Daniel Suhr: The John Paul generation

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. 

A familiar Catholic voice in America’s cultural battles has stepped aside this month. WORLD Opinions contributor Daniel Suhr has an appreciation.

DANIEL SUHR: For or more than a decade and a half, one of the most recognizable Catholic voices in America was Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.

For evangelical Protestants watching the cultural battles of the last two decades, he was something more than a Catholic prelate. He was an ally.

At his final Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dolan told the congregation:

DOLAN: The highlight of these past 17 years as your Archbishop has been the honor of offering Sunday Mass here at Saint Patrick's Cathedral. This is the bottom of the ninth, this will be my last occasion to do so as Archbishop, which is why...

That line—half baseball, half farewell—was classic Dolan. Warm. Confident. Unflappable.

But beneath the charm was a man who stood firm in some of the fiercest moral debates of our days.

It almost goes without saying that evangelical Protestants have sharp theological differences with Rome. Those differences are not small, and they are not new.

But on life, marriage, religious liberty, the dignity of the human person, Cardinal Dolan consistently supported what many would recognize as the historic Christian worldview.

During the Obama years, he pushed back forcefully against the contraceptive mandate. He opposed the redefinition of marriage. He defended conscience protections. And when the state of New York legalized assisted suicide, he did not soften his words. 

Listen to this from an interview with the Catholic TV channel E-W-T-N:

DOLAN: Am I shocked? You bet I'm shocked. Am I surprised? I'm not surprised, because why should not the abortion capital of the United States, if not the world, New York, now become the euthanasia capital? 

If human life is cheap, if the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of the human life is not respected, especially when it's most vulnerable—the baby in the womb or grandma in hospice—if human life is thought to be burdensome, then we're in trouble. We're in trouble.

That is not the language of accommodation; that is moral conviction.

And he did not hesitate to confront drift inside his own church. 

When the University of Notre Dame appointed a prominent pro-abortion advocate to lead an important academic program, several bishops called for the decision to be rescinded.

Dolan was asked directly whether he agreed. And he did not hedge.

DOLAN: I would agree with him heartily that this is an ill advised appointment. Notre Dame is a light to the world, a salt to the earth, to use the words of Jesus, and it stands, again, for that double pillar of Catholic social justice, the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life. Anything that any university, particularly a prominent Catholic one would do to dull that light to the world, we shouldn't do.

That was not a minor internal disagreement. That was a cardinal insisting that Catholic institutions must not blur their witness on the sanctity of human life.

For Protestants who have long warned Christian colleges against drifting toward cultural approval, that clarity sounded familiar.

Dolan also understood the importance of coalition in the public square. This is how he prayed at President Trump’s inauguration:

DOLAN: We, blessed citizens of this one nation under God, humbled by our claim that In God We Trust, gather indeed this inauguration day to pray for our president, Donald J Trump, his family, his advisors, his cabinet, his aspirations, his Vice President. We cannot err in relying upon that prayer from the Bible upon which our president will soon place his hand in oath as we make our own, the supplications of King Solomon for wisdom as he began his governance. God of our fathers, in your wisdom, you set man to govern your creatures, to govern in holiness and justice, to render justice with integrity. Give our leader wisdom. If wisdom which comes not from you be not with him, he shall be held in no esteem. Send wisdom from heavens that she may be with him, that he may know your designs. Please, God, bless America.

He also served on President Trump’s Commission on Religious Liberty and says he intends to keep showing up.

For Dolan, the public square was never optional. He understood that moral truth must contend for the shape of a civilization. He believed that when Christians withdraw from the public square, others will define its moral terms—and the consequences reach far beyond politics.

Cardinal Dolan was formed in the era of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI—leaders who saw Christianity as necessarily countercultural when modern society abandoned moral truth.

That generation of bishops is now receding.

Under Pope Francis—and now Pope Leo—Catholic leadership has increasingly emphasized themes that align more comfortably with modern progressive political currents, especially on immigration, economics, even the Church’s posture toward the West.

An era is ending.

When the Catholic Church speaks clearly on life and marriage, it strengthens the broader Christian witness in America. When its leadership shifts emphasis, the public square shifts too.

At the end of his farewell Mass, Dolan recalled standing in Rome and noticing something striking:

DOLAN: I saw nothing left of all those earthly powers that tried to take over Rome, but I saw at least 1,000 crosses. Crosses on tops of the churches throughout the city of Rome. And I thought, this is the beatitudes in steroids. This is topsy turvy values, and here...

Empires fade. The Church endures.

But even though Dolan’s time in New York is ending in the bottom of the ninth, there may yet be extra innings.

And for many evangelical Protestants who found in him a steady Catholic ally in America’s moral struggles, that is welcome news.

For WORLD, I’m Daniel Suhr.

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