Metro

Cardinal Dolan will lead interfaith meeting to ease racial tensions

Lord, hear our prayers.

Mayor de Blasio is seeking divine intervention to help ease simmering tensions over the police chokehold death of Eric Garner — with a summit of city religious figures led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

The cardinal will lead an interfaith gathering that will also include top police officials — and de Blasio’s pal, the Rev. Al Sharpton, is at the top of the guest list.

De Blasio hopes the meeting will bring calm to a city torn apart by the July 17 death of Garner, which was caught on cellphone video.

Dolan says he’s up for the job.

“I am grateful for Mayor de Blasio’s invitation to host a group of religious leaders from throughout New York City, who will come together to try to be a source of continued healing and reconciliation between our police force and the community it serves,” said His Eminence, who was en route Friday to a previous commitment at a spiritual retreat in Australia.

The gathering would take place on a date later this month in hopes of “healing and deepening the relationship between police and community,” said de Blasio, who was humiliated by Sharpton at a City Hall event that turned into an angry lecture for the mayor and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Sharpton kept the pressure on Friday, issuing an ultimatum in his push for an Aug. 23 march across the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island, where Garner was subdued with the illegal chokehold during an arrest for selling loose cigarettes.

He has not yet been granted a permit, and the city, state and MTA, which controls the bridge, are all pointing to each other over who should make the decision.

Sharpton told The Post that if protesters aren’t allowed to cross the Verrazano on foot, they’ll cross with an army of cars and buses and rally at the Staten Island DA’s office — jamming the toll plazas and clogging streets.

I am grateful for Mayor de Blasio’s invitation… to try to be a source of continued healing and reconciliation between our police force and the community it serves.

 - Timothy Cardinal Dolan

“It’s better [for residents] if they rallied by the bridge and turned back and went back across the bridge,” Sharpton said. “Now, we’re going to drive to the DA’s office, if we go that way.”

He added, “I think the asininity of the local officials is that they don’t understand if we bring in all the buses and the cars to the toll bridge, it will be worse.”

Sharpton said he will announce final plans for the march Saturday.

In yet another example of the mounting divisiveness, Public Advocate Letitia James — a longtime Sharpton ally — went on record opposing the bridge march.

“I don’t believe it’s safe for walking because of the climb and the steepness and the wind gusts,” James said Friday, adding the ferry is the ideal means for protesters to reach the nearby DA’s office.

Multiple Staten Island officials oppose the march, as has Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino, who has called on rival Gov. Cuomo to use his authority over the MTA to keep protesters from crossing on foot.

Additional reporting by Tara Palmeri, Jennifer Bain and Kenneth Garger