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Photography courtesy of St. Martin’s Press
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Photography courtesy of the New York Daily News/Debbie Egan-Chin
Cardinal Timothy Dolan talks to reporters in Rome in 2012, on the day he was elevated to cardinal by Pope Benedict.
Two red hats sit on a table near the front door of Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s residence in New York, where he serves as archbishop. One represents his position within the church; the other, his favorite baseball team. Last year, Dolan, known for his boisterous personality, was considered a dark-horse candidate to become pope. In her new biography, An American Cardinal, Christina Boyle tells the story of how a St. Louis kid “grew up to become one of the most prominent Catholics in the world.”
• Tim was baptized at Immaculate Conception in Maplewood, the same church where his parents, Bob and Shirley, were married. When Tim was 4, the family moved to a snug one-story home at the end of a cul-de-sac in Ballwin. The kids would play ball in the street or pack lunches for a day at nearby Castlewood State Park.
• To make extra money, Bob worked as a bartender on the weekends. Once, after serving a beer to a black man, he overheard two white regulars saying, “There was a great day when that man would not have been welcome here. And the reason our country is changing is because of those goddamn knee-bending Catholics.” Bob went over to the men and said, “Fellas, I happen to be one of those goddamn knee-bending Catholics, and I’m very proud… His business is highly appreciated here. Yours isn’t. Get out.”
• Tim attended Holy Infant School, which was run by nuns whom the parish had flown in from Ireland. He earned good grades, and in eight years, he was marked late just once. Still, he occasionally drew the sisters’ wrath. One time, his entire class was fooling around during Mass. A sister asked who had been talking. Only one girl confessed. She was excused for recess, while everyone else lined up “to receive the ruler.”
• Sometimes, Tim was picked on, because he read prayer books on the playground. Once, another boy slugged him and a fight ensued. “It was probably the only time that I beat somebody and then I felt bad afterwards,” the bully recalled. “Because it was like you beat up a holy man or a saint.”
• In second grade, as a school project, one of the nuns, apparently unfamiliar with American customs, told the students to ask their parents about the saint they were named after. The next day, Tim relayed what his mother had said: “You were named after your grandfather, and let me tell you, he was no saint!”
• Tim decided he wanted to be a priest at age 3, and at 14, he enrolled at St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South, to begin the 12-year process of ordination. When he wasn’t in church, Tim was usually thinking about Cardinals baseball. To this day, he describes witnessing Stan Musial’s 3,000th hit as a “defining moment.” In his living room, there’s a ball signed by Stan the Man. The inscription says, “one Cardinal to another.”
