The one thing Vance may have been trying to get at is that Catholics have, in many ways, lost a sense of the duties of subsidiarity.
JD Vance last year accused the U.S. Catholic bishops of only caring about immigrants for the money in it. Cardinal Timothy Michael Dolan, the recently retired archbishop of New York, called it “scurrilous” slander at the time. In an interview with EWTN in recent days, Dolan said that Vance has since apologized to him. The vice president should probably repeat it publicly at the next Catholic event he headlines. (Hopefully Vance won’t berate Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky right after, as he did with the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast last year.)
If Vance had made the case, as a still relatively new Catholic, that maybe the bishops should not be taking government money because it inevitably involves compromise — or worse — and, well, many in these parts have over the years. But hubris doesn’t simply make suggestions.
Dolan also said that socialism is “the opposite of what America is.” And he conveyed his frustration with Mamdani:
So far, we were ticked off that he didn’t … I was ticked off he didn’t invite me to his inauguration. Most of the time, the archbishop of New York, among other religious leaders, gets invited. I was ticked off that he didn’t have. … He had few, few, few, few, few Catholics on his transition team, okay. And then I was really ticked off that he didn’t show up at the installation of my successor. [Mark Irons: That defied precedent, the mayor not showing up to the installation of the archbishop.] Well, I mean, New York — one of the many things I love about New York is the amity among the different religions.
We all get together. We all enjoy one another. The ecumenical and interfaith health of this city is phenomenal. And so I show up at all of them, and they show up, and the political leaders always show up, not because of the clout of the Catholic Church, if it has any left, but just out of respect for the fact that a big chunk of the citizens of this great city profess the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church as their family of religious choice; and that the Church has an amazing part to play in the social fabric of this metropolis. He didn’t come.
He also mentioned Governor Kathy Hochul’s absence at the installation of his successor, Ronald Hicks. Perhaps she had a proper sense of shame for recently making assisted suicide legal in the Empire State. (Neither her Catholicism, nor her predecessor’s, the Covid legacy of Cuomo, and unnecessary nursing-home deaths in the state.)
About assisted suicide, Dolan said:
Am I shocked? You bet I’m shocked. Am I surprised? I’m not surprised. Because why should not the abortion capital of the United States, if not the world, New York, now become the euthanasia capital? If human life is cheap, if the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of human life is not respected, especially when it’s most vulnerable — the baby in the womb or grandma in hospice — why would we not be surprised? If human life is thought to be burdensome, if its only value is that it’s useful, or that it can produce, or that it’s not inconvenient to me, then we’re in trouble. We’re in trouble. Why do you think we have these shoot-em-ups? Why do you think we have violence on the street? You know what I’m saying? Because human life is so cheap. And now we got another example here in New York.
Further on life and other issues, he called out Catholic politicians who use their religion to support abortion:
Well, I want to ask you, for politicians that aren’t Catholic, we might not be surprised when they don’t follow or they’re not influenced by, say, tenets of Catholicism. But for many, there’s scandal when a politician who identifies as Catholic might be doing things against Church teaching, such as Gov. Kathy Hochul, when she signed that assisted-suicide bill. I was wondering if you could lay out for us: A Catholic politician — what should their work look like? How should their faith influence their policymaking? What does that look like? What does it mean to be a Catholic politician?
Well, it should have a lot of impact. Gov. Hochul says it does. She says that it does. It should have a lot of impact. But…get this. She’s not for things or against things because she’s a Catholic. She’s for things and against things because she’s a thinking, rational human being; any politician this should be, who is guided by the principles that have illuminated a civilization and particularly this country. So, one, a politician isn’t opposed to abortion because he or she happens to be Catholic. That’s baloney. You’re opposed to abortion because it’s a taking of an innocent human life. A Catholic politician isn’t against racism or bigotry because he or she is a Catholic. You bet that the Catholic Church is opposed to that. He or she is opposed to bigotry and racism simply because that is contrary to everything this nation stands for. Correct? You’re talking about kind of human reason. You’re talking about what we have come to call natural law. Now, you are right in that there’s kind of an added scandal.
You would think that. But I wouldn’t say — for instance, what if a Catholic politician says, “Oh, I’m going to propose a law in the legislature that everybody has to go to Mass on Sunday”? We’d say, “No, they don’t have to go to Mass on Sunday. Don’t even propose that law for Catholics.” All right? Cause that’s a uniquely Catholic cause. Keeping the Sabbath holy, that’s kind of very American, all right? Keeping Sunday special, that’s kind of American. You see the distinction there? [Sure.] It’s not that you get mad at politicians. It might kind of deepen your chagrin when a committed Catholic takes positions that are contrary to the faith. But Catholic positions are Catholic positions because they’re based on human reason, the integrity of the human person, God’s revelation in natural law. Right? You get it? [Mark Irons: I would hope any politician follows that natural law.] You would hope any politician would; an atheist would follow, don’t you think?
The whole interview is worth watching or reading. Video below, transcript here.
As an aside, Cardinal Dolan created a Pro-Life Commission early in his tenure, on the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade in 2011, and I served on it for the duration, and as chair for the last five-and-change years. He asked us to be the conscience of the archdiocese. What a way to get a deeper understanding of the obstacles bureaucracy and government create!
The one thing Vance may have been trying to get at is that Catholics have, in many ways, lost a sense of the duties of subsidiarity. But the way he said it was, as Dolan said at the time, scurrilous. Further, not living the fullness of subsidiarity is not just a bishop’s thing, it’s an all-of-us thing — and certainly. too, for all believers in the God of Abraham.
And on the pro-life front, the Walking with Moms in Need initiative could be a game-changer if people take up the challenge on a parish-level.
Anyway, I’m grateful to Dolan — a St. Louis boy (although he calls himself a “spiritual grandpa” now who helped the behemoth of New York with some courage the history books may not record), a true witness of welcome and care for the human person, and someone committed to the defense of innocent human life as a civil rights issue. (Here’s an interview I did with him after midnight in Tampa the night Mitt Romney was nominated for the Republican nomination; he gave the closing prayer at both conventions that year.)