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Sign our letter asking the 12 bishops who prayed over President Trump to apologize to the people of God and to Pope Leo XIV.
Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines says the White House exploited last Thursday’s Oval Office prayer with President Donald Trump for partisan political purposes, and he wishes he had seen it coming.
His statement went up on the diocese’s website on Saturday. The Associated Press reported on Sunday afternoon that two of the twelve bishops who prayed over Trump now regret the meeting, pairing Joensen with Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, who apologized publicly that morning.
Two bishops spoke up in a single weekend. That is a welcome step forward, and we have ten to go.
What happened in the Oval Office
The meeting took place on Oct. 22, twelve days before the midterm elections, and it was arranged by Heritage Foundation official Mario Enzler.
According to Grob, a dozen bishops spent about 90 minutes with White House domestic policy staff before being walked into the Oval Office.
Trump sat at the Resolute Desk with his head bowed. The bishops gathered behind his chair, and Denver Archbishop James Golka rested a hand on the president’s shoulder and asked God to bless him.
The bishops knew photos were being taken. What they did not know, Grob later wrote, was that someone was also shooting video, and none of them gave permission for any of it to be posted. The footage was online within hours.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the meeting was not organized with or by the conference. In Rome, a senior official at the Dicastery for Bishops (the office Pope Leo XIV led as a cardinal) told me it was “a highly inappropriate meeting and an insult to Pope Leo.”
Trump, for his part, told reporters on Friday that the bishops “mostly prayed.”
What Joensen wrote
Joensen begins by explaining why he said yes. Officials connected to the White House Faith Office invited him to talk about immigration, visas for foreign clergy, abortion pills, and new federal tax credits for private schools.
The meeting fell on the Memorial of St. John Paul II, and he saw a chance to press the Church’s teaching on the people who write national policy.
He offers the president no flattery. Many things tied to this administration, he writes, are “blatantly at odds with our Catholic faith,” and he concedes that every bishop in the room knew a national election was close.
Then he reaches for Matthew 10:16, where Jesus sends his disciples out “like sheep in the midst of wolves” and tells them to be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. Joensen turns the verse on himself.
“I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple,” he wrote, “like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes.”
The sentence also tells you who the wolves were. Joensen never uses the word “apologize.” His statement still names his own failure in his own words, which is the part of contrition that matters most, and it is exactly the part Golka skipped when he told the Denver Catholic he was heartbroken and then blamed critics for sowing disunity.
Grob chose a more formal route.
Writing from the Dominican Republic, he titled his letter “A Public Apology” and said the White House had turned something sacred into a political photo opportunity.
His closing confession was simple: “I did not go without reservations. I wish I had heeded them.”
The White House shrugs
The AP asked the White House whether it had the bishops’ consent before releasing the video and photos. The press office would not say.
Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers offered a campaign line instead: “There has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump.”
That answer tells you what the prayer was for. A bishop’s hand on a president’s shoulder, twelve days before an election, is worth more than any ad buy, and the White House posted it like one.
Ten to go
On Friday, Letters from Leo launched a petition asking all twelve bishops to apologize to the people of God and to Pope Leo XIV.
More than 2,500 people have signed it so far, up from the 1,800 we reported Saturday, and we will deliver every signature to the twelve bishops and to the bishops’ conference.
If you have not added your name yet, I encourage you to do so today.
Ten bishops have said nothing resembling regret. They are Golka of Denver, Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, Edward Burns of Dallas, Michael Barber of Oakland, Thomas Hennen of Baker, Francis Kalabat of the Chaldean eparchy in Detroit, Steven Raica of Birmingham, Scott Bullock of Rapid City, James Wall of Gallup, and Elias Zaidan of the Maronite eparchy in Los Angeles.
Each of them can read Joensen’s statement and Grob’s letter this week. Owning the mistake cost those two men nothing, and it has already won back some of the trust the Oval Office video spent.
As I said yesterday, I know many of you won’t be quick to accept what these two bishops have offered, especially those of you scarred by the sex abuse scandal and by years of watching the hierarchy lend itself to right-wing causes.
I share that skepticism, and Joensen’s own verse tells us to keep it, because we too must be shrewd as serpents.
As your fellow Christian, I still ask you to consider being open to their words. An inch isn’t a mile, but perhaps, as Christians, we should consider that inch worth welcoming.
“God never tires of forgiving us,” the late Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium; “we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy.”
We will keep fighting until the rest of them do the same.
At Letters from Leo, we stand with Pope Leo XIV and with every Catholic who expects their shepherds to keep the altar out of a campaign, especially the immigrant families of Iowa and Wisconsin who watched their bishops stand behind that desk.
We pray for our elected leaders at every Mass, and we always will. A bishop who admits he was used deserves our thanks, and the ten who remain silent deserve to hear, respectfully and in large numbers, from the people they shepherd. Matthew 10 sends the disciples out among wolves, and nothing in that chapter tells them to smile for the wolves’ cameras.
This is the fastest-growing Catholic community in the country because people are hungry for shepherds who tell the truth, including the truth about themselves.
If you believe this movement matters, with Catholics and people of goodwill asking our bishops to keep prayer out of any campaign’s hands, I am asking you to join us.
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Thank you for reading. I’ll see you on the road.
Nothing is an accident or coincidence. Trump wanted 12 bishops there. 12.
Bishop J, HOW did you NOT SEE THAT COMING!!!!