Archbishop Timothy Dolan: 60 Minutes Interviews the 'American Pope'

Dolan says he wants people to celebrate the beauty, charity and timelessness of the church

Archbishop Dolan loves the Lord and the Catholic Church he serves with an infectious enthusiasm borne of a sincere, living Christian faith. 'I would bristle at being termed right wing. But if somebody means enthusiastically committed and grateful for the timeless heritage of the church, and feeling that my best service is when I try to preserve that and pass that on in its fullness and beauty and radiance, I'm a conservative, no doubt.'

P>CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - Although the pace of our life precludes much Sunday evening television, one of my wife's favorite programs is 60 minutes. After raising five children to adulthood, and now having six grandchildren, they all know when they are in our home on Sunday evening, Mom (Mimi) watches 60 minutes. As for me, I usually find it frustrating, for many reasons. However, this past Sunday, when I read that one of my favorite Bishops of the Church, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, was going to be interviewed by the curmudgeon Morley Safer, I knew I had to watch the program. The entire interview can be viewed here 

Archbishop Dolan was spectacular! The program was one more sign that the Lord knows precisely what is needed for His Church; dynamically orthodox and truly happy leaders such as the Archbishop of New York who are unafraid to enter into the current cultural challenges because they are filled with the power of the Risen Lord. They know history and understand that the Church has always gone into hostile cultures and transformed cultures of death and darkness into Cultures of Life and Light. They are convinced that the message of the Gospel is still the only path to human liberation and flourishing and are committed to carrying forward the redemptive mission of the Lord. Archbishop Timothy Dolan once again demonstrated he is precisely that kind of leader. I offer some excerpts from the interview for our readers below. A full transcript can be found here 

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Portions of the Sixty Minutes Interview
 
He has been ..called the "American pope," after his election to head the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. His mission - as he sees it - is to change a perception of the church that ranges from negative to irrelevant. He wants to see the old church made new: zero tolerance of wayward priests and an emphasis on what he calls the most pure and noble experience Catholicism offers. To accomplish his mission, his main weapon is that indefinable quality called charm. Dolan is hard to miss: this burly, overweight, cherubic, Irish-American charges through life like a holy bulldozer, his brow gleaming, hands reaching.

It's a laugh a minute, hugging, glad-handing and backslapping everyone from street cops to big-time donors. He's a tireless promoter of all things Catholic, and always ready to refuel. "Did you always have, dare I say, the gift of the gab?" correspondent Morley Safer asked. "Yes, according to my mom, yes. You couldn't shut me up. You know, the Italians have a great saying that 'Hey, you have to make gnocchi with the dough you got.' Well, God knows I got the dough. Whatever dough God gave me, that's the gnocchi I'll make," the archbishop replied.

Gnocchi, for the uninitiated, is a high carb pasta the good pastor is more than familiar with, as is evident when the 61-year-old Dolan dons his robes to say Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. He takes obvious joy in the pageantry, pounding his bishop's staff as he bulldozes his way into church, beaming broadly at parishioners and politicians alike. He's a man in love with his job. "When did you know you wanted to be a priest?" Safer asked. "I can't really remember a time I wasn't hypnotized by the priesthood," Dolan replied. Asked if he ever had any doubts along the way, Dolan said, "There would be three times I could remember when I felt a particular friendship with, and attraction to, three particular girls that I think back upon fondly, that I thought, 'I wonder if a life of celibacy is mine.' And with the help of other people and with prayer, I said, 'Yeah, I think so.'".

He lives in a small mansion connected by a tunnel to St. Patrick's, where each day he must pass his own final resting place - the crypt - a constant reminder that his path to glory leads but to the grave. "I'm supposed to go here," he told Safer, looking at a small "available space" in the crypt. "Now although Cardinal Egan teases me that he wonders if one is gonna be enough, so I don't know what we're gonna have to, I might have to rent a space and a half."

"Isn't there something a little bit unnerving about knowing where you're gonna be buried?" Safer asked, laughing. "I find it liberating," Dolan replied. Dolan is shepherd to two and a half million Catholics, but it's a rapidly changing demographic, with the traditional Irish and Italians being replaced by Hispanics. There are nearly 400 parishes that stretch from Long Island to the Catskills to New York City. And he is constantly on call - there are budgets to be balanced, media to be managed, and future generations to embrace.

"They've heaped so much on you. Do you ever have time to really be a priest?" Safer asked. "Yeah, I have lost my appetite. I'm not eating anymore. Et cetera," Dolan joked. His Grace is also aware that hope and prayer does little to reduce the waistline, so he multitasks on his exercise bike, brushing up on his Spanish while getting a workout. Dolan is not in denial about his ever-expanding girth, and certainly not about the problems facing the church. "For the first time in Catholic history, we have a large group of Catholics who are saying, 'I'm no longer in the church.' That's a big problem. We got a big problem that our people think our preaching is no good. While others have thought that we continue unfortunately to cling to outmoded doctrines and beliefs," Dolan said.

But if you think Dolan plans to push for changes in those doctrines and beliefs, think again: despite the jolly open demeanor, he's about as conservative as they come. "They say there aren't many people to my right. That's what the critics say," Dolan joked in a meeting. He is unwavering on what he calls the "settled" questions: abortion, birth control, ordination of women, gay marriage and celibacy. "No question that you're conciliatory, that you like to have dialog, but underneath that you're an old-fashioned conservative. I mean, in the sense that of right-wing conservative," Safer remarked.

"I would bristle at being termed right wing. But if somebody means enthusiastically committed and grateful for the timeless heritage of the church, and feeling that my best service is when I try to preserve that and pass that on in its fullness and beauty and radiance, I'm a conservative, no doubt," Dolan said.

Last fall he was unexpectedly elected over a more liberal candidate to become president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Dolan defends the church's efforts to protect children and remains a staunch supporter of Pope Benedict's handling of the abuse crisis. And the pope clearly thinks highly of Dolan: he named him to several high profile Vatican committees. Would Dolan himself ever want the top job? "It's been speculated the most likely candidate for an American pope is you," Safer said. "You've been talkin' to my mom," Dolan joked. "Unfortunately, the people that say that, Morley, also think the Mets are gonna win the World Series. So I wouldn't put too much credibility in that one."

Dolan admits that restoring the church's credibility is going to be an enormous challenge. Yet he insists that a dramatic reformation of the church is not the answer. "But certain changes may be necessary. And the church seems to be blind to that idea," Safer said. "There's no denyin' that, Morley. There would be a good chunk of people who would want more change. But I still would maintain that there's an equally large group who would say, 'Oh my, what attracts us to the Catholic faith is its sense of permanence and its sense of consistency and stability,'" Dolan said.

"Why is it that I feel that in your heart of hearts there are certain changes you really wish would take place?" Safer asked. "I think there would be changes in the church. But I don't think they're the ones you have in mind. I don't wanna see changes in the church when it comes to celibacy or women priests or our clear teaching about the sanctity of human life and the unity of marriage between one man and one woman forever. I'd love to see changes in the church in the very area that you're hinting at over and over again, in the perception of the church as some shrill scold. We need to change that," Dolan said.

Dolan says he wants people to celebrate the beauty, charity and timelessness of the church, and not focus so much on what the church prohibits. "Instead of being hung up on these headline issues, let's get back to where the church is at her best," he told Safer. "But the headline issues are where people are living their lives. And an awful lot feel that the church is going down the wrong road," Safer said. "Yeah, I guess, you got two different world views there," Dolan replied. "And you ain't gonna change," Safer remarked. "I'm in one world. You're in the other," Dolan replied, laughing. "I'm glad you're visitin'."

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Archbishop Dolan loves the Lord and the Catholic Church he serves with an infectious enthusiasm borne of a sincere, living Christian faith. He is comfortable in his own skin, at ease with the use of the media, filled with the Holy Spirit, and eager to share the Gospel which is found in its fullness within the heart of the Catholic Church. No matter where an attack or a challenge comes from, this gutsy but gregarious Bishop goes out to greet them and does not back down. He is fearless and he is precisely who we need at the helm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in this critical hour. 

He is always willing to contend with those who are hostile toward the Church, but does so with velvet gloves and a heart filled with the desire to introduce them to the Lord! He confounds his opponents with Truth and wins them over with the Love of God, often making them friends. Wherever he has served he has been dearly loved by his priests and deacons. That is because he has a pastor's heart and knows the importance of a Bishop's relationship with his clergy. He is a dynamic and inspiring communicator and solid teacher of the truths as taught by the Magisterium of the Church. He is a true leader, both naturally and supernaturally.

When Archbishop Dolan was elected to the office of President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops I called it an historic turn of events and a sign of the Lord's continued guidance of the Church in the United States. I wrote in an article "Truly, God has not forgotten His people in the Church in the United States. This is a day for rejoicing!" I also said then - and repeat it now - the United States of America has become mission territory. The Catholic Church in the United States is in need of the "New Evangelization."

Archbishop Timothy Dolan is a wonderful instrument of the New Evangelization, a trumpet in the hands of the Lord. The way he responded to Morley Safer with warmth, humor, self deprecating humility and an uncompromising defense of the truths of the faith was a lesson plan for us all. 

The Catholic Church and the message of authentic freedom which she proclaims is the only hope for an age being ravaged by a hungry darkness. While so many in the media are focused on the few clerics who have committed egregious sin - and some have - too few have focused on the extraordinary gift of faithful Bishops, priests and deacons. One such gift is Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

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