Mayor de Blasio and Cardinal Dolan Join Forces to Try to Bring Pope to New York

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has not been a friend to Roman Catholics. His policies in support of abortion, homosexual rights, and increased taxes for Church-owned lots have been met with stern opposition from many people of faith. But the Mayor has been inspired by Pope Francis’ message, and he hopes to attract the pontiff to visit New York City. With that in mind, Mayor de Blasio visited Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s residence in Midtown on January 13. The two discussed their mutual interests, and made plans to work together to bring Pope Francis to town.

...The mayor, who was raised Catholic and whose Italian uncle was a priest, has broken ties with the church of his youth and is not affiliated with any formal religion. He was elected by a 73% majority of New Yorkers, despite a number of anti-Catholic planks in his platform, including:
He has pledged to partner with Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, helping them to expand their businesses, even providing “city-sponsored” space to set up shop.
At the same time, he pledged to help abortionists to wipe out their main competition, pro-life pregnancy centers—which he refers to as “sham” clinics which are not “legitimate health care centers.” (Pro-life pregnancy centers offer women financial and logistical assistance to either keep their babies or place them with adoptive families, but they do not perform abortions.)
He supports a pending appeal by the City of New York of a court order striking down a law aimed at closing pro-life pregnancy centers. If the court appeal fails, de Blasio pledges to “craft new regulations to prevent [crisis pregnancy] centers from masquerading as legitimate health care providers.”
He supports a NARAL-backed program begun under Mayor Michael Bloomberg to force doctors who train in city hospitals to perform abortions as a routine part of their training. This is intended to ensure that there are a sufficient number of abortionists to meet the high demand in the city.
He has pledged to use ObamaCare to expand state funding for abortion, so that more New York women will have access to abortions.
He plans to raise taxes on some 7,000 to 10,500 vacant residential lots, many of which are owned by the Roman Catholic Church. De Blasio’s plan calls for a five-year phase-in period, after which owners of the vacant lots could expect tax hikes averaging $15,300 annually. Crain’s reports that the plan is intended to spur development of housing; but critics doubt that the higher taxes would have the desired effect.
De Blasio has shown solidarity with gays rather than with Irish Catholics, declining to march in the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade—citing homosexuals’ complaints that they are not permitted to march. (Actually, the parade officials do not permit any organization to preempt the stated purpose of the parade, namely, to honor St. Patrick; so pro-life organizations, also, may not march under their own banner.)

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