A decision by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan to not only allow Donald Trump to speak at the annual Al Smith dinner in New York City, but also to pose for photographs with him brought down the holy wrath of a noted New York Times columnist.
In her column published on Saturday, Maureen Dowd noted her own Catholic upbringing and chastised the cleric for providing legitimacy and cover for Trump at the benefit dinner for Catholic charities this week.
With Dolan sitting next to Trump and his wife Melania during the dinner, and later posing with the couple as Trump raised his fist in triumph, Dowd suggested the cardinal take a hard look at what he participated in this week.
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As she bluntly advised the preeminent New York Catholic leader: "Go to confession."
"Timothy Dolan let a white-tie charity dinner in New York showcase that most uncharitable of men, Donald Trump, " she accused. "At the annual Al Smith dinner, Dolan suffused the impious Trump in the pious glow of Catholic charities. Dolan looked on with a doting expression as Trump made his usual degrading, scatological comments about his foils, this time cloaked as humor."
According to Dowd, Dolan has become just another one of Trump's enablers.
Pointing to Trump's "rancid" address to the crowd, she suggested, "Instead of telling Trump he was over the line, Dolan enabled him in his blasphemous effort to cast his campaign as a quasi-religious crusade and himself as a saintly martyr saved by God. The conservative cardinal didn’t care about soiling the legacy of the great Democratic patriot Al Smith."
"Trump is proudly amoral. He disdains the Christian values I was taught by nuns and priests. His only values are self-interest and self-gratification. He has replaced a code of ethics with the Narcissus pool," she wrote before adding, "Certainly, Dolan is happy with Trump’s abortion crackdown. But can’t he see that Trump is corroding our country’s moral core? Trying to steal an election violates the Eighth Commandment. And Trump has broken the commandments about cheating and lying and coveting."
"The pols on the dais looked like a Last Supper for this unnerving election. Hopefully, it’s not a Last Supper for the Republic," she concluded.
You can read her whole scathing piece here.