"The US President's Administration Doesn't Mobilize Sponsors and Doesn't Provide Airtime for the Church"

During a teleconference, Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, will bless members of the Republican National Convention. The teleconference will open in Florida on Monday. Kommersant FM columnist, Konstantin Eggert, thought about why what is normal in America is impossible in Russia.

“Cardinal Dolan is going to pray, not engage in partisan politics,” Dolan’s spokesman said. “He made it clear when he accepted the invitation that he would also accept an invitation from the Democratic National Committee to offer a prayer at their convention, should they ask. He is going simply to pray, which is part of what a priest should do.” This is, of course, a polite excuse. It is clear that the Democrats would never summon the Archbishop of New York to bless their convention.

After all, His Eminence is suing Barack Obama over Obama’s mandate that employers have to provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control procedures. This law violates the rights of institutions linked to the Catholic Church, such as schools, hospices and hospitals. The Church believes that this is actually forcing the congregation to renounce its faith.

Mitt Romney, who is a Mormon, actively supported the Cardinal. First, he agrees with the Cardinal. Second, it is important to look good in front of Catholic voters. Catholics are the largest religious community in the United States. Today, most Catholics are immigrants from Central and South America or are their descendants. They tend to vote for Democrats. So, the New York Archbishop understands that he is involved in politics, albeit indirectly.

Why doesn’t this bother me personally? I think the reason, oddly enough, is in the strictly secular nature of the American government. According to the U.S. Constitution, all religions are equidistant from the government. That is why their bishops can afford to drag to court the most powerful politician in the world–the U.S. president.

Cardinal Dolan is free to criticize Obama, who is probably the most anti-Christian boss of the White House, because the Catholic Church in the U.S. is independent of the state’s power. The U.S. president’s administration doesn’t mobilize the Church’s sponsors and doesn’t provide national television broadcasting. (They don’t have a national TV channel.) It also doesn’t order state governors to pay for repairs of religious buildings. Actually, the president’s administration doesn’t do it for the Orthodox, Baptists, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Zoroastrians either. Fortunately, His Eminence is not afraid that the lawsuit against the Obama administration will lead to a phone call from the White House to the New York District Attorney with orders to immediately open a case on the management of the St. Patrick Cathedral’s finances.

Dolan’s benediction at the Republican National Convention will be harshly criticized by American atheists and radical secularists, but there is no doubt about his right to defend his flock actively and publicly from the state’s coercion. This is a true implementation of the American concept of freedom of conscience–the reverse side being “equidistance.”

By the way, Mitt Romney was striving for an opportunity to appear on the global Catholic channel EWTN, based in the U.S. He received this honor. Can you imagine a Russian politician pleading for an interview with, for example, the TV channel Spas? As the old advertisement said: “Feel the difference.”