SAINT CARDINAL DOLAN SPEAKS

This is not fresh news; it is several months old.  But we were intrigued by remarks of this noted Prince of the Church and could not help commenting on it.  We wrote this several weeks after the interview, which dealt with the Cardinal's disastrous then-upcoming Al Smith Dinner invite but held back publishing it in the hope that His Eminence would see the seriousness of it all.  He hasn't as yet.

In a recent interview granted to John Allen of The National Catholic Reporter, flagship publication of the numbskull faction in Catholicism, we read the following exchange [editorial remarks in yellow:]

Question: On this question of dialoguing or engaging with this secular culture, how do you do that without giving scandal to the extra-sensitive [an amusing description of Catholics shocked by the Al Smith Dinner scandal] portion of your flock?
Dolan: You mean, how do you sit next to Barack Obama and Governor Romney?
Question: There are some people who would say you’re just wrong for doing that. How do you find that balance?
Dolan: There might be some people who would say that God the Father was misguided in sending his only begotten son to sinful humanity. Some might question the wisdom and prudence of the Incarnation, I don’t know. It seems to me that God the Father set a pretty good example of probably the best way to invite people to eternal salvation is to be in the midst of them, to be incarnate where they’re at [Come again?  "Incarnate where they're at" - which means...what, exactly?]. I don’t mean to be dismissive, because you do have to try to be sensitive to some of their feelings.
Question: People weren’t exactly sensitive to your feelings in the way they reacted.
Dolan: I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I’m pretty thick-skinned [Thick-headed might be a better way to put it.]!

So.  According to this interview, God is sending His beloved Cardinal to frolic with the persecutors of His Church.  The operative word in that sentence is "frolic".  I don't think anyone seriously imagines that His Eminence will be trying to do what God's only-begotten Son was doing when He met with sinners, namely: converting them.  If His Eminence stays true to form, it will be an evening of hilarity, tiresome jokes and perhaps an occasional mildly-serious reflection on the nebulous concept of "freedom" which, we are sure, His Eminence will not take too much time explaining.

Notice the smugness, the condescension.  "Some might question the Incarnation, I don't know" or "you do have to try to be sensitive to some of their feelings" or "I don't know if you noticed or not, but I'm pretty thick-skinned."

This is the man Rome has sent to govern the diocese of New York.