BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Actually, the invitation was extended to both President Obama and Mitt Romney, and they have both accepted the invitation.

From the New York Times:


Dolan Will Let Obama and Romney Joke It Up at the Al Smith Dinner
By SHARON OTTERMAN
Published: August 7, 2012

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have been up in arms about various policies of President Obama , including his support for same-sex marriage and his insistence that employer health insurance cover contraception.

But the nation’s top bishop, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan , signaled on Tuesday that he was willing to share at least one night of joking and camaraderie with the Democratic president, despite their differences.

The Archdiocese of New York confirmed that both Mr. Obama and Mitt Romney , the presumptive Republican nominee, had accepted an invitation to speak on Oct. 18 at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a glittering New York Catholic charity event that has served for more than six decades as a lighthearted pit stop for presidential candidates in the weeks before national elections.

Mr. Obama’s invitation has generated dismay among some opponents of abortion, who point out that there are precedents for barring candidates from the dinner. In 1996, Cardinal John O’Connor decided not to invite the candidates, apparently because President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, had just vetoed a partial-birth abortion bill, and in 2004, Cardinal Edward M. Egan did not invite the candidates, apparently because the Democratic nominee was Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, a Roman Catholic who supports abortion rights.

Cardinal Dolan, who has a dual role as archbishop of New York and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has warned that the nation’s religious liberty is at risk as a result of several Obama administration policies, like the new health care law ’s mandate that some religiously affiliated institutions provide coverage that includes contraception for employees.

But the cardinal has also said it is important to engage those he disagrees with, and as the president of the Al Smith Foundation’s board of directors, he sent the invitation, said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the New York Archdiocese.

“It is the tradition of the Smith dinner to invite the presidential candidates in the presidential election years in the spirit of nonpartisanship, good humor and good fellowship,” Mr. Zwilling said in an interview.

At the dinner, which is held at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, the two candidates will be asked to give seven-minute speeches. By tradition, the speeches are humorous and self-deprecating.

In 2008, Mr. Obama got big laughs when he exchanged quips and compliments with the Republican candidate, John McCain, though neither man had a joke as memorable as that of George W. Bush in 2000, who told the well-heeled crowd: “Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.”



Here's Cardinal Dolan's Response, taken from his blog:


Al Smith Dinner
FEAST OF ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE

Last week I was out in Anaheim for the annual Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus. It was, as usual, a most uplifting and inspirational event.

In his rousing address to the thousands of delegates, representing 1.8 million knights, Dr. Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight, exhorted us to a renewed sense of faithful citizenship, encouraging us not to be shy about bringing the values of faith to the public square. This duty, he reminded us, came not just from the fact that we are Catholic, but also from the fact that we are loyal Americans.

He then went on to announce a promising initiative of the Knights of Columbus to foster civility in politics. Quoting a very recent study, he noted that over 80% of Americans are fed up with the negativity, judgmentalism, name-calling, and mudslinging of our election-year process, and eagerly want a campaign of respect, substance, amity — civility!

For seven decades, the Al Smith Dinner here in New York has been an acclaimed example of such civility in political life. As you may know, every four years, during the presidential election campaign, the Al Smith Dinner is the venue of history, as it is the only time outside of the presidential debates that the two presidential candidates come together, at the invitation of the Al Smith Foundation, through the archbishop of New York, for an evening of positive, upbeat, patriotic, enjoyable civil discourse. This year, both President Obama and Governor Romney have accepted our invitation. I am grateful to them.

The evening has always had a special meaning, as it is named after Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic nominated, in 1928, as a candidate for president, who was viciously maligned because of his own Catholic faith. Smith was known as The Happy Warrior, because while he fought fiercely for what he believed was right, he never sought to demonize those who opposed him. And, the dinner named in his honor is truly life-affirming as it raises funds to help support mothers in need and their babies (both born and unborn) of any faith, or none at all.

The Al Smith Dinner has never been without controversy, since, as Carl Anderson reminded us, politics can inspire disdain and negativity as well as patriotism and civility.

This year is surely no exception: I am receiving stacks of mail protesting the invitation to President Obama (and by the way, even some objecting to the invitation to Governor Romney).

The objections are somewhat heightened this year, since the Catholic community in the United States has rightly expressed vigorous criticism of the President’s support of the abortion license, and his approval of mandates which radically intruded upon Freedom of Religion. We bishops, including yours truly, have been unrelenting in our opposition to these issues, and will continue to be.

So, my correspondents ask, how can you justify inviting the President? Let me try to explain.

For one, an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner is not an award, or the provision of a platform to expound views at odds with the Church. It is an occasion of conversation; it is personal, not partisan.

Two, the purpose of the Al Smith Dinner is to show both our country and our Church at their best: people of faith gathered in an evening of friendship, civility, and patriotism, to help those in need, not to endorse either candidate. Those who started the dinner sixty-seven years ago believed that you can accomplish a lot more by inviting folks of different political loyalties to an uplifting evening, rather than in closing the door to them.

Three, the teaching of the Church, so radiant in the Second Vatican Council, is that the posture of the Church towards culture, society, and government is that of engagement and dialogue. In other words, it’s better to invite than to ignore, more effective to talk together than to yell from a distance, more productive to open a door than to shut one. Our recent popes have been examples of this principle, receiving dozens of leaders with whom on some points they have serious disagreements. Thus did our present Holy Father graciously receive our current President of the United States. And, in the current climate, we bishops have maintained that we are open to dialogue with the administration to try and resolve our differences. What message would I send if I refused to meet with the President?

Finally, an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner in no way indicates a slackening in our vigorous promotion of values we Catholic bishops believe to be at the heart of both gospel and American values, particularly the defense of human dignity, fragile life, and religious freedom. In fact, one could make the case that anyone attending the dinner, even the two candidates, would, by the vibrant solidarity of the evening, be reminded that America is at her finest when people, free to exercise their religion, assemble on behalf of poor women and their babies, born and unborn, in a spirit of civility and respect.

Some have told me the invitation is a scandal. That charge weighs on me, as it would on any person of faith, but especially a pastor, who longs to give good example, never bad. So, I apologize if I have given such scandal. I suppose it’s a case of prudential judgment: would I give more scandal by inviting the two candidates, or by not inviting them?

No matter what you might think of this particular decision, might I ask your prayers for me and my brother bishops and priests who are faced with making these decisions, so that we will be wise and faithful shepherds as God calls us to be?

In the end, I’m encouraged by the example of Jesus, who was blistered by his critics for dining with those some considered sinners; and by the recognition that, if I only sat down with people who agreed with me, and I with them, or with those who were saints, I’d be taking all my meals alone.


How did Cardinal Dolan get into this? Some background information might help.

Taken from their website:
About the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner


Lyndon Johnson, 23rd Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, 1968 Although both his state and his country generously honored Alfred E. Smith after his death in 1944, the most unusual and notable memorial to him has been an ongoing series of black-tie dinners. Sponsored by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation, these annual fêtes were initiated by then-Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis J. Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York in 1945. Since that time the Foundation has raised millions of dollars for healthcare causes.

Cardinal Spellman, capitalizing on the fact that Governor Smith died in the month of October (the peak of election season), used the dinner to remind later generations of Smith's extraordinary public career and unique role in political history by securing the participation of the leading political figures of those later generations. Over the years, the dinner has attracted the cream of modern American politics: the list of speakers and attendees reads like a who's who of the political landscape.

In the early years of the dinner's existence, this event might have been the only time some of these candidates would share a dais during the entire campaign. By 1960 the Al Smith dinner had truly reached its zenith as "a ritual of American politics," in the words of Theodore H. White.Many of past dinners have generated front-page news items as a result of the program, i.e. joint appearances of opposing presidential nominees.

While commendatory references to Smith and his actions were once common, by chance or by design, many of the addresses at later dinners have taken on a lighter tone. Indeed, the occasion has evolved into something of an opportunity for speakers - particularly ones whose mien is typically quite serious - to show, through quips and slightly irreverent humor, that they can poke fun at a political issue, an opponent, or themselves. In 1988, Michael S. Dukakis solemnly declared, "I've... been told that I lack passion. But that doesn't affect me one way or the other. Some people say I am arrogant, but I know better than that." In the days before Saturday Night Live, the Al Smith dinner served as a kind of "proving ground for the candidate as entertainer," as one reporter described it.

Today the dinner remains a true phenomenon - a living memorial to an uncommon public figure, best known as the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate, who died more than six decades ago. Doubtless the dinner's honoree would be deeply gratified that he is being remembered each year in this fashion. He would be even more gratified to know that the dinner commemorating him and his unique role in American politics has contributed millions of dollars for charitable endeavors in the city he loved so much.

— Donn Neal

[I should add that the Archbishop of New York is on the foundation's board of directors. If memory serves me right, I believe the Archbishop becomes the president of the foundation.] -Joanna



Thanks for the major correction!...However, I was not questioning Cardinal Dolan's involvement in the Al Smith dinner (I am aware of the role of the Archdiocese in all this) but in what I call the Obama dilemma. I have no problem with the Cardinal sitting down with Obama, except that the dinner will just be that - sitting down together. I doubt they will get to talk at all other than pleasantries. In fact, I imagine they would not talk about their differences in a social setting. My problem is giving Obama a Catholic forum at all - be it ever so 'lighthearted - because he is unregenerate. I just think the Obama dilemma should have been avoided entirely - why not, for instance, have invited the two vice-ppresidential candidates, instead, who are both Catholic? However, if tha rationale is that Obama's presence, as President, will help raise much more funds for the beneficiaries of the Al Smith charities, then it's worth it for the beneficiaries.

TERSA