(RNS) — Since Saturday (Sept. 21), when Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris turned down an invitation to the Al Smith Dinner, the Archdiocese of New York’s annual fundraiser for children with disabilities, living in poverty or foster care or needing social services, Catholic social media and editorials from Catholic outlets have been full of punditry over the decision.
Many have described the decision as exceptional, following New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s lead. Dolan told reporters at a press conference, “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,” Dolan said, before joking that he didn’t want to draw too much of a connection.
What Dolan and many Catholic pundits failed to note was that since 1984, three of nine Al Smith Dinners in presidential election years have been held without either presidential candidate.
In both presidential elections in the 1990s and then in 2004, first Cardinal John O’Connor and then Cardinal Edward Egan kept the candidates away from the fundraiser, with an archdiocesan spokesperson citing the campaign’s divisiveness in 2004.
Abortion policy, a major reason that Catholic leaders have criticized Harris, has brought drama at the dinner for decades.
The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Oct. 17, 2013, at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. (RNS photo/David Gibson)
Mondale’s decision to skip the dinner came after the 1980 dinner where candidate Jimmy Carter was booed by attendees, likely because of his stance on abortion. And observers speculated that Catholic Democratic candidate John Kerry’s abortion politics may have played into Egan’s decision to disinvite candidates in 2004.
That Dolan has attacked the Democratic Party’s abortion politics, while staying friendly with Donald Trump, may be at play in Harris’ decision, Steven Millies, professor of public theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said.
“There’s just discomfort there that Cardinal Dolan has not gone to the lengths to seem nonpartisan” that some predecessors had, Millies said.
The Archdiocese of New York did not respond to a request for comment about the archdiocese’s efforts to convince the Harris campaign to attend.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a theologian and professor of religious studies at Manhattan University in New York, agreed that Harris’ caution may also have to do with the hosts.
This combination photo shows Vice President Kamala Harris, left, at the White House in Washington, July 22, 2024, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at an event July 26, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photos)
The professor said that while the Al Smith dinner may have been a “lighthearted fundraising event” years ago, the influence of Catholic bishops on U.S. politics — particularly in support of conservative causes — may have changed the way the event is perceived. She pointed to bishops who have been vocally critical of President Joe Biden for his support of abortion rights, with some threatening to withhold Communion in recent years.
There is little reason, Imperatori-Lee argued, to suspect anything different in their treatment of Harris, who has made support for abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign.
“Biden is a Roman Catholic,” she noted. “If that’s the way they treated the Catholic president, why would she go?”
Millies also said that the Harris campaign may be thinking that “leaving Donald Trump alone as the speaker might give him an opportunity to say something usefully awful.”
“There’s a better than 50-50 chance that Trump will put his foot in his mouth at the Al Smith dinner anyway, and I wouldn’t want to get in his way, if I were Kamala Harris, when he does that,” Millies said.
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, from left, Archbishop of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the national anthem as they attend the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner to benefit Catholic charities in New York, on October 20, 2016. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)
Imperatori-Lee pointed out that Trump has a “tendency to politicize even religious events,” a reference to speculation that Harris may have passed on the event because of how Trump behaved at his last Al Smith appearance in 2016. Although framed as a roast, Trump used his time at the podium to lob personal attacks at his then-political opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, drawing boos from the crowd as Trump called her “corrupt” and accused her of being anti-Catholic.
“Here she is tonight, in public, pretending not to hate Catholics,” Trump said of Clinton.
Clinton was less personal in her remarks, although she expressed concern about Trump’s allegations at the time that the election was “rigged,” saying of the businessman, “I didn’t think he’d be OK with a peaceful transition of power.”
Trump used another religion-themed event to attack his political opponents four years later when he spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast. Presidential speeches at the gathering are traditionally subdued, but Trump, fresh off his first impeachment battle as president, used his time at the podium to rail against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.
Among other things, Trump suggested Pelosi, a Catholic Democrat, was lying when she said she was praying for Trump, and that Romney, a Republican member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “used” his faith when he cited his religious beliefs while voting to convict Trump on abuse of power.
“I don’t like people who use faith for justification for doing what they know is wrong, nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when they know that is not so,” said Trump.
Trump’s controversial appearance is believed to be partly why the National Prayer Breakfast was “reset” two years later, with organizers reorganizing the event into a smaller, more intimate gathering convened in the U.S. Capitol instead of at a sprawling hotel.
Imperatori-Lee also said Harris’ decision to skip may have been a byproduct of the truncated timeline of her campaign, which was launched just two months ago.
“Vice President Harris is probably being very cautious about where she spends her time,” Imperatori-Lee said.
Imperatori-Lee also questioned whether most U.S. Catholics even care about the event in the first place.
“Maybe Catholics in New York care about the Al Smith dinner,” Imperatori-Lee said. “But are Catholics in New York really a demographic that is going to move the needle for Vice President Harris or for any down ballot people that she might be interested in helping? No.”
But most importantly, according to Millies, the decision is a signal that Harris has recognized that Catholic voters have moved toward the Republican Party, giving up their former status as an important swing vote.
“Catholics are now settling in to being a niche constituency of one party rather than a national constituency that’s available to both parties,” Millies said.
Skipping the dinner, then, makes sense in a compressed campaign before a very close election, Millies said. “The Catholic vote, to all appearances, isn’t going to do her any good.”
Dolan told the New York archdiocesan media outlet that this year’s dinner is set to raise about $9 million, explaining that the dinner raises more money in presidential election years.
“When we speak about the culture of life, right, the dignity and sacredness of human life from the moment of conception to natural death, we need to put our money where our mouth is,” Dolan said. “The dinner exists for these causes, not the other way around.”