Last week, I wrote about that famous incident where JFK needed to assure the Protestant ministers in 1960s America that he wasn’t going to let the pope make his decisions for him.

This week, showing that God has an interesting sense of humor, I am forced to write yet again about that vaunted wall between faith and the civic world, only this time it’s the Catholic prelates who need a lesson.

On Oct. 22, a group of bishops visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump and express their concerns about his administration’s policies on a host of issues that impact their congregations, among them immigration, health care and the war in Iran.

It was a private meeting, but there were photographers present, and one of them captured some of the bishops praying over the president.

When that photo got out, a bunch of Trump-hating Catholics started braying like the biblical lost sheep, and the churchmen found themselves in a predicament.

One of them felt the need to come out and distance himself from the photo op, making sure that everyone knew he had been “manipulated,” in his own words. Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob posted a statement on the archdiocesan website “apologizing” to anyone who might have been upset he prayed with the president.

Of course, he didn’t put it that way, since every normal Catholic would rightly say, “um, isn’t that kind of what you guys do?” No, he followed the script written for him by the Trump-hating Catholics and turned it into some subversive plot to make him and the other bishops look bad in front of their progressive donors:

“I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I caused, 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,” Grob wrote, adding, “We should never have been put in that position by the White House.”

Pardon me while I stop typing for just two moments so I can take my anti-nausea medicine.

(Pause)

I’m back. That was the most subservient, obsequious blather I’ve heard from a Catholic bishop since, oh, I dunno, maybe a week later, when Chicago Cardinal Blaise Cupich attacked the critics of his decision to give an award to one of the biggest advocates for abortion in the country as “antisemites.”

One is left to wonder what is in the wine those guys are consecrating in the Midwest.

In any event, the groveling of Grob made me realize the forces that pushed JFK to distance himself from his church were still quite powerful in today’s society, and they are wielded by a number of Catholics who should know better.

It was not Jews, Muslims, Protestants and atheists who were upset at the bishops for praying with Trump. They couldn’t care less, because they have other things to worry about, particularly the Jews who are dealing with daily bouts of bigotry from certain political candidates.

It was the Catholics, the progressive ones, the ones who have as much knowledge of the Baltimore Catechism as they do of the Baltimore Colts, and who like to point fingers at those of us who believe you cannot be pro abortion and still in good standing with the church.

My brothers and sisters who talk about “Catholic social justice” as if this was a political platform and go on to list the things that no good Catholic can support, like Trump and MAGA and ICE and the GOP, are exactly the folks who were apoplectic at the sight of a priest praying that a politician display wisdom, empathy, kindness, caritas, and other Christian virtues.

It doesn’t matter if the target of those prayers often has difficulty manifesting those virtues on a regular basis. It’s not about him. It’sabout them.

The clergy isn’t supposed to worry about their Instagram followers and their positive reviews. They should be above that pettiness.

I was truly disgusted when I saw Grob bend over backwards to say how sorry he was if he offended anyone.

Guess what? He offended me.

You know who else offends me? The priests who administered communion to Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, despite their pro abortion advocacy.

But did I demand an apology?

No. That’s because I understood that some of them thought it was their duty to administer the sacraments regardless of the recipient.

And that’s why Milwaukee might have a world-class baseball team, but their spiritual leader struck out.

Copyright 2026 Christine Flowers