Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Sunday that Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith should not be an issue in the presidential campaign.
“There may be reasons not to vote for Mitt Romney as president of the United States,” Dolan said during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation. “That he’s a Mormon cannot be one of them.”
Dolan, who is archbishop of the New York diocese, later added: “I don’t think Catholics would have any problem voting for a Mormon at all.”
Romney has struggled to win support among conservative evangelicals during the GOP primaries – a big reason why the nomination race has lasted far longer than nearly anyone expected. Some analysts have suggested Romney’s faith might partially explain why he’s struggled with the group.
Dolan told host Bob Schieffer that he brought up Romney’s religion a couple of months ago in a speech to the Jewish Anti-Defamation League when he was asked how the Jewish and Catholic communities could cooperate better.
He said he told the audience that “we Catholics and we Jews have felt the sting of the other side. And now, one of the ways we can cooperate is to see that religious prejudice, religious bigotry doesn’t enter the campaign.” Dolan said the remarks drew a standing ovation.
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