New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who is both ecclesiastically and politically one of the most important Catholics in the United States, celebrated his 75th birthday last week. Per the church’s requirements upon reaching that age, Dolan submitted his letter of resignation to Pope Francis but will remain in his post until the pontiff appoints his successor. It’s unclear when that may be — the pope is recovering from double pneumonia, and at any rate, it could be a year or more before Dolan is able to retire.
But one thing is certain to this lay Catholic: Dolan’s shoes will be harder to fill than it might appear in this time of political polarization and societal fracture.
There is and has been for some time a culture war inside the Catholic Church that is inseparable from the broader American culture war. As the New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a Catholic, explained in his 2018 book, “To Change the Church,” the rituals and language that unite Catholics may imply to non-Catholics that there is far more political, cultural and even spiritual unity among the faithful than actually exists.
Politically, for example, Catholics today are not so much swing voters as a house divided, with conservatives and progressives finding ample justification within Catholic doctrine for their convictions.
Conservative Catholics tend to vote Republican because Democrats widely support abortion and gender ideology, while Republicans mostly, if not wholly, oppose both. Meanwhile, progressive Catholics tend to vote for Democrats, finding Republican stances on immigration, poverty, healthcare and LGBTQ issues antithetical to their beliefs.
Not so long ago, many prominent American Catholics were outspoken about both their opposition to abortion and their support for the traditional family, and also about their duty to care for the poor, immigrants, prisoners and the otherwise marginalized. Today, there are fewer U.S. Catholics in positions of power, within or outside the Church, willing or able to defend all these positions in the face of political polarization and the spoils it offers to those who pick a side.
For more than 15 years, Dolan has been a reliable exception to this dispiriting rule. Take, for example, the measure of his public run-ins with the Trump administrations.
In 2020, Dolan got crosswise with progressive lay Catholics when he led a conference call in which Catholic leaders sought President Trump’s support for Catholic education. Dolan subsequently welcomed the president to virtual Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and praised the president’s sensitivity to the “feelings of the religious community” during the pandemic on “Fox and Friends.”
Last month, however, Dolan shot back at Catholic Vice President JD Vance, who suggested the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provided aid to illegal immigrants not for the purpose of providing humanitarian services to people in need, but for the grant money. “That’s just scurrilous, it’s very nasty, and it’s not true,” Dolan said on his radio show. He added that care for immigrants is a “work of mercy” on which the church loses money, not makes it.
In each of these instances, Dolan’s position evinces the sort of nuance and capaciousness that makes him impossible for either side to wholly own or wholly repudiate.
Catholic schools need federal support no matter who is president. And, of course, having a collegial relationship with the person in the White House is important to the interests of Catholic institutions. This is true even when the president is a supporter of abortion rights, like Barack Obama, and it is true when the president holds positions on immigration like Donald Trump. That Dolan could maintain congenial relationships with both men is a testament to his character and leadership.
As Dolan has said, the Catholic Church’s primary role in relation to immigrants is not to assist in immigration enforcement (no matter how necessary, commonsensical or popular these policies may be), but to care for those in need. The cardinal’s ability to retain the proper perspective on U.S. politics was mostly taken for granted during his 15 years as arguably the most prominent Catholic in America. It will be difficult for Pope Francis to find a replacement who is both a happy warrior, and an apolitical one, as Dolan has been. (And if the pope’s appointments elsewhere are any indication, such is not his inclination.) In short, Dolan’s retirement, whenever it comes, will represent a loss for both the church and the nation.
Sometimes, as they say, you really don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. But we’re about to find out.
Elizabeth Grace Matthew writes about books, education and culture, including on Substack.