Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan seized the moment last night when he delivered a closing benediction at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last night that contained a bold exhortation for life and religious liberty, a prayer so pointed many media outlets actually cut off their coverage mid-prayer to avoid showing it to their viewers.
LifeNews.com is reporting that Cardinal Dolan’s closing benediction contained a message the Obama election campaign probably hoped he would not have the guts to deliver – an excoriation of their policies that endanger the unborn and the conscience rights of Americans.
“Thus do we praise you for the gift of life,” he prayed. “Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.”
He continued: “We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice.”
While the Cardinal’s courageous prayer was a hit with many, others did not appreciate it, such as many television networks that chose to cut off coverage in the middle of the prayer and return to local news. According to Twitter reports, the only network that aired the entire prayer was Fox News.
Twitchy immediately launched a page entitled, “Liberals Cuss out Cardinal Dolan” which contained dozens of expletive-strewn curses at the Cardinal.
However, even his detractors noted that he had a “spine of steel” to deliver such a pointed message at a convention that many say was the most abortion-friendly in history.
Although his was a “voice crying out in the wilderness,” he was definitely heard!
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God bless our Cardinal for his stouthearted protection of the unborn. He set himself up for this and he stood directly in the breach as our Lord did. I commend him. jim
Amen. At last a voice for truth that did not waiver in the midst of a formidable foe. Let all who treasure true freedom continue this fight to restore it in America and around the world.
Thank you Cardinal Dolan, from a sick mother with 7 children that are loved and cherished for the gift they are from our creator God. Thank you from the wife of 22 yrs to a wonderful man, a marriage that has weathered many storms, sickness, loss, but is still united in love that knows the value of sacrafice and the sanctity of marriage between a man and a women. Thank you from a sick women who has known the pain and the joy of childbirth and who has tried to live her vocation to God as wife and a mother; thy will be done. Thank you from the same women who now struggles daily from a cancer that has tried to rob me of all my dignity but through the grace of God, I am His child, and because of that my life has meaning and value in His eyes, however in the eyes of the world it does not. May God give me the courage to stand for truth as you did Cardinal Dolan and may God Bless you abundantly.
And we all stand with you, Tami, and pray that we might all be inspired to emulate your heroic faith! God bless you and yours!