In case you didn't hear, the same person gave the closing benedictions at both the RNC and the DNC--Cardinal Dolan.* What makes that even more interesting is that the Catholic Vote--historically Democratic--is increasingly trending Republican. Certainly a demographic that both parties want to capture this election. Not only that, but (as you can read in this week's readings), Dolan and an assortment of Catholic bishops & hospitals are suing Obama's government over a requirement in the Health Care Law that they provide abortion-related insurance.
Apparently, his benediction at the two conventions was almost the same, but not quite. The differences are interesting.
Cardinal Dolan's Two Benedictions
PS: this post is from getreligion.org, which is devoted to reviewing journalistic coverage of religious issues, just the thing for a "writing about politics and religion" class. We'll be seeing more of it.
*For the non-Catholics, "Cardinal" means a really big cheese in the Church hierarchy. Cardinal Dolan heads up the Catholic Church in the United States.
To me, its not surprising that the Cardinal changed his wording for the prayer at the DNC. For one, a lot of religions and especially the Catholic religion have traditionally been opposed to, or have disagreed with, many things that the democratic party might support, such as abortion and gay marriage. Certainly with President Obama's recent announcement of his support of gay marriage, religious officials around the country have been put-off. It would seem as though in his prayer at the DNC, Cardinal Dolan was trying to make a point, that the people needed to "choose wisely" in electing a leader. For example, he prayed for the protection of people just entering this world, which would seem to many as a stab at abortion. It is also not surprising to me that the republican party is receiving more and more of the Catholic demographic's votes. The republican party has traditionally been more conservative, and had many of the same values as the church. Overall, the slight differences in the prayers seems to have been on purpose, and I wouldn't be surprised if Cardinal Dolan did that on purpose to make a point to the democrats that the Catholic church does not fully support everything in President Obama's platform.
ReplyDeleteI am always surprised by the things that people get up-in-arms about politically, but I guess I shouldn't be! The differences in these prayers are so small, but I understand that the nature of the comments was not minor. I feel sure that the differences were deliberate - surely everything said at a national convention with that much media coverage is carefully planned and analyzed before being spoken. Perhaps the comment that I understand LEAST is this one:
ReplyDelete"And making what seemed to be a allusion to same-sex marriage, which President Barack Obama and the DNC have endorsed, Dolan said: 'Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Empower us with your grace so that we might resist the temptation to replace the moral law with idols of our own making, or to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community.' "
Why would President Obama endorse this part of the benediction? To me, it appears clearly "pro-family" (not supportive of gay marriage, I'm not sure if that's the correct term). "Respecting the laws of nature and of nature's God" "resist...temptation...to remake those institutions you have given us for the nurturing of life and community." Both of those sound very FOR heterosexual marriage. I don't understand at all why the DNC and Obama endorsed those statements when Obama came out a few months ago with his new stance on gay marriage.
Cardinal Dolan did not do anything that should surprise anyone. Any type of speech or convention highly publicized is a time for religious leaders or people with strong beliefs to speak out. I think changing his benediction so drastically was a little obvious and perhaps not the best way to go. He could have worded one speech to show support to both parties, but then, that would be too nice and easy right? He felt the need to let the world know which party he was supporting by clever wording. That is his right to do and expected of someone involved in the campaign for Presidency in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI think the presence of Dolan at the RNC and the differences in his two speeches is indicative of the shift of many Catholics from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. I found the shift interesting as I have always considered the Catholic Church to be conservative on some social issues but mostly aligned with the Democratic Party. However, I believe it can be explained in the context of the advancement of socio-economic and political standing of Catholics over the last 100 years. Large numbers of working class Catholics from Ireland, Italy, and all over the world who came to this country aligned with the Democratic Party. At the time the political machine system of the Democratic Party capitalized on the large numbers of poor, Catholic immigrants who did not have the political or societal means for advancement. Thus, the parties gained votes and the Catholic immigrants gained the opportunity for upward social and political mobility through political influence, patronage jobs, and more.
ReplyDeleteNow that Catholics are influential in things such as economy, law, government, and society in general, they align much better with the ideology of the modern day GOP. The Catholic Church has always been in conflict with some of the social values of the Democratic Party, yet they held shared views on issues like the economy and social welfare. Today the conflict in social issues still exists (maybe stronger than ever), but since Catholics have experienced general societal class advancement to the top of the socio-economic scale they have aligned more with top-down economics and the Republican Party. Overall, I think Cardinal Dolan's two benedictions were an interesting sign of the changing relationship between religion and politics.
When I think Catholics and politics I think back about the Kennedy's and their affiliation to the Democratic party. That was a long time ago and a political shift does not seem appalling given the times and the issues of abortion and gay marriage. Since Obama is open to the idea of gay marriage and his health care bill funds abortions it's easy to assume that those of the Catholic faith are not a fan of him.
ReplyDeleteAt first I found it interesting that he didn't give the same speech to the Republicans. Conservatives are more likely to be pro life and I'd think he would want to express that at the RNC given that it would have gotten a good response.
Madisson points out that if someone is speaking at something of this magnitude they would definitely write and revise what they have to say. I guess this is Cardinal Dolan's clever way to get some of his political outlooks across to Democrats and cause a stir in the media. Obviously it worked. Tactics such as this do not surprise me when it comes to politics, but it is disappointing to know that even religious leaders fall into practicing them.
I wonder how Obama and his campaign team felt about it.
Side note: That was a long prayer and I'm pretty sure the whole eye closing thing for me would have stopped after about a minute, but I'm just not used to prayers being that long.
ReplyDeleteWhile listening to his closing benediction I was picking up his minor hints to his views, the most clear one being: "Happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and nature's God." was a clear shot to me that he does not support homosexuality and wants only the "traditional family." Minor details in his benediction shed a large light on his own view, which I'm sure the media had a field day with. The differences between the benedictions at the DNC and RNC are not changed much, but are so subtle to where the would clearly point to a certain direction of his views. An example would be the topic of his view on abortion, RNC: “We ask your benediction upon those yet to be born, and on those who are about to see you at the end of this life.” DNC: “We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected." You can see that he is pro-life, which is affirmed by Dolan and an assortment of Catholic bishops & hospitals are suing Obama's government over a requirement in the Health Care Law that they provide abortion-related insurance.