JPII shrine says Trump visit long scheduled, while Archbishop Gregory calls it 'reprehensible'

[Michie]

Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2020 / 10:10 am MT (CNA).- Amid burgeoning conflict regarding the president’s response to riots across the country, President Donald Trump visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning.

While a shrine spokesman said the visit was initially planned as the signing of an international religious freedom executive order and had been scheduled some time ago, Washington’s archbishop called Trump’s visit to the shrine “reprehensible.”

According to the White House daily press guidance, Trump had a scheduled visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in the city’s northeast at 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

The president’s visit now comes shortly before he will sign an executive order “to advance international religious freedom.”

Continued below.
JPII shrine says Trump visit long scheduled, while Archbishop Gregory calls it 'reprehensible'

 

[K Watt]

Washington D.C., Jun 2, 2020 / 10:10 am MT (CNA).- Amid burgeoning conflict regarding the president’s response to riots across the country, President Donald Trump visited the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning.

While a shrine spokesman said the visit was initially planned as the signing of an international religious freedom executive order and had been scheduled some time ago, Washington’s archbishop called Trump’s visit to the shrine “reprehensible.”

According to the White House daily press guidance, Trump had a scheduled visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in the city’s northeast at 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

The president’s visit now comes shortly before he will sign an executive order “to advance international religious freedom.”

Continued below.
JPII shrine says Trump visit long scheduled, while Archbishop Gregory calls it 'reprehensible'

What is wrong with our bishops?

 

[Basil the Great]

The news report on CNN moments ago said that he is trying to shore up his support with Catholics and Evangelicals, which has slipped some during the virus outbreak.

 

[K Watt]

The news report on CNN moments ago said that he is trying to shore up his support with Catholics and Evangelicals, which has slipped some during the virus outbreak.

CNN? Why does that matter?

 

[Michie]

What is wrong with our bishops?

Politics.

 

[Tom 1]

Washington’s archbishop called Trump’s visit to the shrine “reprehensible.”

Not the visit, the clearing of protesters using teargas so that he could go to the shrine.

 

[Michie]

Not the visit, the clearing of protesters using teargas so that he could go to the shrine.

@Tom 1
I thought that was the Episcopal Church. Not the shrine. This was an already scheduled event.

 

[pdudgeon]

Politics.

Agreed!
Sadly, the Archbishop blew his God-given chance to welcome the President and First Lady to the site.
He fluffed his duty to God in favor of the political spotlight of the moment,
he opened his mouth when he should have opened his heart,
and he let an incredible opportunity pass him by.

So sad.so very, very sad!

 

[pdudgeon]

I thought that was the Episcopal Church. Not the shrine.

You are correct, Michie. The clearing of the protestors was at the Episcopal Church across from the White House. The visit to the John Paul II shrine was a different event in a different location, AND with a different purpose.
And that's where the problem began, because the Bishop's office staff gave him the wrong information.

Unfortunately the Bishop's office mishandled the information that was given to it, confusing the purpose of the visit to the Episcopal Church with the purpose of the subsequent intended visit to the Catholic Shrine.

And that misinformation was what Bishop Gregory reacted to.

So the fault lies with the Bishop's staff, and subsequently with the Bishop himself, for not double checking the facts of the incident before he spoke.

 

[Michie]

Rivers took a different view of the president's visit, telling CNA Tuesday that “Because the president’s visit had been prearranged and was to focus on the one issue that has transcended partisanship in recent years, this was a very difficult situation.”

“I don’t see how a shrine or other house of worship can turn down a visit by anyone who wants to pay their respects or pray there - let alone the president. Those who call the president a sinner should remember that Jesus regularly caused scandal by eating and welcoming those who were seen as unpopular or inappropriate during his lifetime. I think Jesus welcomes anyone - including Trump.”

According to a senior administration official, the executive order on international religious freedom Trump is scheduled to sign on Tuesday would continue his previous call for other countries “to end religious persecution.” It would integrate this call into U.S. foreign policy.

On Monday evening, Trump had visited St. John’s Episcopal Church adjacent to the White House, which every sitting U.S. president, beginning with James Madison, has attended.

Trump stood outside the church in front of cameras holding a Bible in one hand in an apparent photo-op. The church had suffered fire damage during protests on Sunday night.

At the time Trump stood outside the church, Washington, D.C. was entering a 7 p.m. curfew. Crowds had stood across from Lafayette Square behind the White House, protesting the death of George Floyd and police brutality.

According to the Washington Examiner, police dispersed crowds with tear gas and other non-lethal weapons on H Street behind the park and next to the church, but not one block over on Vermont Avenue where protests continued past curfew; the dispersal of the crowds was apparently done to make room for Trump’s visit to St. John’s rather than enforcing the city’s curfew.

 

[Michie]

WASHINGTON, D.C., JUNE 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Washington, D.C.’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory issued a stinging rebuke to the John Paul II National Shrine for “allowing” President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to visit today.

The president and Mrs. Trump visited the shrine to both commemorate Pope Saint John Paul II’s 100th birthday two weeks ago and the 41st anniversary of the modern day saint’s historic Mass at Victory Square in Warsaw. Melania Trump is the first Catholic First Lady since Jacqueline Kennedy.

After his visit to the shrine, established and operated by the Knights of Columbus, President Trump planned to return to the White House to sign an executive order on religious freedom.

DC archbishop criticizes long-planned Trump visit to Catholic shrine as ‘reprehensible’

 

[pdudgeon]

So essentially the Bishop owes the President and the First Lady an apology for what he said about them to the press.

 

[Michie]

So essentially the Bishop owes the President and the First Lady an apology for what he said about them to the press.

I think so.

 

[chevyontheriver]

What happens to DC Catholicism if Trump decides to become Catholic? An actual conversion on his part where he tries to come to grips with his past and tries to change his life to be oriented to the Gospel? I'm not saying it will happen. Not saying it even can happen considering his many wives and girlfriends. But if it did? It seems to be the trajectory Trump is on, even if he's at a great distance now, whether he can actually do it or not.

 

[IceJad]

Reminds me of the religious leaders during Jesus' time. So caught up in the politics of the time, they forgot their calling to God.

Donald Trump is let's be honest not the most admirable of man, but he is not the most despicable either. All men have flaws and they are more noticeable in public figures being the nature of their position.

The least one can do is be polite and neutral.

Mark 2:13-17
13 Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

17 On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

[Tom 1]

@Tom 1
I thought that was the Episcopal Church. Not the shrine. This was an already scheduled event.

It's the incident of clearing peaceful protesters that seems to have prompted the criticism -

“Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings,” continued Gregory. “His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”

There doesn't appear to be anything in there that indicates it was something to do with the shrine itself, more a protest of this meeting being held in spite of the actions taken against protesters elsewhere, for a photo op.

 

[K Watt]

Not the visit, the clearing of protesters using teargas so that he could go to the shrine.

Why is that reprehensible?

 

[K Watt]

It's the incident of clearing peaceful protesters that seems to have prompted the criticism -

“Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings,” continued Gregory. “His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth. He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”

There doesn't appear to be anything in there that indicates it was something to do with the shrine itself, more a protest of this meeting being held in spite of the actions taken against protesters elsewhere, for a photo op.

Tear gas is harmless.

Protestors who are blocking the streets need to follow the instructions of law enforcement.

 

[Tom 1]

Tear gas is harmless.

Protestors who are blocking the streets need to follow the instructions of law enforcement.

Peaceful protest is a legal right that law enforcement officers are legally required to respect.

Have you ever been exposed to teargas? It certainly doesn’t feel harmless. Rubber bullets certainly aren’t. A journalist lost an eye when shot by a police officer there a few days ago.

 

[Tom 1]

Why is that reprehensible?

If you can’t see that, what would be the point of trying to explain it to you?