Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop for the Archdiocese of New York, will be leading the opening prayer at the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
“The president was kind enough to ask me to do the opening prayer,” Cardinal Dolan told news outlet Pix 11 in an exclusive Christmas Eve 2024 interview. He noted that Trump asked him to lead it at his first inauguration as well.
After Trump asked him the second time, Cardinal Dolan said that he responded, with a laugh, “Well I did it eight years ago, I hope this one works.” In October 2024, Cardinal Dolan sat next to Trump at the New York Archdiocese Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner charity fundraiser, also called the “Al Smith Dinner.” Vice President Kamala Harris did not attend this dinner, a decision that Cardinal Dolan said was disappointing.
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It was the first time in 49 years that a presidential candidate had skipped an Al Smith dinner. Before the dinner took place, Cardinal Dolan had expressed hope that Harris would change her mind and attend. However, Harris sent a pre-recorded video address that played at the dinner.
In the Dec. 24, 2024, interview with Pix 11, Cardinal Dolan said that Trump told him after the election how the two assassination attempts against his life impacted his faith.
Trump told him that “something mystical happened in the two assassination attempts,” Cardinal Dolan recalled.
The Cardinal said that the assassination attempts in 2024 — one of which took place July 13, the other on Sept. 15 — may play a part in shaping Trump’s faith, but added, “You never know because it’s all God’s actions, it’s not ours, so faith is a gift and it’s God’s initiative. It’s not our energy that does it, we [have to] cooperate and we [have to] embrace it.”
Cardinal Dolan later noted that he thinks Trump’s faith may be growing again.
“I believe President Trump, and I believe that faith is stirring,” Cardinal Dolan said. “I believe that he may have had a bit of a rekindling. Alleluia, because I don’t know how anyone could be president of the United States without a deep faith.”
LifeNews Note: McKenna Snow writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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