Transcript: Mayor de Blasio and Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, Hold Press Availability

January 13, 2014

Cardinal Timothy Dolan: Glad you’re here. There haven’t been this many press here since the Pope resigned last February – and you’re very welcome, though – I’m glad you’re here. And especially welcome is Mayor de Blasio. I expressed to him my deep appreciation for the courtesy of his visit. And now that appreciation is even deeper because we had about 45 minutes to talk about topics of mutual concern – and they are many. And I come inspired about his commitment to a lot of the causes that we’re passionate about, and I come excited about working closely with him – the whole Catholic family of the Archdiocese of New York, and myself personally. My predecessors have enjoyed a great working relationship with his predecessors, and we want that history to continue. My only beef is that he ate all the cookies, [inaudible]. I had some Italian cookies [inaudible].

Mayor Bill de Blasio: The truth has come out.

Cardinal Dolan: [inaudible]. So – but mayor, thanks. And you’ve got to promise me this will be but the first of many visits, all right?

Mayor: It will indeed. I just want to say I’m so honored by this meeting with his Eminence and we have tremendous common ground on issues like affordable housing, helping those in need through Catholic charities, and so many other good works that are done by the church. We share common ground on the fundamental issue of fighting inequality and trying to help those in need. And I think this is going to be a tremendous working relationship – and I have to say also, we have a common passion and a common wish, and we hope that someday Pope Francis will visit our city, which would be an extraordinary blessing for the people of New York City.

Cardinal Dolan: Speriamo

Mayor: Speriamo.

[Cardinal Dolan speaks in Italian]

Cardinal Dolan: We both were able to speak in Italian, so this will be a good way to get around the press. 

[Mayor de Blasio speaks in Italian]

[Cardinal Dolan speaks in Italian]

Cardinal Dolan: Wouldn’t that be great, if Pope Francis could come?

Mayor: If we only speak in Italian – oh, if the Pope would come it would be extraordinary.

Cardinal Dolan: Wouldn’t that be great? He stays here and out at Gracie.

Mayor: I think that’s fair. I think that’s fair – you get the first call.

Cardinal Dolan: [inaudible]

Mayor: It would be extraordinary for our city, so we’ll work together for that goal.

Cardinal Dolan: You’re on.

Mayor: Excellent.

Cardinal Dolan: What other stops you got today?

Mayor: Oh, it’s always – always busy – moving all around.

Cardinal Dolan: All right – well, I hope this was one of the more pleasant ones. 

Mayor: This is definitely one of the more pleasant ones.

Cardinal Dolan: Good. Good. All right, anything we can help you with?

Phil Walzak: Just a couple of questions.

Question: [inaudible] in particular for the Cardinal. You had sort of expressed [inaudible] said that you might be interested in bringing the mayor back into the Catholic fold a little bit. I’m wondering if, you know, you had any luck with that? Is that something you talked about, or – ?

Cardinal Dolan: Well, listen, if the mayor ever wanted to talk to me about his faith and religion, I’m a pastor first, but today we talked about more just the common visions. He was extraordinarily gracious in telling me about the deep Catholic roots of his own Italian family and about how he really feels that a lot of Catholic values and a Catholic worldview have pervaded a lot of his thinking, but we didn’t get into the specifics of his faith. If he ever wants to, the door’s open. All right?

Mayor: Thank you very much.

Question: I’m curious, Cardinal, if you spoke at all about the Midtown East rezoning. I know that you had been in support of it. It’s now –

Cardinal Dolan: Thank you for bringing that up. As a matter of fact, I did. I mentioned to the mayor that that’s one thing I would look forward to working with him on and would appreciate his interest in.

Mayor: That’s right. We – we are focused on putting together a new proposal – one that recognizes the real infrastructure challenges of this area and one that makes sure that the public gets the value that the public deserves, but we think that can be done, and we think that can be done speedily, and we look forward to working very closely with his Eminence and with the Archdiocese in that work.

Cardinal Dolan: Please–

Question: The Catholic League has been quite critical of the new mayor. They put out a couple of statements at first criticizing the number of Catholics who were on his inauguration – or his Transition Team, and then later being frustrated that he was caring about horses and not babies in one of their statements. I mean, what do you tell Catholics who are not happy with the choice that – ?

Cardinal Dolan: Well, I’m sure he’s not surprised that there are some Catholics, as there are some Protestants and some Jews and some Muslims that aren’t happy with everything you stand for, right? By the way, there are some that aren’t happy with the things I stand for either, so I have immense regard for the Catholic League and I take them very seriously. The incident that you mentioned, by the way, the mayor just mentioned again – the important thing was that he corrected that as soon as it was brought to his attention, and I’m glad that Monsignor Sullivan is working closely with him on the transition.

Mayor: Absolutely. Thank you.

Phil Walzak: Last question, guys.

Mayor: One more over here – yes.

Cardinal Dolan: Rich! You know Rich.

Mayor: Yes, Rich is hiding in the back.

Cardinal Dolan: [inaudible] – I always say he’s the Helen Thomas of the New York press corps.

[Laughter]         

Cardinal Dolan: [inaudible]

Question: Thanks so much. I appreciate it. So –

Mayor: His Eminence has a way with words.

[Laughter]

Question: So,  just wondering if – whether the two of you would collaborate on, say, a formal invitation to the Holy Father to come visit New York?

Mayor: We’re going to work closely together on that and many other things.

Cardinal Dolan: Mhm.

Mayor: Obviously, we – we don’t underestimate the challenges his Holiness faces in trying to pastor to an entire world, but it would be a joy to work together on that. But as we said today, we’re going to be working together on social services, we’re going to be working together on affordable housing – this is going to be a very deep and constant relationship.

Cardinal Dolan: You got it.

Mayor: Thank you, everyone.

Cardinal Dolan: Thanks, guys.

Mayor: Thank you very much.

Cardinal Dolan: Thanks for coming. We’ve got cookies here for you too, so, with the few that he left –

Mayor: Now they’re going to expect cookies from me every time.

[Laughter]

[…]

Mayor: I just wanted to say that I’m really appreciative of the opportunity to spend the time I did with his Eminence, and it was a very energizing meeting. We have so much common ground, so much we want to work on together. And like so many people all over the world, I have been inspired by Pope Francis’ message. I think he’s the most powerful voice on this earth on how we have to address inequality all over the world and on the dangers of letting inequality grow. And it’s my fervent hope that at some point, working closely with the Cardinal, we’ll have the opportunity to bring Pope Francis to New York City. I know so many people in the city, in the tri-state area would be deeply moved by a visit, and so we’ll keep working together for that goal.

With that, we welcome questions. Rafael–

Question: Mr. Mayor, do you belong to any organized religion?

Mayor: No, I don’t.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: A fantastic meeting – again, I think it was about 45 minutes. A lot of common ground – we talked a lot about affordable housing, we talked a lot about Catholic charities and the work it does on behalf of children, on behalf of people in need, we talked about the need to help prisoners returning to society – a whole host of areas where we have common ground and where we can work together – and the fact that we want to have a very close working relationship. We think it’s crucial for the people we represent to have a personal bond and a close working relationship – and obviously, our mutual enthusiasm for the notion of the Pope coming to visit the city at some point.

Yes–

Question: Mr. Mayor, you campaigned on, you know, Vision Zero, wanting to bring pedestrian deaths down to zero. There has already been [inaudible] seven pedestrian deaths [inaudible]. I’m just wondering [inaudible]?

Mayor: We’re going to a lot on this and we take it very seriously. These deaths in the last few days were very troubling. As a parent, I was particularly affected by the loss of the young man. And there’s so much we can do – the vision we’ve put forward includes in some parts of the city reducing speed limits, includes speed cameras at sensitive locations, it includes a lot more enforcement and changing the way the NYPD focuses on traffic issues – and it’s something Commissioner Bratton has spoken about passionately. So I look forward to working with Commissioner Bratton, with our new DOT Commissioner Trottenberg to really focus on reducing these horrible accidents and protecting our people.

Back there – yeah –

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Oh, we’ve been – you know, throughout my public life, I’ve been meeting with religious leaders of all different backgrounds, and we’re going to continue that. This was a particularly important meeting given what a powerful voice in our city the Cardinal is, but we’ll continue to meet with leaders of all backgrounds.

Yes–

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Deputy Chancellor.

Question: Oh, deputy chancellor – I’m wondering what they reported back and whether you were able to confirm any of the lack of resources [inaudible]?

Mayor: I spoke with Chancellor Fariña last night about this issue and couldn’t agree more with her plan to have sent the deputy chancellor out this morning. When I left City Hall, they were still out there doing a full review of the situation at the school – both the operations of the school and of the situation with the additional school building that had not come back online since Sandy – and that troubles me deeply, particularly because that building was devoted to the younger grades. So, I expect to get a report by the end of the afternoon, and then we’ll decide how to proceed. Look, the allegations in the paper were deeply troubling, and we are not going to see our children not get the finest education. Every school has to provide the best possible education, so we’re going to take this investigation very seriously, and then make decisions based on that – again, not just about the operations of the school, but also about the annex building, because we want to get that back on line right away.

Yes–

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Well, I think we’re going to be able to do a lot with the police. As I said a few months ago for the first time, we are going to be aggressive in reaching out to the organizations and making very clear that illegal activity will not be tolerated and there’ll be very serious consequences. So I think we can get that message across and I think we can have very consistent and aggressive enforcement, and I think that will make a huge difference.

Wait – let me get someone else who hasn’t gone – yes, who hasn’t gone – right there.

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: Look, the death of Myls Dobson is profoundly troubling, and a lot of you know that I spent eight years as the chairperson of the committee that did oversight of the Administration for Children’s Services, and then as public advocate I continued that focus. To me, this was a tragedy, and the more I learn about it, the angrier I get, because of the callousness of the alleged assailant and the horror that this young boy went through. And we – I am very anxiously looking forward to the results of our investigation at the end of the week, and then we’ll decide what actions to take. One thing that I’m concerned about right now – and I do want to address the public advocate’s point – I – I want to make sure all New Yorkers know how important it is to report anything they see that might be a case of child abuse – but we don’t have all the facts here. But in many cases, most horribly the case of Nixzmary Brown, many people saw something, many people heard something and they hesitated to call to our hotline and make that information available. And we need every New Yorker to feel it’s their responsibility – if a child might be in danger, do not hesitate, don’t second guess – just pick up the phone and report it, because we have to make sure our kids are safe. As to the specific point raised by the public advocate, I’m still waiting for the facts of this case. I believe that the birth father was arrested in New Jersey and that was part of the problem of the information flow. I think the public advocate is raising the point about what happens if someone’s arrested in New York City – does the information flow appropriately to the Administration for Children’s Services? I need to as part of our investigation understand that better, but if there is a gap and it will require legal action or legislative action, I would certainly encourage that, but we’ll know more in the next few days.

Grace–

Question: [inaudible]

Mayor: This is something I’ve spoken about for the last year. It is a problem, and I think the Department of Justice was right. We’ve had clearly too many children of color treated differently in the disciplinary process. We’ve had children sent to the emergency room not because there was any physical harm, but because certain school officials decided that it was better to get the child out of the school at that moment rather than deal with the problem, and I find that unacceptable – and I’ve been part of a legal action to address that issue. So, we’re going to be making a number of changes. I’m going to sit down with Chancellor Fariña and talk about the kind of reforms we have to make, but they will be consistent with some of the ideas you saw in the Department of Justice report.

Emily–

Question: [inaudible] ask you about the forthcoming Superbowl, what it means for the city and the fact that the Patriots are [inaudible]?

Mayor: Well, we’ll see next Sunday what it means for them, but they have a – they have a very tough road ahead. But for the city, it’s usually important. I mean, this is – you know, I want to commend the NFL because they broke with the history and decided to go to a major city that happened to be in the north, and play at an outdoor stadium. And I’m a – I’m a long-time football fan, and I think this is exactly the right thing for the NFL to have done, and I commend them. It’s going to have a fantastic impact on our local economy. It’s going to be great for New York City, but it’s also wonderful that, you know, this commitment was made to the city and to the tri-state area. We’re working very closely with the NFL and with our partners in New Jersey to make sure that everything goes smoothly. And the reports that I’ve received have been absolutely sterling – I think everything’s going beautifully – but I can tell you it’s going to be an extraordinary moment for New York City and one I hope we can repeat in the future.

Thank you, everyone.