Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Rev. A.R. Bernard to serve as NYPD co-chaplains: officials

Newly retired Cardinal Timothy Dolan is set to serve as one of the NYPD’s top religious leaders, alongside Brooklyn-based megachurch founder, Rev. A.R. Bernard, the department announced Monday. 

Dolan, 76, and Bernard, 72, who founded the Christian Cultural Center, will be officially installed as co-chaplains of the country’s largest police department this month, according to NYPD officials. 

Their appointments come after Rabbi Alvin Kass – who served New York’s Finest for nearly 60 years – died in October.

“As I was thinking about who should fill this role, one Hebrew word kept coming to mind — ‘Tzadik,’ a person of righteousness,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. “Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Reverend A.R. Bernard are two of the most righteous people this City has ever known.

“They are two men of incredible faith whose life and leadership embody the moral clarity, compassion, and wisdom our officers rely on in their hardest moments.”

The announcement also comes just days after Dolan – who served the archdiocese for nearly 17 years – handed over the reins to Archbishop Ronald Hicks, 58, in a ceremony at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

Dolan, who was born in Missouri and considers himself an adopted New Yorker, confirmed last week that he planned to stay in the Big Apple following his retirement.

An avid backer of New York’s Finest, he voiced his admiration in a July 2020 opinion piece for The Post, where he urged the public to refrain from condemning all cops as protests raged over the police-involved killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. 

“Our valiant police officers have one of the most perilous, stressful duties around, and from what I have seen in my nearly dozen years here, they do it with care, compassion and competence,” Dolan wrote at the time. “Now we have added to their load with continual, at times exaggerated, rash and inaccurate criticism, combined with rocks, Molotov cocktails and taunts.” 

Dolan was ordained to the priesthood in 1976, was appointed to the Council of Cardinals in 2012 and notably participated in the conclaves that gathered in the Vatican to elect both Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV, according to his online bio.

His new assignment will give him the opportunity to return to his roots of serving as “a good parish priest” and counseling police officers, he told The New York Times, calling the position “a great way for me to kind of come to the final innings of my own priestly life.”

Bernard leads the Christian Cultural Center, which sits on an 11.5-acre campus in Starrett City, and his ministry has since expanded to Long Island, Florida and Georgia – growing to more than 37,000 members, according to its website. 

A prominent figure in the black Christian community, Bernard received a Distinguished Recognition Award in November from the NYPD Guardians Association, a fraternal group for African American officers. 

“The inscription on the plaque reminded me of the responsibility we all share to lead with integrity and to serve our communities with compassion,” he posted on Facebook at the time. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue serving alongside leaders like Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Guardians President Patrick Gordon.

“Service is a privilege—and community is always worth the work.”

In 2020, he pushed back against the “defund the police message” in a livestream with then-NYPD first deputy commissioner, Benjamin B. Tucker.

“I think police officers put their lives on the line every day,” Bernard said. “Their families pray for them to come home every day. That’s a big job and that’s a big responsibility.

“I believe because they are professionals, because we entrust them … they should also be paid more money and held to a higher standard.”

NYPD chaplains provide confidential counseling, spiritual assistance and moral guidance as well as respond directly to “serious incidents” involving department members. 

“For decades, [Dolan and Bernard] have helped shape the spiritual life of this city through leadership that reaches far beyond their pulpits,” Tisch said. “Their decision to serve the NYPD speaks to something enduring between faith and policing, and to the place the Chief Chaplain role has long held in the lives of the men and women who wear the shield.”