Cardinal Visits Officer’s Family

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Cardinal Dolan visited the grieving family of Officer Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn Dec. 23 to offer his personal condolences on behalf of New York Catholics. Officer Ramos and his partner Officer Wenjian Liu were shot at point blank range in an ambush December 20 as they sat in their patrol car in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. The gunman, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, then fled the scene and subsequently took his own life in a nearby subway station.


Officer Ramos left a wife and two sons.


“What do you say? You say, we love you very much,” said Cardinal Dolan of the visit, which was arranged by Dr. A.R. Bernard of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn and included a cross-section of other New York religious leaders. “I told them I can assure you of the love and the concern and the embrace of prayer from the Catholic family of the Archdiocese of New York. But as any other priest or rabbi will tell you, once again I found myself more inspired by them than any inspiration I may have dared to think I could have offered them. They were tranquil. They were grateful. They were highly appreciative. They were the essence of hospitality.”


Cardinal Dolan said he also planned to attend the funerals of both officers. Funeral arrangements have been made for Officer Ramos, while plans for the Officer Liu depend on the timing of the arrival of relatives from China, Police Commissioner William Bratton said Monday. The Ramos Funeral will be at Christ Tabernacle Church in the Glendale section of Queens at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 27.


—Ron Lajoie