Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, opened the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Monday with a benediction asking Americans to pray to God for safety and guidance, specifically naming the unborn and the police. 

Dolan’s participation and enthusiasm for the RNC has resurrected years-old debate about the political leanings of the cardinal, one of the most influential members of the Catholic clergy in America.

But Dolan walks a razor’s edge between political affiliation and partisan support, and despite countless attempts to associate him with one of America’s two ideological camps, Dolan claims to be beyond political parties.

"As a priest, one of my most sacred obligations is to try and respond positively whenever I am invited to pray,” Dolan said in response to outrage over his participation in the RNC. “Prayer is speaking to God, offering Him praise, thanking Him for His many blessings, and asking for His intercession; it is not political or partisan.”

“That is why I have accepted an invitation to pray at the Republican National Convention. My agreeing to pray does not constitute an endorsement of any candidate, party, or platform. Had I been invited to offer a prayer for the Democratic National Convention, I would have happily accepted, just as I did in 2012.”

Brian Fawley, a former Augustinian priest, wrote a scathing CNN editorial admonishing Dolan for associating with the Republicans and accepting their invitation.

Fawley said, “Cardinal Dolan, like so many of the Republicans who will be praying with him, seems prepared to become another enabling pawn in Trump's strategy to divide and conquer.”

Dolan has given opening prayers and benedictions at a variety of high-level political events throughout his long career in the Church. In 2012, he delivered the closing benediction at both the RNC and DNC, where he offered similarly pro-life and pro-peace prayers.

“Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us 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,” Dolan said in 2012 to a Democrat-filled audience.

The comment’s clear anti-abortion implications caused an uproar among pro-choice advocates at the 2012 DNC and watching from home. 

"Show us anew that happiness is found only in respecting the laws of nature and of nature’s God,” the cardinal then said at the DNC, vague comments that many claimed were directed at the institution of same-sex marriage. 

He continued, “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."

Dolan, unsurprisingly, made similar pro-life issues one of the most prominent parts of his prayer at the 2020 RNC, focusing on unborn children, the elderly and refugees, asking for God’s protection.

“For the innocent life of the baby in the womb. For our elders in nursing care and hospice. For our immigrants and refugees. For those lives threatened by religious persecution throughout the world, or by plague, hunger, drugs, human trafficking or war.”

This prayer for safety extended to the civil unrest currently unfolding in major cities across America, and specifically the police forces maintaining order.

“Pray we must that all lives may be protected and respected, in our troubled cities and the police who guard them. In tense world situations where our men and women in uniform keep the peace.”

Despite Dolan’s claims that he stays above politics and does not get into the muck and grime of partisan endorsements, the New York cardinal clearly gets on much better with one side of the political landscape.

On an April 25 conference call about Catholic education with several high-ranking members of the clergy, Trump referred to Dolan as “a great friend of mine.”

“The feelings are mutual, sir,” the cardinal replied.

Dolan faced immediate backlash for his chuminess with the president, but defended his remarks in an interview with the Jesuit-operated America Magazine, saying, “We are very interested in political principles. We’re not all that interested in partisanship. When you get kind of singed from either side, that’s not a bad place to be,” he said.

America Magazine contributor and Jesuit priest Sam Sawyer later called the cardinal’s remarks “a pastoral failure to recognize the actual pain and fear that many Catholics are suffering.”

Sawyer continued, “The most significant and trenchant critique of Cardinal Dolan is not for attempting to engage with Mr. Trump but for the manner in which he did so.”

Days later, on Fox & Friends, Dolan once again commended Trump’s leadership throughout the pandemic and expressed gratitude to the president.

The cardinal also praised Democrats New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, but saved his most enthusiastic praise, once again, for the president. 

“Everybody has really come through, but the president has seemed particularly sensitive to the, what shall I say, to the feelings of the religious community,” Dolan said.

Timothy Nerozzi is a reporter and editor from northeastern Pennsylvania. He covers religious issues with a focus on the Catholic Church and Japanese society and culture. He’s also a breaking news editor at The Daily Caller.