US News

Dolan’s blessed event

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney is going to get a big televised blessing from Timothy Cardinal Dolan, who will deliver the benediction at the Republican National Convention on the night the presidential contender accepts the party’s nomination.

Romney, a Mormon who is trying to reach out to blue-collar and Catholic voters in swing states, announced the news in an interview on a Catholic radio network yesterday.

A Dolan spokesman insisted the cardinal’s appearance next Thursday in Tampa will not be an endorsement.

“This is not a partisan appearance. This is simply to do what a priest should do, which is to pray,” Joseph Zwilling, Dolan’s spokesman, told The Post. “He’s going to pray. He’s not going to give a convention speech.”

But Dolan is a powerful voice among Catholics and a leading opponent of President Obama’s health-care rules, which require employers to provide birth- control coverage through their insurance plans.

Dolan, the leader of the New York Archdiocese and the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, has said the contraception- coverage rules are “strangling” Catholic churches and church institutions.

The archdiocese joined multiple Catholic groups in suing the administration over the rule.

A Romney ad this month featured the late Pope John Paul II and accused Obama of a “war on religion.”

“Who shares your values?” the ad’s narrator asks. “President Obama used his health care plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith.”

As Romney prepares for the convention spotlight, Obama hit Manhattan last night to haul in more than $3 million at three fundraising events featuring some of the biggest NBA stars, past and present.

“Obama for president!” shouted Knick star Carmelo Anthony, who attended a fund-raising “shoot-around” at Chelsea Piers. Asked why he did the fund-raiser, he said, “We love Obama. That’s why.”

A $20,000-per-plate dinner in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center featured hoops legend Michael Jordan.

At the glitzy dinner, Obama joked that he was humbled being in “Air Jordan’s” presence.

“It is very rare I come to an event where I’m like the fifth or sixth most interesting person,” Obama said.

Additional reporting by Carl Campanile