Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Thursday hit back at former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for asserting the Catholic Church had a vested financial interest in supporting illegal immigrants.
“They need illegal aliens to fill the churches. It’s obvious on the face of it,” Bannon told CBS in a clip released Thursday. “That’s what the entire Catholic bishops condemning. They have an economic interest, they have an economic interest in unlimited immigration — unlimited illegal immigration.”
Dolan, who is the archbishop of New York, said he was “befuddled” after reading a transcript of Bannon’s remarks and found his insinuation insulting.
“I don’t really care to go into what I think is a preposterous and rather insulting statement that the only reason we bishops care for immigrants is for the economic because we want to fill our churches and get more money,” Dolan told the Catholic Channel during an interview on Sirus XM.
He added that the comments were “ridiculous and insulting” and did not merit comment.
Bannon, who is a devout Catholic, has previously expressed his dissenting outlook and has drawn distinction between the cardinal’s criticism of Trump and Catholic doctrine.
“As much as I respect Cardinal Dolan and the bishops on doctrine, this is not doctrine, this is not about doctrine at all,” Bannon said. “I totally respect the pope and I totally respect the Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine. This is not about doctrine, this is about the sovereignty of a nation and in that regard they’re just another guy with an opinion.”
Dolan did say he appreciated Bannon’s clarification that his statements were not a matter of doctrine but concerned a difference of opinion.
“Well, as a matter of fact, he may be right,” Donal added. “This is not an issue of Catholic Doctrine because it comes from the Bible itself.”
