Archbishop Timothy Dolan rocked a jampacked St. Patrick’s Cathedral at his inaugural Mass yesterday — receiving rousing ovations when he vowed to fight for the protection of the unborn and invoked the sacrifice of 9/11 heroes.
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A relaxed Dolan smiled from ear to ear, waving and shaking hands as he strode into the majestic Fifth Avenue church behind a massive clerical procession — receiving hearty cheers as the choir sang, “Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!”
But that paled in comparison to the response he got for linking Jesus Christ’s resurrection to the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion stance. “The resurrection goes on as his church continues to embrace and protect the dignity of every human person, the sanctity of human life, from the tiny baby in the womb,” Dolan said during his homily, setting off a lengthy, loud standing ovation.
Such seriousness was tempered by some of Dolan’s trademark humor. “Maybe I should not be so flattered that so many are here,” Dolan, 59, said with a gleam in his eye. “After all, everybody wants to claim sanctuary on income-tax day!”
“Everybody” was the cream of American Catholicism — 12 cardinals, scores of bishops, hundreds of priests and nuns and dignitaries such as Gov. Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg, Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Dolan’s family.
Holding the place of honor was Edward Cardinal Egan, 77, the first leader of the New York Archdiocese alive to witness his successor’s installation Mass.
“Thank you, Eminence, thank you for everything,” said Dolan as he embraced Egan.
But many people there were ordinary Catholics drawn to the spectacle under St. Pat’s vaulted ceiling and stained glass, the passing of a 200-year-old clerical torch and the personal magnetism of Dolan, Milwaukee’s former archbishop.
“He’s warm, he’s funny, he has all the characteristics of a New Yorker,” said Caryl McCalla-Hunt, a British Airways saleswoman from East Elmhurst, Queens.
Resplendent in white robes, the burly Irish-American had a lot of fun during the nearly three-hour service, listening to Irish tenor Ronan Tynan sing hymns and cracking jokes.
“When I told mom that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed me archbishop of New York, I remarked, ‘Mom, whatever God gives me in life, his greatest gift to me is that I am Bob and Shirley Dolan’s son.’ ” Dolan said. “I’m relieved she made it because she found out there was a sale at Macy’s!”
That line got a lot of laughs — but the St. Louis native got an even more enthusiastic response when he said New Yorkers “gave a lesson of extraordinarily generous courage to the world” on Sept. 11, 2001.
He concluded by citing the New Testament story of a disguised, resurrected Jesus revealing himself to two despairing disciples on the road to Emmaus.
“My new friends of this great archdiocese, would you join your new pastor on an ‘adventure of fidelity,’ as we turn the Staten Island Expressway, Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, Broadway, the Major Deegan and the New York State Thruway into the Road of Emmaus?” Dolan asked.
Afterward, when her son — who as a boy on Sundays used to dress up as a priest conducting Mass — had walked out to Fifth Avenue to applause, Shirley Dolan said, “I feel like I’m floating.”
“God is so good.”