Gareth O'Callaghan: Catholics and Republicans slowly becoming joined at the hip

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump talks with Cardinal Timothy Dolan at the 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York. Picture: AP

Every picture loves a caption, a voice to describe its drift, which in turn brings it to life. “Scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours” was that voice in the photograph of the cardinal and the president recently; the former, whom many see as the next pope, the latter, the next president of America. Two of the most powerful men in the modern world. More on that in a moment.

The historic Al Smith black tie dinner is an event held annually at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to raise funds for Catholic children’s charities in the New York Archdiocese. It is named in honour of a man who grew up in a poor family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in what was then an immigrant working-class neighbourhood.