night to close out the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Dolan will do the same for the Democrats next week in Charlotte, so this blessing seemed less like an imprimatur for the GOP than it would have had President Obama not taken the cardinal up on his offer to give the closing prayer after he accepts his party’s nomination.
Moreover, Cardinal Dolan’s four-minute prayer clearly had something for everyone – or, rather, something to cheer and challenge everyone in the hall (if they were listening — confetti and balloons and cheers for Mitt Romney filled the hall, and most TV coverage seemed to cut away for instant analysis before Dolan appeared.)
The text of the blessing is after the jump.
The most problematic moment for Cardinal Dolan, I think, came thanks to the introduction by House Speaker John Boehner, himself a Catholic, who said of his eminence: “He’s a man who knows that the preferential option for the poor doesn’t translate into a preferential option for big government.”
Actually, that’s not what Catholic teaching says at all — that’s what the Republican platform says. Well, actually the Republican platform doesn’t have a preferential option for the poor of any kind. Boehner’s words seem to me one of the more egregious insertions and distortions of Catholic teaching to partisan politics, up there with Nancy Pelosi on Augustine and abortion back in 2008.
But as Amy Sullivan notes at TNR, Dolan was in a pickle. Her analysis of the bishops’ differing approaches to Ryan’s Catholicism and Biden’s, e.g., and the GOP divergence from Catholic social teaching, is pretty magisterial.
On balance, Dolan seemed to be a congenial guest for the Republicans; the audience could interpret the cardinal’s words liberally, so to speak, and go away pleased.
So in case you missed it, here is the text of Cardinal Dolan’s blessing to conclude the 2012 Republican National Convention:
A Prayer for Our Country at the Republican National Convention
With firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, let us pray.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus, we beg your continued blessings on this sanctuary of freedom, and on all of those who proudly call America home.
We ask your benediction upon those yet to be born, and on those who are about to see you at the end of this life.
Bless those families whose ancestors arrived on these shores generations ago, as well as those families that have come recently, to build a better future while weaving their lives into the rich tapestry of America.
We lift up to your loving care those afflicted by the recent storms and drought and fire.
We ask for the grace to stand in solidarity with all those who suffer. May we strive to include your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free in the production and prosperity of a people so richly blessed.
Oh God of wisdom, justice, and might! We ask your guidance for those who govern us, and on those who would govern us: the president and vice-president, the Congress, the Supreme Court, and on all those who seek to serve the common good by seeking public office, especially Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan. Make them all worthy to serve you by serving our country. And help them remember that the only just government is the government that serves its citizens rather than itself.
Almighty God who gives us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank you as well for the singular gift of liberty. Renew in all of our people a respect for religious freedom in full, that first, most cherished freedom.
Make us truly free by tethering freedom to truth and ordering freedom to goodness. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope and love, prudently and with justice, courageously and in a spirit of moderation.
Enkindle in our hearts a new sense of responsibility for freedom’s cause and make us ever grateful for all those who for more than two centuries have given their lives in freedom’s defense. We commend their noble souls to your eternal care as even now we beg your mighty hand upon our beloved men and women in uniform.
May we know the truth of your creation, respecting the laws of nature and nature’s God and not seek to replace it with idols of our own making.
Give us the good sense not to cast aside the boundaries of righteous living you first inscribed on our hearts even before inscribing them on tablets of stone.
May you mend our every flaw, confirming our soul in self-control, our liberty in law.
We pray for all those who seek honest labor, as we thank you for the spirit of generosity to those in need with which you so richly blessed this nation.
We beseech your blessing on all who depart from here this evening and on all those in every land who seek to conduct their lives in freedom.
Most of all, Almighty God, we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country. For we are indeed one nation under God, and in God we trust. Dear God, bless America, you who live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
Interesting that he didn’t end the prayer “through Christ our Lord,” which I think was correct given the context.
“…the introduction by House Speaker John Boehner, himself a Catholic, who said of his eminence: “He’s a man who knows that the preferential option for the poor doesn’t translate into a preferential option for big government.”
Thanks, John Boehner, for undercutting Cardinal Dolan’s attempt to be non-partisan in his Benediction. If I had the authority in the Church (which I don’t), I’d call him in and give him something to cry about.
The bit that Boehner gave on the first day of the convention in which he compared the president to a obstreperous person (drunk?) that he would throw out of his family bar shows that he is not only manipulative but also nasty. (He better watch out, because there have been rumors that he is a wine tippler – with a preference for Merlot.)
What’s striking to me is that he didn’t mention Obama and Biden by name, but did mention Romney and Ryan.
So. . . . he could give the same prayer at the DNC and mention Obama and Biden by name, and say “the Republican candidates for president and vice president.”
At least one typo (at least one hopes it is) and one grammatical error.
Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus . . .
Is this a common formulation? It seems to me that equating God’s fatherhood of Jesus with his fatherhood of anyone else is potentially very misleading.
Well, I see the typo:
Give us the good sense not to caste aside . . . .
What is the typo and what is the grammatical error? The former certainly mine, the latter probably not.
Got the typo. Maybe it was a secret appeal to Hindus?
I can’t find the grammatical error, although I would say there is a fair amount of odd phrasing. I only caught a couple of minutes of Romney’s speech, but this leapt out: “But if you ask Ann and I . . . “
“Almighty God, who gives us…”
Problems like this may explain the urge found in the Republican Platform to make English the official national language in place of the divisive hodgepodge we now enjoy.
http://www.us-english.org/view/918
Very good prayer and if he gives the same at the DNC with the proviso that Cathy mentions all will be fine as far as partisan prayer is concerned.
No easy task, to be sure. But hardly memorable. A kind of piling up of phrases. And the cardinal went to fast as though aware that the prayer was a bit too long.
“Help us [to?] live our freedom ….
“as even now we beg your mighty hand upon ….” A bit awkward.
“Almighty God [,] who give us us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, ….” The well-known trap. I am a very slow one-finger typist and, believe it or not, I started to carefully re-read the text and then to type before Father Joe Komonchak pointed out the problem. I had noted it when I read the text on another site early this morning. Is there a prize for the runner-up?
TOO fast. Forget about that prize!
More from Cardinal Dolan about the convention:
“I heard a lot of themes that certainly resonated with me as an American, as a Catholic, particularly their nod to freedom of choice in education, freedom of religion, the sanctity of life, a concern for helping the economy — which is the best way to help the poor, who are always a concern for us.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/315638/cardinal-s-prayers-kathryn-jean-lopez
At the end of Cardinal Dolan’s benediction, you can hear him say to John Boener: “Was it short enough?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6-SaIhpqeM
Correction: Boehner
— “as even now we beg your mighty hand upon ….” A bit awkward. —
Not if you pay the slightest bit of attention to the new mass prayers. Ecclesiastical Latish in its most current iteration.
You DO pay attention to the mass prayers, don’t you, John? DON’T YOU?????
I found someone else who considered “Almighty God, father of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus . . .” an odd line. Scott P. Richert analyzes the line at length here. An excerpt:
David G – I found Amy Sullivan’s piece to be a collection of good points intermixed with a tissue of not-quite-rights. For example, there is this: “But the Catholic church has spent much of the past three decades making clear to Catholic Democrats that if their voting records or public statements or policy proposals come into conflict with church teaching, then they no longer have the option of calling themselves Catholics.” That is patently false. Nothing drives Catholic conservatives crazier than that Pelosi, Durbin, Mikulski, Cuomo et al *haven’t* been drummed out of the church.
The bottom line with regard to Ryan is that virtually everything for which he is subject to criticism falls within the bounds of prudential judgment. Even if the USCCB as a body believes that food aid or housing assistance would be cut too much if a Ryan budget is adopted – that’s their prudential judgment. It is to be accorded the respect that the bishops’ prudential judgment should be given, and it may be a very informed opinion, but ultimately it is an opinion. A person can disagree in perfectly good faith and good conscience.
I understand that this frustrates Democrats, because the issues for which they (rightly) take heat are a good deal easier to understand and aren’t really subject to gray-area judgments. Abortion and gay marriage are clear-cut, black and white, right or wrong, for or against issues. (The HHS mandate is yet another kind of beast.)
Out of place, but to be noted, I think.
IN PACE CUM SANCTIS
CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI, S.J., Archbishop emeritus of Milan, 13 February 1927 — 31 August 2012
The Italian media are lavish in their grateful remembrances.
There were giants on the earth in those days.
I don’t think Cardinal Dolan said anything Bishop Robert Lynch of the diocese of St. Pete (which includes Tampa) couldn’t have said just as well and should have been offered the chance to say, considering where the convention was held. Ditto in advance with only the the names of the diocese and bishop changed for next week.
From what I have heard (I didn’t watch), The Tim was essentially ignored by most attendees and many of the broadcasting networks.
Maybe Bp Lynch was the luck one after all!
“Almighty God [,] who give us us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, ….” The well-known trap.
It’s the “you who” trap that the translators have put all through the Mass readings.
I’m happy with either:
Almighty God, who gives us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank you…
Or
Almighty God, you who give us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank you…
But
Almighty God, who give us the sacred and inalienable gift of life, we thank you…
Sounds odd to to native English speakers and is a trap for anyone starting to read that sentence aloud without knowing where it is going later.
Sorry, i forgot to close the italics after the first line.
John Hayes: It “sounds odd” only to some “native English speakers,” but not to others on whose ears Almighty God, who gives” grates terribly; I know. I’m one of them, a native English speaker. And to those who know how relative clauses function, it arouses interest and expectation to learn what the main clause is going to say. It’s analogous to all those “Whereas” clauses that often precede, “Be it resolved…”
I understand that this frustrates Democrats, because the issues for which they (rightly) take heat are a good deal easier to understand and aren’t really subject to gray-area judgments. Abortion and gay marriage are clear-cut, black and white, right or wrong, for or against issues. (The HHS mandate is yet another kind of beast.)
Wouldn’t you say that the bishops’ support for the Hyde amendment (allowing government funds to pay for abortion in the case of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother) – or Ryan’s support of Romney, who seems to support a right to abortion in those situations – are also prudential judgments as to what the public laws should be?
Fr. Komonchak, i was responding to John Page’s proposed correction, not yours.
Since your proposal (8/31; 2:41 pm) was: “Almighty God, who gives us…”
That didn’t stir up any recollections of the translation battles for me.
I love the prayer of Cardinal Dolan because of its biblical integration in what’s really going on in our society. Its relevance has a continuing message to reflect upon while the growing secularism in today’s world takes its centerpiece in the moral lives of the people. His prayer touches the inner sanctuary of American people in their quest for meaning, freedom, and justice. I hope our country will continue to be a homeland of free and dedicated to committing our faith to God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and in our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark Escobar, cs
John Hayes: I didn’t propose “Almighty God, who gives us.” I was pointing out the grammatical mistake in the relative clause, not endorsing it.
“What’s striking to me is that he didn’t mention Obama and Biden by name, but did mention Romney and Ryan.”
Cathleen—
What do you find striking about that? Are you saying that if he does not mention Obama and Biden by name at the DNC convention it’s a sign of political bias?
Mark, in my view, Cardinal Dolan has already more than proved his political bias. I think he has done everything he can to support the Republican party. I do not think he is the slightest bit politically neutral. And I worry that the bishops as a whole have more or less burned their bridges to the current administration.
My concern is not bias but fundamental respect. If he does not directly address the Democratic office holders who are in front of him in the same respectful way that he addressed the Republican candidates then I will view it as a deep sign of disrespect of the office, not merely of the person. If he can’t at least do that, then he ought to have declined the invitation.
I wonder if a political convention in the U.S.A. is the proper place for a prayer in the first place.
But I bow to prior practice and political realities.
Nevertheless, I wish Cardinal Dolan had not started with a (silent) sign of the cross. I wish, in the interest of inclusiveness, that if he wanted to name specific people in the Bible, he would have added Ishmael to his list of God’s children, and Sarah and Hagar, and Rebecca, and Leah and Rachel and Bilhah and Zilpah– and why not? a few heroes from other religious traditions.
Is the Republican tent big enough?
“If he can’t at least do that, then he ought to have declined the invitation.”
Cathleen–
Well, it seems you are anticipating disrespectful behavior from our Cardinal. If it turns out your suspicions are wrong, and the Cardinal treats his audience respectfully, will you admit you were wrong? If the facts change from what you are expecting, are you willing to stipulate that your views on the Cardinal will, or at least should, change?
Maybe even, given your stature and the weight your words carry, a public apology?
Mr. Proska, you are trying to trap me. I said I found it troubling that the Cardinal did not pray for Obama and Biden by their names in his prayer at the RNC. You asked me why and I told you. I think it was disrespectful. Let me say further that addressing people by name in some contexts is a mark, almost a prerequisite, of civility and respect. It means acknowledging someone as a fellow citizen.
I hope the Cardinal prays for Obama and Biden by name in his prayer at the DNC. I hope he prays for Romney and Ryan by name there too. I think both parties would be better off if they prayed for their political opponents by name. I am happy that Dolan has the opportunity to do so at the DNC, and I wish he had taken the parallel opportunity at the RNC.
Ms. Kaveny, you are trying to avoid the question. I assumed you had the confidence to answer it, and I am sorry if you feel trapped.
Mark –
Oh, fer goodnesssake, you are just plain reading stuff into what Cathy has said. She didn’t say she was feeling trapped. She just said that YOU’re trying to trap her. You are the subject of that sentence, not Cathy.
Ann—
I have often found that people avoid answering questions when they feel trapped though in this instance, of course, there’s no need for that. I thought I tossed a softball.
Mark P. — Some questions deserve no response.
Jack B–
That is true, though I don’t see my question as being one of them. And since I think it’s been answered, in its own way, it’s probably best to return to the main topic of the thread.
I agree with Helen that Boehner’s lead-in was bad form. I hope the Democrat’s resist the temptation to do the same at their convention. If they do, I will be sure to give them credit.
As for the blessing itself, I say, “Amen.” But how many at the Democratic convention will be able to say amen to this part:
“…we thank you for the great gift of our beloved country”?