To the Editor:

Re “Trump’s Charity Toward None,” by Maureen Dowd (column, Oct. 20):

I sat through the “remarks” of Donald J. Trump at the 79th Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on Thursday, and like Ms. Dowd was increasingly appalled by what I heard. It was all but impossible to keep track of the fellow Americans who were criticized not for their political opinions but assaulted personally in coarse and vulgar language.

While I don’t remember all the victims, I do recall President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris (said to have the “mental faculties of a child”), Senator Chuck Schumer (with a vague sexual slur), Gov. Tim Walz (likewise), former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Democrats in general and, of course, immigrants.

One felt sympathy for Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the evening’s host, who had to listen to all this, and the frequently applauding diners who seemed not to realize that the noble tradition of a charity dinner in memory of a great American was being besmirched by being turned into a coarse and vulgar campaign speech.

Mr. Trump purported to find it “disrespectful” that Ms. Harris was not present (who would want to speak in his company?), but throughout showed no respect for the standards — and faith — of the great Al Smith.

Leo J. O’Donovan
New York
The writer, a Roman Catholic priest, is president emeritus of Georgetown University.

To the Editor:

Thanks to Maureen Dowd for expressing what many Catholics felt upon seeing Cardinal Timothy Dolan laughing jovially at Donald Trump’s cruel personal attacks as well as lies during the annual Al Smith dinner.