 President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Please. I have to catch the shuttle. May it please your Excellency Archbishop O'Connor, members of the Reverend clergy, Governor Cuomo, Senators Monaghan and Monaghan and D'Amato, Mayor Koch, Mr. Toastmaster, Sonny Werblin, and distinguished friends. I thank you for that welcome. I must say, I have traveled the Banquet Circuit for many years. I've never quite understood the logistics of dinners like this and how the absence of one individual could cause three of us to not have seats. That's enough of that. I'm... I'm grateful for your invitation and honor to be here. And I can't help but feel that four great Americans are with us here in spirit tonight. Al Smith, of course, the happy warrior, whom time and respect... time and respect and affectionate memory have elevated beyond partisanship. The beloved Francis Cardinal Spellman, whose remarkable... whose remarkable works of charity so notably include his establishment of this Al Smith dinner 38 years ago. The great Jewish philanthropist, Charles Silver. He was enlisted by Cardinal Spellman as chairman of these dinners and raised millions for hospitals serving all faiths. And finally, Terence Cardinal Cook, that gentle soul whom I, for one, shall never forget. All of them are gone now, gone to God. Cardinal Cook and Charles Silver within a year's passing, as you've been told. And all of them personify the great commandment to love our fellow man. Here we are, then, at the height of a season marked by differences of opinion. And yet all this striving and all these contesting issues fade to insignificance in the clear light of example that these four men set for us, each one in his own unique way. Al Smith and his lifelong struggles for the working man and woman. Cardinal Spellman is a prince and builder of the church. Charles Silver is a friend and colleague in ecumenical service to humanity. And Cardinal Cook, whom I knew best in circumstances of dire spiritual need. Nothing could have meant more to me and to Nancy than Cardinal Cook's visit with us at the White House while I was recovering from young Mr. Hinckley's unwelcome attentions. His eminence offered prayers and encouragement that maintained us in a time of genuine personal need. A need far more serious, I know now than we almost anyone at the time realized. And so it was only natural that Nancy and I should have been so profoundly grief-stricken upon learning in August of last year that the Cardinal was dying. Together we telephoned our dear friend in New York to tell him of our heartfelt prayers for him and to thank him once again for all he had done to comfort and reassure us in our hour of need. Our prayerful concern now, I assured him, was shared by millions of other Americans grateful for all that he had done on behalf of his country. His letter of September 15 which followed our call said our prayers, good wishes, and loving concern quote, are a source of great comfort to me, but then he wrote I want you to know that I'm offering my prayers and my suffering for the gift of God's peace among all the members of our family. Nancy and I will always be grateful that we were able to visit him in New York and as it turned out only days before his death. We were told when we arrived that he had been in great pain for the previous 48 hours so much so that they feared he wouldn't be able to receive us. But when we arrived he was so much like his old self it was hard to believe that he was desperately ill. He was doing a little lobbying on behalf of a cause that concerned him. As a nation known for its compassion he said, the United States has accomplished so much through the years in advancing the cause of international justice and peace through its programs of economic assistance to the less fortunate peoples of the world. And then he acknowledged the appropriation that I had approved for help to sub-Saharan African nations. He also talked of my problems and he said when I join the Lord I'll continue to pray for you. He paused and then with something of a an abashed or self-deprecatory smile very simply he added maybe I'm being a little presumptuous in assuming I'll be with the Lord. Well 11 days later he left us and none of us have any doubt that he joined the Lord. I've presumed to share this personal experience with you tonight because it says so much about our gentle friend Terence Cook. It says much also about Al Smith and Cardinal Spellman and Charlie Silver for linked in charity, linked in service linked in humanity. They are linked by this occasion. I think it should make us proud to have known these great Americans and their works of love for their fellow man. I think it should make us just a little bit prouder than ever to be Americans. Archbishop O'Connor I know that you're profoundly aware of the great tradition in which you now pursue God's work and in this you have my every good wish and I know those also of a grateful nation and if you wouldn't think that I was invading your field could I just say in addition to a heartfelt thank you to all of you God bless you. We are very grateful to you Mr. President I hate to disillusion you or disenchant this warm reception you receive but the story that Cardinal Cook told me was a little bit different from the way you presented it. He had no doubt that he would be with the Lord it was you that he was worried about. I'm not sure that all of you are aware and I say this very seriously that I'm told at least by the management of the Waldorf that this is not simply the largest crowd this and the two overflowed crowds in the other two rooms that the eminence visited that this is not only the largest crowd in the history of the Al Smith dinner it is the largest crowd for a private party in the history of the Waldorf Astoria. There are of course obvious reasons for that that we had certainly the distinguished guests that we had invited attracted the overwhelming number of you here but the work of the board of the Al Smith Foundation which was prodigious indeed the efforts of men like Mr. Sonny Werblin to whom we're so grateful all of the members of the board but most particularly an individual who could easily get lost in the shuffle tonight because his work was done so to speak as the dinner began but the hours that he has put in have been absolutely prodigious and that's our own Father Bob Robbins you would never guess this is my first dinner and you would never guess it was his next year we'll have seats up at this head table again I hate to disillusion you Mr. President you were talking earlier about how warmed your heart was by the great number of people who lined the streets as you drove in I was one of those people I waited two hours to cross the street the cops wouldn't the cops wouldn't let us and if you think you're going to get any votes that way in New York this is a funny feeling for me tonight you know there are undoubtedly people here who remember when when it was in some way beneficial for a president to sit beside the Archbishop of New York but it was also beneficial for in days past for an Archbishop to sit beside the president it has been a delight for me to be up here I will never fill Cardinal Cook's shoes or Cardinal Spelman's but even to be given the opportunity to follow in their path is a rare privilege indeed and to be seated up here at this table with all of you magnificent people and the president and the president and Mrs. Reagan is indeed a joy just a word not to take away the levity or the good humor of the evening but we are here for a particular purpose the president came for this purpose you sacrificed and contributed most generously for this purpose so I think that it should at least be noted the Al Smith dinner is very understandably talked about now and I think has been talked about in recent years as a significant or indeed even a major political event despite all appearances perhaps to the contrary that is certainly not the purpose of the dinner you know Cardinal Cushing of Boston used to say something tremendously meaningful and very poignant if you'll forgive me for but a moment for the seriousness of what I have about to say I think it's worth it he used to say the greatest tragedy in the world is the tragedy of wasted pain and there were two meanings in that simple little phrase one he meant of course that we all suffer we suffer illnesses emotional disorders debilitating pains, diseases cancer some are bit ridden some suffer poverty some have a great deal of loneliness, rejection in their lives, some have tremendous disappointment, political and otherwise we wanted to make the point that since we must suffer pain anyway through some mysterious fashion that we don't begin to understand if we offer that pain to Almighty God he could use it in marvelous ways far beyond our understanding and also it makes us so much more compassionate to others if we don't waste the pain if we use it to become what we could become but there was a second meaning a tremendous amount of pain is wasted because it's needless there are people in hospitals there are people debilitated there are deformed children there are the retarded who don't learn there are those who never grow there is pain in other word that is not eased for individuals and families because the needs are so great and the help comparatively is so little and that kind of wasted pain is a tragedy indeed the kind of pain that need not be this is why I feel so tremendously grateful to you and to all who support this Al Smith dinner as you know these funds go not to specific activities of the Archdiocese of New York but rather ecumenically and on an interfaith basis to the charities supported by the Archdiocese of New York and those of other religious persuasions and most particularly to our hospitals and a tremendous number of people therefore because of the funds that are generated by your being here tonight a tremendous number of people will have deep deep pain at least modestly alleviated so that you've contributed not merely to the joy of a pleasant evening and certainly not to the advancement of a political cause but to the alleviation of the tragedy of wasted pain I'm sure that this is what Charlie Silver and Cardinal Cook had in mind when they initiated the Al Smith dinner as one feebly, humbly attempting to follow in their footsteps I am deeply grateful to you for making their dream come possible you are so good you are so generous God loves you so very very much thank you and God bless you thank you your excellency thank you Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan this very nice dinner meeting is now concluded I should ask you all please to stand in your places while the President and Mrs. Reagan depart thank you very much