a disservice to the legacy of the most memorable, faithful Catholic to serve your adopted state

In the past year, anyone who loves the Faith had to be inspired by former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's willingness to engage the culture on the destructiveness of contraception - fortitude rarely even seen from the pulpit.  I would quickly describe Rick Santorum as a modern day Al Smith, except for the fact that it might be more appropos to describe Al Smith as the Rick Santorum of his generation!  In either case, Al Smith would have certainly agreed with Santorum's assessment that "It Is Hard to Be Catholic in Public Life."

 

In accepting the Democratic nomination for President in 1928, Al Smith offered the reminder that "We must have people of character and outstanding ability to serve the nation." Rather than heeding his words, even the New York Times acknowledges the roughshod treatment which Al Smith subsequently received:

• "By any measure, Alfred E. Smith, the Democratic candidate against Herbert C. Hoover in 1928, had a formidable record....Smith should have been an impressive candidate, but the electorate had several problems with him....Their foremost objection...was to his religion: Smith was a devout Roman Catholic....The Ku Klux Klan became actively involved in preventing a Catholic from ever getting near the White House, going all out to defeat Smith....Smith lost that year, badly....What really broke the governor’s heart, however, was that his own beloved home state thoroughly rejected him; New York went for Hoover, and outside of the five boroughs, only a scant four counties returned for Smith" (When a Catholic Terrified the Heartland, NY Times, 12/10/11).

Just in the 84 years since Al Smith was treated so ignobly for his faithful Catholicism, scores of Catholics have climbed up very high mountains, gazed at kingdoms in their magnificence, and jumped at the chance to put aside the Truth taught to them by the Catholic Church.  Statesmen like Rick Santorum and Al Smith are incredibly rare.  Your Eminence, inviting President Obama - whose policies are anti life/family and anti-Catholic - to the "Al Smith Dinner" is a disservice to the legacy of the most memorable, faithful Catholic to serve your adopted state.  Please consider the calls from prominent Catholic laity to rescind that invitation or to cancel this year's dinner.

• "As I stated in a press release yesterday, 'This invitation gives the appearance of camaraderie with a president whose actions and policies are no less hostile than the Roman emperor Decius who tried to root out the Christian religion by issuing an edict ordering all citizens to worship the state gods or face dire consequences.' It makes no sense at all for Catholics to fight for religious freedom on the one hand while dining with a religious freedom bully on the other. Such a situation is not prudent, nor is it Christlike—even if some view it as politically correct" (Judie Brown, CNSnews.com, 8/10/12).  
• "Discovering that this was done with Cardinal Dolan's blessing is devastating....The last scene in The Godfather comes to mind. As a newborn baby is baptized and the words of the priest are being heard praying the sacred words of the sacrament, the viewer is visually walked through the calculated killings of each one of the mob family leaders. The open display of hypocrisy in this intermingling of good and evil was startling and unforgettable....this will cause massive confusion among Catholics. It allows President Obama to further signal that he's just one of the guys paling around with notable Catholics that like him and like his policies.  We are standing at the most serious moral point in our nation's history. We have a President and his administration that have begun the persecution of Catholic institutions and employers while violating their rights to religious liberty for the first time in American history....There is no moral justification for an evening of 'good humor and good fellowship' with a President or anyone who by their very actions spit into the face of Jesus Christ and His Church....Cardinal Dolan, we feel betrayed" (Jenn Giroux, Renew America, 8/9/12). 
• "Cardinal Timothy Dolan has done an outstanding job leading the Catholic resistance to the HHS mandate....We are on the cusp of an apparent lapse in judgment that will confuse the troops about the nature of the combat.  What is this lapse in judgment? An invitation to President Obama for a night of fun, fellowship and fundraising at the 67th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner, October 18 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York....The Cardinal doesn't need to be reminded of how dangerous President Obama's policies are for the future of religious liberty in America....What he doesn't know- because he can't know- is how this invitation is effecting you and your lay mission and service....The Cardinal is not bound by custom to invite the President. His predecessors, Cardinals O'Connor and Egan did not invite President Clinton or Senator Kerry, respectively....[This] is a public dinner to which the rich and powerful are invited thereby scandalizing the thousands of 'little people' who have been foot soldiers in this struggle to maintain Catholic identity and religious liberty" (Al Kresta). 
• "When Jesus sat with tax collectors, the dinners were private. They were not 'photo ops' for political candidates....On the morning after the dinner, millions of Americans will see, prominently displayed on the front pages of their hometown newspapers, pictures of President Obama and Cardinal Dolan smiling together. What message will they receive?....maybe that 'matter of conscience' isn’t so important after all? ....Cardinal Dolan seemed genuinely surprised that after promising to accommodate the consciences of Catholics regarding the HHS mandate, Obama did nothing of the sort....the cynic in me fears that the cardinal has slipped back into the naïve belief that political disagreements can be put aside for an evening of joking and backslapping without any adverse consequences" (Phil Lawler, CatholicCuture.org, 8/9/12).