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Cardinal Dolan Holds Mass at Westchester County Jail

By Adrienne Sanders
Journal News
December 21, 2015

http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/philly/news&id=363145631

Cardinal Timothy Dolan's message for Westchester County jail inmates and parishioners of Pearl River's St. Margaret of Antioch was much the same on Monday.

"I love 'em. I'm with 'em all the way. I'm sorry for what they're going through, especially this time of year," he said.

The archbishop of New York shared his message for the Rockland County parishioners shortly after presiding over a Mass for roughly 150 inmates, clergy and visitors at the Westchester County jail in Valhalla.

Dolan removed St. Margaret's priest, Msgr. John O'Keefe, from his post last week pending an investigation of what he said was a "credible" 30-year-old child sex-abuse charge. O'Keefe once led Archibishop Stepinac High School in White Plains and had served at St. Margaret's since 2003.

Dolan, a charismatic and conversational speaker, brought words of hope and compassion to attendees, which included inmates, youthful offenders, visiting priests, jail chaplains and at least one busload of staffers from Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino's office.

"No one is beyond God's love," he told the attentive crowd as incense wafted through the room. He said that, since the inmates couldn't come to him, it was his duty to go to them.

A detainee holds the sacramental incense before the start of a mass lead by Timothy Cardinal Dolan at the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla on Dec. 21, 2015. (Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

He conveyed a social gospel about helping those in need, and sparked laughs from the crowd with his ending: " I love giving homilies in prisons because no one can leave early."

Astorino, a devout Catholic, followed Dolan with a deeply religious speech noting, "There is a path to redemption in Jesus."

Dolan, red-cheeked and genial, later joked that Astorino "out-preached me. We have Billy Graham here."

Inmate David Ortega, 26, who painted a colorful canvas of the annunciation that hung behind Dolan during the Mass, said that the cardinal's visit, "really meant a lot to us."

His eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan lead a mass for detainees at the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla on Dec. 21, 2015. Ricky Flores/The Journal News

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