Cardinal Dolan attended an event today in Yonkers at the Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center, highlighting the impact of the Alfred E. Smith Foundation’s support for the center’s life-saving work for vulnerable children.

During a brief Q&A session with the media, he shared his reaction to the news that Vice President Harris will not be attending this year’s Al Smith Dinner even though former President Donald Trump will be there.

Cardinal Dolan also talks about the importance of the “Catholic vote” and Pope Francis’ recent comments encouraging U.S. Catholics to choose the “lesser evil” in this year’s presidential election.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Question: Cardinal Dolan, what is your reaction to the news that Vice President Kamala Harris will not be attending the Al Smith Dinner?

We’re disappointed. We were looking forward to giving the Vice President an enthusiastic welcome. She speaks very much about the high ideals and how it’s good to get away from division and come together and unity and all, and that’s what the Al Smith dinner is all about. We haven’t given up yet. We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it. This hasn’t happened in 40 years since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation, and remember he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don’t want to say there’s a direct connection there. So, we’re not used to this, and we’re not giving up.

You know who’s been a help to us is Senator Schumer and Governor Hochul; they’re both working hard to see that they convince her to come. (Reporter’s question: So, there’s still a chance?) Yes, and Senator Schumer said to me, he said I don’t think she made the decision. I think her schedulers are saying she can’t make it. So, we’re not giving up, we hope she’s there. It’s a grand evening, and it’s an evening of fun and friendship with an extraordinarily noble goal.

Question: How important is the Catholic vote?

The Catholic vote is a very amorphous thing. It’s kind of hard to gauge. And then the Catholic vote within itself is broken down. I don’t mean a nervous breakdown. I mean, kind of divided to churchgoing Catholics, which would be about 30% of the Catholic population that would be extraordinarily fervent, and the rest of them, and those numbers there are different. So, it’s kind of difficult to gauge.

I myself sometimes think, “I don’t know how much clout that we have anymore.” Al Smith certainly didn’t enjoy any clout when he got whooped pretty bad by Herbert Hoover in ‘28 and a lot of that was due, as you know, because of bigotry and hatred of the Church. But when I see that the politicians tell me that it’s important, I think, well, maybe we do have some clout, so who knows?

Many people think it’s just a Catholic event, and we’re extraordinarily proud that the archdiocese and the Alfred E. Smith Foundation sponsor it, but when you look at the dais, which are our major contributors, we have Jewish friends, we have non-Catholic friends, we have people who say they don’t belong to any religion whatsoever, Democrats and Republicans. We got Fox and we got CNN. Okay? That’s how diverse the crowd is.

So, it’s really tough to tag it down as a Catholic event. By the way, it’s not just Catholic causes that we support, right, Pat? You know that. Anybody can come, and they do, for support from the Al Smith Foundation. And we do it as long as it’s benefiting at-risk kids and their folks.

Question: There’s a phrase, as the Catholic vote goes, so goes the election.

Sometimes they thought of us as a bellwether that if you kind of got a gauge of the Catholic sentiments. Why? Because we’re sort of mid-stream, “meat and potatoes” America.

So, they kind of think, “Hey, if you get a gauge of how the Catholic vote is going, you might have a gauge as to the election.” How true that is, I don’t know.

Question: What do you think about Pope Francis’ comments about how Catholics should choose the “lesser evil”?

Well, no matter what I think about it, I think he was very perceptive to sense where many people in the United States feel about this. I find that all the time, people are saying to me, “Oh my Lord, I don’t exactly know how I’m going to vote. There’s give and take for each one.” So, he kind of, some people didn’t like the way he said it, some people didn’t like that he said it. And I’m saying, well, he’s kind of perceptive, this man who lives in Rome and was coming back from a ten-day trip to Asia. He seemed to be pretty well-tuned to what the sentiments were in the United States.

Stay tuned to The Good Newsroom for full coverage of the 79th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner taking place on October 17.