June 2, 2014
Eight U.S. Catholic cardinals and 750 guests gathered in New York City on Friday, May 30, for the 25th American Cardinals Dinner, held at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Approximately $2.1 million was raised at the dinner, surpassing the previous record of $2 million that was raised at the 12th annual dinner held in in New York City in 2001.
The American Cardinals Dinner is a fundraising event for scholarships for The Catholic University of America.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, and John Garvey, President of Catholic University, served as co-hosts for the dinner.
Prior to the dinner, Cardinal Dolan was the principal celebrant and homilist at a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Visiting cardinals, bishops, and clergy concelebrated the Mass.
Five cardinals who currently serve as archbishops of U.S. dioceses and as members of the CUA Board of Trustees were at the dinner: Cardinal Dolan; Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston; Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., Archbishop of Chicago; Cardinal Seán O'Malley, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Boston; and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington.
They were joined by Cardinal Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York; Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington; and Cardinal Justin Rigali, Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, and Most. Rev. Allen Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, were also among the honored guests. To read the biographies of these individuals, click here .
Most Rev. Robert Carlson, Archbishop of St. Louis, announced Friday night that next year's American Cardinals Dinner will be held April 24 in his archdiocese.
Each year a different diocese or archdiocese hosts the black-tie event; this was the third time the dinner was held in New York City (the second dinner was in 1991). In recent years the dinner has been held in such cities as Phoenix, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Before Friday's dinner, the annual event had raised more than $29.5 million to support scholarships for Catholic University students.