Why Are U.S. Bishops Apologizing for Praying Over Trump?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome to Crisis Point. I'm Eric Sammons, your host and editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Okay, so before we get started, you know what I like to do? I like to ask you, please hit that subscribe button like the ch, like the channel, like the episode, whatever it is you do. Smash the like button, hit the subscribe button. Helps the almighty algorithm know to share us with other people. So I really appreciate if you do that. Also, before I get there, I just want to let you know my, my upcoming book, the Catholic Guide to Artificial Intelligence, Preserving the Distinction Between Man Machine, is coming out very soon in just a few weeks. The official publication day is November 17, 2026, but I suspect it's going to be released before then. So I have a link in the show notes for how you can pre order that and get a signed copy from me as soon as it comes out. Okay. I'm not going to be talking about artificial intelligence in this podcast. I'm going to be talking about all our dear U.S. catholic bishops. And the most recent controversy is that 12 U.S. bishops decide to pray over the President United States in the office at the desk alongside prosperity gospel evangelists, White cane. And happened the election. And so this was huge and five counting. And I think also two non attending bishops have apologized, have said, oh my gosh, I'm sorry, they're distancing themselves from it. They're blaming Trump, the Trump administration, they're acting like scared little pansies, to be honest. And so I want to dig into this, dig into what happened. But also I want to talk about like, you know, I'm not saying the Trump administration is blameless here, but I'm also pointing the finger mostly at the Catholic bishops and how they handle politics in general. This is just a microcosm. This event is just a microcosm for how frankly our Catholic bishops here in America handle politics. First, let me go ahead and pull up the video of what happened. It's a very short video. The sound on, it's not very good. [00:02:13] Speaker A: It's. [00:02:13] Speaker B: And so if you're just listening, you know, you can't really tell what's going on very much. But if you're watching, you'll see what happens. So here we go. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Thank you for the gift of our beautiful nation. Thank you for the gift of our government. Thank you for the gift of this office of presidency today. Ask your blessing upon him. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your son Jesus. He's right here with us. He redeems us, saves us, gives us a minute, mercy Guidance. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit now to surround our country to protect us against any influence of evil. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Okay, so like I said, you might not be heard. That was a bishop praying. The bishop actually of Denver, Archbishop of Denver praying over him. If you note from the video, you can see that a number of the bishops have their hand, are laying their hands on President Trump. And the woman, the blonde haired woman right next to Trump, right on his left hand side with her hands on, that's Paula White Kane. I just know her as Paula White, but I guess she got married yet again for like the third time. And she is the head of the White House faith office. And there's been some dispute over this, but it sounds like that's the office that planned this event. And so like I said, there was immediate backlash to this. This happened on October 22nd and progressive Catholics went crazy, the secular media went crazy, and an anonymous Vatican official erupted over the pre election optics of it. By Tuesday, by this morning, October 27th. So five days later, five of the 12 bishops plus a six via EWTN and two non attending bishops have issued public apologies or regrets or clarifications that distance themselves from any political endorsement. They, they were, they claimed that they were assured that no photos would be made public. And so what we're going to talk about today then is kind of what happened, but also like what the problem is, why I'm kind of disillusioned with Trump and the gop. I'm not going to get into that a whole bunch, but more like why I think the bishops kind of walked into this. And they, they show a lot of naivety in thinking that there wouldn't be photos taken. But also why the bishops have such a double standard when it comes to Republicans versus Democrats. I think people who watch this podcast regularly know I'm not a fan of the Republicans. I'm not a fan of Donald Trump. I voted for him, but I'm not, I don't consider myself a Republican. But I mean, just, it's very clear to anybody who has any sense that the bishops often favor the Democrats and they treat Democrat politicians much differently than, than they do Republican politicians, especially Donald Trump. Okay, so the 12 bishops who attended were, I mean, the main ones were Archbishop James Gulka, who's the Archbishop of Denver. He was the one, I believe who was saying the prayer at this event. Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann of Kansas City. Some other bishops were the Bishop of Dallas, Oakland Des Moines, Rapid City, Birmingham, Baker, Gallup, the Chaldean Eparchy of, of Detroit and the Maronite Eparchy of Los Angeles, St. Louis. And so there was some dispute like over who organized this. So basically as 12 bishops came and they met with members of the administration, then they had this prayer slash photo op or whatever with the president in the Oval Office. It was not a USCCB event. The USCC spokeswoman said it was not something USCCB organized. It was not affiliated with the conference. They want to make very clear it's not affiliated with usccb. Now, the pillar reported that Mario Ensler, who works at the Heritage foundation, that he recruited the bishops and that several actually declined to attend based on it being the pre, the midterm, pre election timing of it. But Archbishop Grob claimed wrote that it was the second of two such gatherings arranged by the Heritage Foundation. The first was back in June. Bishop Bullock confirmed a Heritage employee invited him. Heritage denied, though, organizing it. And Ensler and faith director Jenny Corn said the White House Faith Office, led by Paula White Cane organized it. So there's some dispute. It's almost like nobody wants to take credit for this. And because it ended up being kind of a black eye or it kind of ended up being not something they wanted to promote. So the Heritage Foundations and no, we had nothing to do with it. And kind of the faith office, we know Paula White King was there, so perhaps it was the White House faith office. Now, the key is what was this meeting? Essentially, what happened was for 90 minutes, there was a private discussion between the bishops and members of the, the Trump administration in the Executive Office Building. And they talked about domestic policy staff. They talked with domestic policy staff on things like immigration enforcement, religious worker visas for international clergy, federal school choice, tax credits, restorative reproductive medicine, IVF alternatives, mail order, abortion pills, things that they felt were important. And so they then at the end of this meeting, I think this is something not uncommon with certain. Certain people meet, certain groups meet, they get a little sit in with the President. So they went into the Oval Office. Trump greeted them. He handed out commemorative tokens like he always does. Paula White Kane was there. Jennifer Corn was standing there. And then Golka led a prayer with his hand on Trump's shoulder. He thanked God, quote, for the gift of our beautiful nation, the gift of our government, and the gift of this office of the presidency, also for the gift of your son Jesus. And he asked the Holy Spirit to surround our country, to protect us from any influence of evil. Sounds like a good prayer, frankly. Sounds Like a good prayer. I think that's a prayer. I would love to hear our bishops praying more often, and particularly praying for the President of the United States, whoever he may be. So I think it's a good thing when you pray. I think it's a good thing when the bishops pray. I think it's a good thing when the bishops pray over a politician, including the President of the United States of America. Now, I'll get to, in a second the fact that Paula White Kane was also praying with them. But I just want to say, in general, though, it's a good thing when we pray. The next day, Trump was asked why. He said it was a great meeting. Well, they prayed. They mostly prayed. They were great people. That was my Trump impersonation. I don't know how good it was. I think I should use my hands more. It was a great meeting. It was the greatest ever. Okay. I will probably retire that impersonation unless people start demanding it. If the people demand it, I will give it to them. But anyway, I do want to say also the context of this was the fact that polls show that Trump is losing the Republicans and Trump are losing Catholics. They're losing Catholics. Catholic voted for Trump in 2024, and Catholics are one of the main reasons why Trump won, why Republicans won. However, 67% of Catholics, according to a Pew poll, they disapprove of Trump's job performance. I'm in that 67%, by the way. The approval is down from 47% in January 2025 to 30%. That's a huge drop. This is among Catholics. And Catholics favor House Democrats 42% to 39%. Now, that's awful because you should never, you shouldn't favor Democrats either. But the point is, is that Trump and Republicans are not doing well with Catholics. It's, it's, the support is collapsing. And so this photo opportunity, I think was something they thought, hey, we could use this as an opportunity to bolster our support among Catholics. Now, here's where it just gets crazy afterwards is the bishops. So Bishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee, he issued a doc, a statement called a public apology, where he said he expected a private discussion. The meeting was in no way an endorsement of the president. His policies were his party. Permission for the public distribution of pub or posting of either the video or photos was not given by the bishop. He went on to say that he cited the backlash. He said, you know, people were wounded because of the ways they or their family had been harmed by the president's policies. Oh, my gosh Okay. I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I cause. Oh, no. The pain I caused by praying over somebody. But also for the fact that something so sacred to a group of religious leaders, prayer to our Heavenly Father, would be manipulated in that way posted on the Internet. What? You don't want your prayers to be known? I mean, I get you're not purposely doing it to get social media likes, but you're praying over the President, United States of America. That's kind of. I mean, and you had to know there was somebody standing there filming you, videoing you. We should never have been put in that position by the White House. I did not go without reservations. I wish I had heeded them. I apologize for any damage my actions have done. I just have one thing, one thing to say to Archbishop Jeffrey Grob in Milwaukee. Man up. I mean, come on, man up. Be a man. This is the most Weasley pathetic thing I've ever heard. I apologize for the pain I caused for praying over somebody. I mean, give me a break. If anybody thought that you were endorsing all the President's policies by praying over him, then it's their problem, not yours. And the fact that you're just so been ass shape. And we all know, we all know. We all know that if, If Bishop Grob and these bishops had been praying over Biden and some of us complained, there wouldn't be this pathetic apology afterwards. There'd be no apology. But of course, because it's Trump, there has to be. I mean, it's so, like, it's so effeminate. So effeminate. Note, I didn't say feminine, I said effeminate. Bishop William Johnson of Des Moines says none of us bishops were unaware that our meeting was on the cusp of a national election. I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes. Oh, yes. I'm just this humble bishop, this humble shepherd. I'm so simple. I wish I'd been more shrewd. You were praying over the President in the Oval Office with cameras there. I mean, if you really didn't want that to happen, just don't go. You should have said, please turn off the cameras again. Be a man about it. Now, Archbishop James Gulka of Denver did take a different tact. Remember, he was the one who was actually leading the prayer. He said, as I prayed about it. I thought that this is what Catholics do. We pray for people. No matter whether we agree or disagree or anything, we always pray for our country and leaders. And in reply to critical friends, he says, I was being a Catholic priest. Archbishop Golko is absolutely right. He just. I mean, you heard the prayer. There was nothing wrong with the prayer. He wasn't saying, lord, I asked that the Republicans sweep the House and the Senate. I ask that you, you know, make everybody realize what a great President Trump is and all that. He didn't say that. He just said, pray for the country. Pray for the office of the presidency. I. I thank you, Lord, for this country. I mean, there was nothing wrong with the prayer. But he did, of course, distance himself from the endorsement, express sorrow over the fallout. I understand that many people saw the video posted by the administration 12 days before an election as an endorsement. That was never my intention. Nobody thought it was. The bishops of the United States teach that the church cannot champion any candidate or party. I hold to that. I'm heartbroken that people are hurt and that there are people intentionally using this moment to sow disunity. By the way, most of the people who are sowing disunity are on the left, the progressives who are saying how awful it is that he. That bishops dared pray with President Trump. It wasn't the conservatives who were touting it and saying, oh, my gosh, look, look, the bishops are endorsing Trump. No, it was the progressive saying, look how evil these bishops are to dare be in the same room with Donald Trump and to dare pray over him. So even Golka, you know, kind of dropped the ball there. And then I, you know, there's other quotes. Bishop Scott Bullock of Rapid City. I'm going to work pretty hard to divorce it from the midterm elections, because that's not why we went there. It really was not intended to be a political gathering, per se. It wasn't. Nobody thought it was. We went there and we prayed, and we asked the Lord to instill our leaders with wisdom, also to help them remain humble. Bishop Emeritus Joseph Nowman of Kansas City, who's always been a pretty solid bishop, he said that the bishops were assured that no photographs would be made public. They came to have a discussion on important policy matters. As Catholic bishops, they pray with everyone, but do not endorse candidates or political parties. That's fine. And if they were promised that no photographs would be made public, and they were, that's on the Trump administration. And in that case, I don't really blame the bishops for being a bit upset that it was. It was promoted and put out there if they were sure that this would not be made public. Then they do have a right to expect that. I think there's, there's nothing wrong with that. If somebody says, listen, I don't want this to be on social media, and the person says, I agree, it will not be on social media. And then they put on social media, that's bad form. That's just bad form. But what's interesting is Archbishop Emeritus Naumann's successor, Archbishop Sean McKnight, publicly distanced himself. He basically threw Nowman under the bus. Archbishop Meredith Nowman's attendance at the White House on October 22nd was done on his own behalf. His actions and presence at that event were not representative of myself or the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. So he threw him under the bus. I mean, come on, let's be a little bit more. I mean, it's like you're so desperate that nobody thinks you might be associated with Trump that you're going to throw your predecessor under the bus. I mean, that's, that's, that's effeminate as well. That's pathetic. Bishop James Wall of Gallup, New Mexico, said he was unaware a video was taken and that he would accept a meeting with any politician if invited to discuss important church matters, regardless of the time of year in the political party. And he offers prayer for all who hold office that they lead to integrity, not division. Okay, that's fine. Nothing wrong with that. So basically, though, a. Anonymous, you know, like I said, the left went crazy. An anonymous dicastery for Bishops official called it a quote, highly inappropriate meeting, an insult to Pope Leo. An insult to Pope Leo. How dare they pray with President Trump. That's an insult to Pope Leo. I mean, come on. How is that an insult to Pope Leo? I don't get that at all. Yeah, I mean, somebody, one progressive Catholic, compared them to our Patriarch Kirill, Putin's altar boy, as he called him, called Oval Office bishops patriot. Krill is the Patriarch of Moscow, who everybody knows is pretty supportive of, of Putin, you know, and like the White House basically ignored it, ignored the tempest in a teapot, said there's been never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump. And strong record proves it. That's all they said on it. Okay, so first is, I, I want to say, I do think the bishops are, are being a bit naive. If you're going to go, if you're going to go meet with the president in the Oval Office and pray over him, you have to know 12 days before an election, you have to know that the administration will use that in the election. I mean, you just got to have basic common sense to know that you don't have to be some wise, you know, serpents, innocent doves, even a dove would know that. And so I do think there's something problematic with that. And it's clear that, that the White House was using this to try to prop up their numbers, their failing numbers with Catholics. I don't blame them. I don't think they should have done if they said they weren't going to do it. But I do think the bishops were being a bit naive and incredulous. I think honestly, they didn't. Honestly, I think most of them probably didn't care until there was blowback when it was posted. They probably were like, whatever. But then when all of a sudden the progressive Catholics and some people at the Vatican were freaking out, that's when they, they freaked out. I think a lot of their freak out also was the fact they didn't want to look bad to the Vatican. Vatican officials, I mean, like the one who said it's an insult to Pope Leo. That's what worries them more than anything. Yes. They're worried about keeping a good reputation with the secular media, making sure the progressive friends at the cocktail parties don't think low of them. But I think what they really care about also is that the Vatican doesn't, doesn't punish them. That the Vatican doesn't punish them for doing this. That's what they're probably worried about more. But what I think isn't even addressed. I haven't seen really many people address this, but I think we need to talk about. There is no mention of the fact that they're praying with Paula White Kane uber heretic. Paula White Kane. Let me just give you a little bio who she is. Like I said, she's the head of Trump's faith office. She is three times married. She's a word of faith televangelist. She, she believes in the prosperity gospel. She preaches that faith entitles believers to health and wealth. She sells miracles basically in supernatural blessings for cash, seed offerings. She basically is Crystal has a. Holds a Christological heresy. She said Jesus is not the only begotten son of God. Called him the first fruit of creation that teaches that believers are little gods. [00:20:03] Speaker A: She. [00:20:03] Speaker B: What else? She has these bizarre spiritual warfare antics in 2020. In 2020 prayer, she, she prayed, she commanded that, quote, all satanic pregnancies to miscarry right now and some angelic reinforcements from Africa and South America. Even Protestants, normal Protestants, like regular Protestants, would say that she's crazy. I mean, her beliefs are just wackadoodle. They're not Christian. They're not Christian. She is a total heretic. The fact that a prosperity gospel heretic is in charge of the White House outreach to the church, that kind of shows how shallow and transactional Trump's view of Christianity is. I mean, I think we know that nobody thinks that Trump is like some, well, nobody with a brain who isn't ideologically captured thinks that Trump is some die hard orthodox Christian. We, we know that's not the case. But the fact that Paula White Kane is the, the head of the White House faith office, I do think that's something Catholics should recognize is very problematic. Yes, I know that like under Joe Biden there was terrible people in place, but this kind of just, at least it should let it remind us, don't get too much in bed with this guy. Don't get too much in bed with this guy if he's got Paula White Cane as the head of his faith office. But more importantly, I do question, should the bishops have participated in this prayer? Now, I will say I am not somebody who is hardcore adamant that you can never pray with non Catholics. I know there's some traditional Catholics who would quote some previous popes and things about that. That you could never pray with a non Catholic. I don't really believe that. I think like, for example, in like a pro life gathering, if you're with, you know, Catholics and Protestants, you're praying for the abortion clinic. It's okay to be praying with them. Now if they say some prayer, that's not acceptable. It's okay. It's okay not to as well, by the way. I'll make sure that's clear. So I'm not like adamantly like you can never pray. Like I, you know, at Thanksgiving when I'm with my family that's not Catholic, we say a prayer beforehand. I don't say I'm not going to participate in this. I think it's okay. I think it's fine. But that be. Now, I, there is a line there, by the way. I won't pray with somebody who's Hindu, for example, or Muslim or Jewish, somebody who's not Christian, who isn't even praying to the, the true God. I'm not going to participate in prayer with them and I'm not going to do like major public prayers with these people with non Catholics either. But I'm not like super hardcore. But look, I mean, they're praying with somebody who's clearly a 100 heretic. I mean, Archbishop Golk is putting her. His hand on President Trump while she puts her hand on as well, which really does kind of, it's kind of reminds me of what we're celebrating the 40th. Not celebrating, but remembering the infamous 40th anniversary of the Assisi meetings, where you have Catholics and non Catholics and people who believe things are really antithetical to the Catholic faith. When you're praying public with, publicly with them at these, you know, public gatherings, everybody can see you really are sending a message that there's no difference, there's no difference between what Paula White Kane believes and what Archbishop Golka believes. The funny thing is I don't think any of the bishops even thought that they were so concerned afterwards about being associated with Trump. I don't think they even cared the fact that they were praying with an arch heretic. I mean, they'll pray with Jews and Muslims, I imagine most of them. Why would they care about praying with Paula White Cane? She's actually more Christian in some ways. But I do think we need to, like, you know, recognize that that is scandalous. It is scandalous for Catholic bishops to be praying publicly with somebody like that, like joining in prayer or something like that. I just think that's, that's the case now. And I also think that, you know, I think it's good, by the way, that the bishops met with the Trump administration. Now, I imagine they emphasize immigration too much and in wrong ways, but I think they all. It sounds like they also talked about, like, the pro, the, the horrible pro life record of this Trump administration about ivf, about, you know, different abortion aspects. It's not good. It's not good. Yes. Is it better than what, you know, Kamala administration been? Yeah, I'm sure. But it's not good. So I think it's good they. But they should. The problem is, as we know what they do is they over, over emphasize and go crazy on prudential matters like immigration policy. And they completely barely say anything about intrinsically evil things like abortion and things like that. [00:24:33] Speaker A: Excuse me. [00:24:34] Speaker B: So I, I do think that there's. We need to recognize that the Trump administration is a very transactional view of Catholics, of everybody. We, they toss some Catholic table scraps, symbolic scraps, like, you know, the faith office meetings, commemorative coins, you know, prayer videos. But they avoid really some of the more hardcore issues. And I think. I don't. Okay. I just want to say I don't blame actually the Trump administration for treating the bishops like this. I don't like the Trump administration a lot of ways, but I don't blame them, because why should they take seriously a group of men who are so over the top and insane about things like immigration that, about even sensible immigration reform? If Trump had done even a, a much less radical immigration reform than he did, and he didn't even do that. Radical. Not as radical as he campaigned on, but he's done more radical than, than any president recently. Even if he had done a lot less, they still would have acted like he's the, the devil. So I honestly, I actually don't blame Trump and his administration in some way for treating them like this. I'm not saying it's right, like, for example, to say that, you know, we're not going to put this on social media and then put it on social media. But do you blame them for treating the bishops like this, for not really respecting them? Because, honestly, here's the thing, the bishops, frankly, they're awful on politics. They're just awful in politics. It's not that they have, it's not that every view they espouse is wrong. It's more that just the way they do it and the emphasis they place on certain things, the way they talk about certain things versus other things, it just is so effeminate. It's so, it's, it completely goes into the progressive view of politics. I mean, just this whole, like, I'm so sorry if I hurt anybody by praying with Trump and because I know his policies have hurt you. You didn't hear one bishop talk about that with Biden. I'm sorry, dead babies. That Biden's policies hurt you. You didn't hear him say that, but yet they'll talk about this like it's, it's the worst thing. I mean, issuing the public apologies and rushing out statements of regret just because you were seen praying to our Lord and to the Holy Spirit for the present, for our country, it just shows a profound spiritual weakness. I'm sorry, it's just a profound spiritual weakness. You're not man enough to say, yeah, we prayed for him. We prayed for our country. We prayed for Trump. We want him to do a good job, just like we would any president. If you have a problem with that, that's a you problem, not a me problem. And so just do that. You don't have to be, like, super apologetic. This whole, like, over the pain I cause is just so lame. And you don't mention anything about praying with Paula White. Kane. I, I, honestly, what it is, they have a velvet glove for the Democrats and iron fist for Republicans, any type of. The funny thing is, I do know many, many of the bishops actually vote Republican. I know this, at least this was the case in previous years. But they just cannot publicly come out and just say, listen, the Democrats are evil. I don't like these things that the Republicans are doing. But the Democrats are beyond, beyond support that you cannot support them in any way, shape or form. I don't like the Republicans for this, that, that and this. But I just, you know, we're not gonna, we're not gonna apologize, though, for praying for the President. I mean, look at what's happened just recently. I mean, this week, Cardinal Cupich of Chicago in the Mundelein Seminary is giving the Nostra Attate award to billionaire Michael Sachs, who was the 2024 DNC Host Chair. He's an Obama handler and he donated $600,000 to shore up Illinois's abortion access infrastructure. They're not apologizing for that. They're not apologizing for wounding the faithful. There's no Vatican official saying how awful this is. I mean, for, for decades now, they've enabled pro life, pro abortion, pro abortion Democratic politicians to run free Pelosi, Biden, Dick Durbin, you know, all these different things. I mean, it really is just. It's clear. We all know the Democratic platform is evil across the board. There's like almost nothing redeeming about it. The Republicans are terrible on like almost everything, but they are better in some things than the Rep. Than the Democrats. But if you would, if you listen not just to the words, but kind of the actions that the bishops take and the ways in which they approach both Republicans and Democrats, both progressive issues and conservative issues. You find the same pattern, which is they are very apologetic and defensive about anything related to Republicans, but they are. They don't care. They're fine with supporting Democrat things. They have no problem with that. The reality is I don't want the bishops to become Republican spokesmen. They're not going to. I don't want to be Democratic spokesman. I want them to be bishops. I want them to be successor the apostles. I want them to be St. Ambrose's remember, St. Ambrose was the bishop who stood up to the emperor. I think it was Theodosius. Did I write that down? I can't remember. I think it was Theodosius, one of the emperors. And he stood up to him and he made sure that he, he made it clear, you can't act like this. I will not give you communion. I will, I will kick you out of the church. If you do this, we need to have bishops who stand up. They're not props, they're not NGO bureaucrats, they're not bought off by either Republicans or Democrats. They. They are. And they're willing to pray for all leaders without apology. I mean, first Timothy 2:1:2 applies to all politicians, all leaders, no matter what the election calendar says, no matter what the polling data says, no matter what party you're in. You just simply, it's okay to pray for our leaders. So be a man about it. Don't pray with the heretics like, like Paula White came, but pray for people like our, our politicians, our leaders, and don't apologize for it afterwards just because you get a little bit of pushback for it. Okay, let me jump into the live chat here, see what people have to say. Okay. Juan Cristobal says Trump, for all his faults and things, I don't agree with that, with. I love that he openly says, happy Birthday, Virgin Mary, and asked for prayers openly. This is why I give Trump the benefit of doubt. A cynical person, A cynical person might say he does that for votes. A cynical person might say he does that for votes. At the same time, it is nice when the White House does issue very Catholic things like the St. Michael. I think he. They post something about St. Michael on the feast of St. Michael, they post Happy birthday to the Virgin Mary on the Blessed Mother's birthday, things like that. That is nice. That is nice. I don't know. I personally don't think that gives them for the doubt, but at the same time, it is nice. Elizabeth says they should apologize for not reprimanding the fake woman minister. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know what? Bishop Gulk has show said? He goes, I pray for our country. I thank you for a country. I pray for the President and I, I pray, Lord, that you would cast the demons out of this heretic lady who's standing here next to me. Cast the demons out of her, this heretic. Banish her from the White House and, you know, something like that. That would have been nice. Dave says, and a lot of bishops are more interested in social justice and Catholic teaching. They identify more Democrats than Republicans. They're weaklings. Yeah, I think this is true. I think this is true. What you see is the bishops, not only when they, when they talk about politics, they're always talking about kind of this social justice way that is a progressive way of looking at social justice like, and they emphasize the wrong things, but they do end up putting those things even above the gospel. That's what we really want the bishops to do. First and foremost, number one priority is the salvation of souls, evangelization. That's what they should be doing. Teaching, defending the faith. And then, yes, at times, they are called to be in the public square talking about various social issues. I'm not saying they should never talk about that, but it's a. It's a secondary thing that they've made primary and. And then they've distorted it, even when they talk about it in the primary, in a primary aspect. Mary says, interesting that McElroy didn't cross the White House threshold. Yeah, it was interesting. Yeah. He wouldn't. I mean, because McElroy is just a pawn. He's a pawn of the Democrats. Tom says, ridiculous. Yeah, that. That pretty much sums it up. Dennis Jackson says, makes some reasonable, valid points. I think. I assume you're talking about me. I hope so. I feel like I'm making some reasonable, valid points. Teresa says, nay, naive for the bishops to think that. How old are the bishops? Yeah, I mean, how long you been around? I mean, if you're a bishop, you've been around, you know, the public spotlight. I mean, my dad was like the superintendent of a. Of a public school district. He knew these things. He wasn't like some expert in politics, but he knew when he was being used. I think they could figure it out. Thomas is with Bishop Baron. No, he was not. I don't know why, but he was not. William says, why are they so fearful? Gutless wonders. Sorry, but they are. You're probably right. August TV says many of the people upset over bishops praying for Trump are totally sanguine about Cupich giving awards to every creepy confine. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Cupich just tries to find the worst people to give awards to. I mean, that's kind of what he wants to do. And you see, these progressive Catholics, they won't say a word about it, but they will freak out if a bishop's within, like, 100 yards of President Trump. Velez Maryland says, I don't like Paula White. I feel she is a total fake. But. And don't ever apologize for praying. Yes, all that is true. She. I mean, of course she's a total fake. Of course she's a total fake. I mean, she's. I mean, prosperity gospel. If you're a prosperity gospel preacher, you are a total fake. By definition, you are a total fake. And yet Trump, that appeals to him, that's his type of Christian minister, is somebody like Trump. I think that's important to note. So I think that the long and short of it is our bishops fumble over and over again when it comes to politics. They fumble over and over again when it comes to a lot of things but especially politics. They just, they just I'm not asking to be Rick, you know, red, you know, conservative GOP boosters. In fact, I'd be very upset with them if they did. But just do a better job. Do a better job than what you're doing. Okay, I'm going to wrap it up here one last time, though. I'll promote my book, the Catholic Guide to Artificial Intelligence. Link in the show notes to pre order coming out soon. If everybody's talking about artificial intelligence, everybody's freaking out about it. Don't be one of the people who freak out without knowledge. Read my book, find out what it's really all about and if you want to freak out after that, that's okay. Until next time, everybody. God love you and remember the poor.