President Donald Trump has criticised the sermon given by the Episcopal bishop who presided over a post-inauguration interfaith prayer service at Washington National Cathedral.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington urged Trump having become the 47th US president to “have mercy” on migrants as well as on those who identify as members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261693/protestant-leader-at-interfaith-service-calls-on-trump-to-have-mercy-on-migrants-lgbtq"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Catholic News Agency (CNA)</em>.
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” the bishop said as she drew her sermon to a close on 21 January at the cathedral that serves the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
“Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of [a] loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.
“There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families,” the Episcopal bishop said, “some who fear for their lives.”
She also took aim at Trump's threats to deport illegal immigrants, noting that "the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants...they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals", rather, she added, they "pay taxes and are good neighbours".
Trump and Vice President JD Vance attended the interfaith “Service of Prayer for the Nation” along with their families, members of the new Cabinet and other dignitaries for an ecumenical tradition that has been in place since the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, reports <em>CNA</em>.
It notes that during her sermon, Budde was at times openly critical of the new president. Her comments came on Trump's first full day of his second term in the White House.<br><br><a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/inauguration-ends-with-benediction-from-retired-catholic-priest-who-tended-trump-family-gravesite/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Trump’s inauguration ends with benediction from retired Catholic priest</em></strong></mark></a>
“Contempt fuels political campaigns and social media, and many profit from that,” Budde said, adding: “It’s a dangerous way to lead a country.”
As President Trump left the service, he was asked by journalists what he thought of the sermon. He replied by asking them what they thought of it and also asking them if it was exciting, before saying:
“Not too exciting, was it. I did think it was a good service though, thank you very much," before adding: "They could do much better.”
Later, after the president had collected his thoughts, he made his view clearer in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/113870397327465225"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">post</mark></a> on his social media platform <em>Truth Social</em>:
"The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater," Trump wrote. "She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart...Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one..."
Throughout her sermon, which lasted about 20 minutes, <em>CNA</em> reports, Budde underscored the importance of unity and the need to depart from “the culture of contempt that has become normalised in this country", which she described as “worrisome".
She added: “As a country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as people and nation. Not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and divisions."
Budde, the first woman to be elected to her position, currently serves as the spiritual leader for 86 congregations and 10 Episcopalian schools across both Washington, DC, and Maryland, according to the Episcopal diocese’s <a href="https://edow.org/about/bishop-mariann/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">website</mark></a>. It describes the bishop as “an advocate and organiser in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons and the care of creation.”
Trump and Vance, who sat in the front row during the service, showed little reaction during the sermon, though when the bishop started discussing transgender children, Vance turned his head to look at his wife sitting to his left. Then after the sermon had finished, Trump turned to Vance and said something to him, after which Vance responded with a shake of his head, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/21/trump-bishop-mercy"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Guardian</em>.
The <em>Guardian</em> notes that Budde "clashed" with Trump during his first term in office. In 2020, she expressed "<mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-black-color">outrage</mark>", the <em>Guardian</em> says, over Trump’s appearance in front of St John’s Episcopal church in Washington, where he held up a Bible after federal officers cleared protesters demonstrating over the death of George Floyd in 2020.
Discussion and debate over the sermon and service at Washington National Cathedral has also extended to the choice of venue, described as holding "a unique place at the intersection of sacred and civic life", <a href="https://cathedral.org/about/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">according</mark></a> to the cathedral's website.
"Some have been asking me privately, so I’ll just state here that there is no legal requirement for the United States to use the National Cathedral for any religious service in the custom of our civic life," Chad Pecknold, a professor and Catholic commentator, <a href="https://x.com/ccpecknold/status/1881896658830569508"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">wrote</mark></a> on <em>X</em>.
"There is, in fact, a larger Romanesque Basilica which is closer to Capitol Hill and the White House."
He was referring to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, also known as America’s Catholic Church.
<a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/feature-washington-as-the-catholic-bastion-you-dont-hear-about/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><em><strong>RELATED: Washington DC is leading the US Catholic revival</strong></em></mark></a>
<em>Photo: Episcopal</em> <em>Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde delivers her sermon during the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, USA, 21 January 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)</em>
