Bishop calls on Trump to ‘have mercy’ on migrants and LGBTQ+ people
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Right Rev Mariann Budde’s appeal amounts to bold public criticism and prompts frosty response from US president. In an inaugural prayer service sermon, the Episcopal bishop of Washington appealed directly to Donald Trump to “have mercy upon” communities across the country targeted by the new administration’s immigration and LGBTQ+ policies.
Speaking from the pulpit at the Washington national cathedral, the Right Rev Mariann Budde delivered her sermon – and an impassioned plea – as Trump sat stone-faced in the front row, alongside Melania Trump and JD Vance. Asked later about the service, Trump told reporters it was “not too exciting”.
“I didn’t think it was a good service, no,” he said as he walked into the White House on Tuesday. “They could do much better.”. The sermon was part of a larger interfaith prayer service, a post-inauguration day tradition hosted by the Washington national cathedral and attended by presidents of both parties at the start of their term. Tuesday morning’s service was filled with blessing and prayers for the success of the new administration, but took a sharper, more political turn when Budde rose to deliver the homily.
“You have felt the providential hand of a loving God,” she said, an apparent reference to Trump’s inaugural address, in which he declared that God had saved him from an assassin’s bullet to “make America great again”. She continued: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”.
