Newly retired Cardinal Timothy Dolan is about to function one of many NYPD’s high spiritual leaders, alongside Brooklyn-based megachurch founder, Rev. A.R. Bernard, the division introduced Monday.
Dolan, 76, and Bernard, 72, who based the Christian Cultural Heart, can be formally put in as co-chaplains of the nation’s largest police division this month, in line with NYPD officers.
Their appointments come after Rabbi Alvin Kass – who served New York’s Most interesting for practically 60 years – died in October.
“As I used to be serious about who ought to fill this position, one Hebrew phrase stored coming to thoughts — ‘Tzadik,’ an individual of righteousness,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch stated in an announcement. “Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Reverend A.R. Bernard are two of probably the most righteous individuals this Metropolis has ever recognized.
“They’re two males of unbelievable religion whose life and management embody the ethical readability, compassion, and knowledge our officers depend on of their hardest moments.”
The announcement additionally comes simply days after Dolan – who served the archdiocese for practically 17 years – handed over the reins to Archbishop Ronald Hicks, 58, in a ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Dolan, who was born in Missouri and considers himself an adopted New Yorker, confirmed final week that he deliberate to remain within the Large Apple following his retirement.
An avid backer of New York’s Most interesting, he voiced his admiration in a July 2020 opinion piece for The Publish, the place he urged the general public to chorus from condemning all cops as protests raged over the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“Our valiant law enforcement officials have one of the vital perilous, irritating duties round, and from what I’ve seen in my practically dozen years right here, they do it with care, compassion and competence,” Dolan wrote on the time. “Now we’ve added to their load with continuous, at instances exaggerated, rash and inaccurate criticism, mixed with rocks, Molotov cocktails and taunts.”
Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, was appointed to the Council of Cardinals in 2012 and notably participated within the conclaves that gathered within the Vatican to elect each Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, in line with his on-line bio.
His new project will give him the chance to return to his roots of serving as “ parish priest” and counseling law enforcement officials, he informed The New York Occasions, calling the place “an effective way for me to type of come to the ultimate innings of my very own priestly life.”
Bernard leads the Christian Cultural Heart, which sits on an 11.5-acre campus in Starrett Metropolis, and his ministry has since expanded to Lengthy Island, Florida and Georgia – rising to greater than 37,000 members, in line with its web site.
A outstanding determine within the black Christian group, Bernard obtained a Distinguished Recognition Award in November from the NYPD Guardians Affiliation, a fraternal group for African American officers.
“The inscription on the plaque jogged my memory of the duty all of us share to steer with integrity and to serve our communities with compassion,” he posted on Fb on the time. “I’m grateful for the chance to proceed serving alongside leaders like Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Guardians President Patrick Gordon.
“Service is a privilege—and group is at all times well worth the work.”
In 2020, he pushed again in opposition to the “defund the police message” in a livestream with then-NYPD first deputy commissioner, Benjamin B. Tucker.
“I believe law enforcement officials put their lives on the road daily,” Bernard stated. “Their households pray for them to come back residence daily. That’s an enormous job and that’s an enormous duty.
“I imagine as a result of they’re professionals, as a result of we entrust them … they need to even be paid more cash and held to the next normal.”
NYPD chaplains present confidential counseling, non secular help and ethical steerage in addition to reply on to “critical incidents” involving division members.
“For many years, [Dolan and Bernard] have helped form the non secular lifetime of this metropolis via management that reaches far past their pulpits,” Tisch stated. “Their determination to serve the NYPD speaks to one thing enduring between religion and policing, and to the place the Chief Chaplain position has lengthy held within the lives of the women and men who put on the protect.”
