Fr Liam Power: Bishop Budde’s sermon - Pope Francis would have approved

Even though it is ‘stale’ news now, I feel I must comment on Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon delivered at the Interfaith Service of Prayer for the Nation held in Washington National Cathedral the day after the inauguration of President Trump. 

The president attended the ceremony along with First Lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who was accompanied by his wife, Usha Vance. (Bishop Budde is Episcopalian, the American branch of the Anglican Church.) 

I had listened to reports of the inauguration ceremony the day before (January 20th), and as a Christian, I was deeply disturbed by the inaugural address of President Trump and the subsequent signing off of executive orders, which in so many ways contradicted the Gospel values. 

This is despite the fact that the president claimed that he was saved by God to make America great again. (I presume he was referring to the Christian God.) He was referring to the assassination attempt on him during the election campaign.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York had opened the inauguration ceremony by presiding over the invocation. The Cardinal did emphasise the supremacy of God (“The United States must remember that God is supreme.”) 

I thought that he compromised the Christian message by his failure to make any reference to the proposed policies that would bring so much suffering. Blessing the new regime communicated a message of total approval. 

The Cardinal had commented previously in an interview on Fox News that “Donald Trump takes his Christian faith seriously”. 

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states clearly that the Church’s social teaching has the task of proclamation but also of denunciation - the proclamation of the Gospel message of hope and freedom for all people but to denounce every form of sin and injustice, and violence wherever it is found. That takes enormous courage, and in the current circumstances of a Trumpian administration, it risks severe recriminations.

So when my sister rang me and told me to listen to Bishop Budde’s sermon, I was really encouraged. 

The bishop pleaded for mercy, “for the people in our country who are scared right now, particularly LGBT people and immigrants… the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants, and work the night shifts in hospitals." 

These are people “whose children fear their parents will be taken away”. 

With great courage she issued a direct challenge to his plans to deport millions, to cancel appointments for asylum seekers at the border and to end birthright citizenship.

As one would expect, recriminations followed thick and fast from the White House. 

“She is not a real bishop… just a radical left hard-line Trump hater...” 

“She was nasty in tone and not compelling or smart… She brought the Church into the world of politics in a very ungracious way..." 

"...She and her Church owe the public an apology.” 

It was heartwarming to see the response from a member of the Episcopal Church. President Trump was reminded that he had no issue with politics being brought into the Church by his own claims and also by many of the ministers who spoke at his inauguration. The Episcopal Church was adamant that the bishop does not owe Mr. Trump an apology. I fully support that stance.

As I said above the Church has a moral duty to denounce oppression and abuse of human rights. Indeed, the church has been condemned in the past for not speaking out against totalitarianism. 

For example, Pope Pius XII has been criticised for not speaking out against the Holocaust during the Second World War. His predecessor, Pope Pius XI, issued an encyclical, entitled “With Deep Anxiety”, which to my mind remains one of the most inspiring acts of Christian defiance to an authoritarian regime. 

Pius, appalled by the Third Reich’s racialist ideology, ordered the encyclical to be read from the pulpit in every church in Germany. 

On Palm Sunday in 1937, the priests read out the Pope’s message, which was in effect an official denunciation of Hitler’s ideology. 

The Fuhrer immediately ordered the arrest and deportation of hundreds of Catholic clergy to concentration camps.

Pope Francis has on many occasions spoken out against oppressive regimes. Interestingly, he has appointed Cardinal McElroy to head up the Washington Archdiocese. 

Coinciding as it does with Trump’s return to the White House, I think it is a fascinating appointment. McElroy is on record on cautioning President Trump about mass deportations and has repeatedly declared it to be incompatible with Christian doctrine.

It is very clear that Pope Francis is totally opposed to Trump’s irresponsible agenda and I have no doubt would fully support Bishop Budde.