White House Defends Trump After Bishops Apologize for Prayer
The Facts
- The White House defended President Donald Trump on Monday after Milwaukee, Wisc., Archbishop Jeffrey Grob apologized for an Oval Office prayer, with spokeswoman Taylor Rogers saying "there has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans."
- Grob said in a Sunday statement titled "A Public Apology" that the Oct. 22 meeting he and 11 other bishops attended was publicized by the administration without consent and was "in no way an endorsement of the president, his policies, or his party."
- After about 90 minutes with White House staff, the bishops entered the Oval Office, where Trump gave them commemorative tokens, and they were directed to stand behind him and pray, Grob said, adding that a video was recorded without their knowledge.
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The Spin
Left narrative
Sacred prayer has no business being turned into campaign footage, and while these bishops likely weren't attempting to make a political statement, anyone who hands a president that kind of image days before a national election risks the moral authority of the whole church. An apology from one archbishop is the bare minimum, and the other eleven owe the faithful the same honesty. Catholic teaching calls for resistance to cruelty.
Right narrative
Praying for everyone, including and especially the leader of the free world, is exactly what priests and pastors are supposed to do, and the church has been witnessing to those in power since the time of Caesar. Selective outrage would never erupt over a prayer for Obama or Biden, which shows this fury is partisan, not spiritual. Apologizing for a routine Oval Office photo op only teaches that faith bends to political pressure.
