ASH WEDNESDAY: Cardinal Dolan extols altar boy Chris Sweeney after Ash Wednesday services at St. Patrick's in New York. (New York Post)
A young Staten Island boy came to St. Patrick’s Cathedral yesterday hoping to catch a glimpse of Cardinal Timothy Dolan and to pray for his father, who is battling cancer.
But he got much more — a ray of hope delivered personally by New York’s newest prince of the Catholic Church.
"I said a prayer for my father with Cardinal Dolan," a beaming Chris Sweeney told The Post.
"He said to keep praying for him, stay strong, keep him in mind, and keep him comfortable."
The 10-year-old and his mom, Lisa, had decided to visit St. Pat’s on Ash Wednesday to watch Dolan celebrate his first Mass as a cardinal. They had just dropped off his dad, Rocky, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering for a chemotherapy treatment.
Chris asked some priests which door Dolan would come through, and soon was telling them about his father.
One of the priests asked Chris, who regularly serves as an altar boy in his home church, Holy Family on Staten Island, to do the same at St. Patrick’s.
Dolan urged the brave little boy to keep the faith. Then he took the family’s phone number and promised to call his dad and pray with him.
Chris described his meeting with the cardinal as “unexpected” and “exciting,” not to mention, "a very cool experience."
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
