Two Catholic bishops in the US have said they remorse assembly President Donald Trump at the White House, after photographs of them praying with him were launched and prompted many to ask if they were making a political assertion.
Photos and video of the 22 October assembly show a group of bishops standing around Trump at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob, one of those pictured, said he had believed the assembly was personal and not “a political photo opportunity”.
Trump and Pope Leo XIV have a contentious relationship, and some US bishops have criticised the administration’s immigration insurance policies. But Trump has sometimes loved the support of Catholic voters.
In a assertion posted online, Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines, Iowa, said the assembly was organized by officers with the White House Faith Office to talk about points including immigration, visas for worldwide clergy and the “exploitation of vulnerable poor persons”.
“In no way did any of us intend by our involvement to endorse any political party or any individual candidate,” Joensen said.
“I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes,” he added.
A video of the assembly was launched by Margo Martin, a particular assistant to the president and communications adviser who often shares behind-the-scenes photographs of Trump on social media.
Archbishop Grob said that after 90 minutes of conferences with officers, the non secular leaders were ushered into the Oval Office to pray with Trump.
Grob said photographs of the assembly later induced concern among some of his congregants.
“I soon began receiving messages of serious concern over the possibility that I had inadvertently participated in a political event less than two weeks before a national election,” he wrote.
“I also heard from some who felt wounded because of the ways they or their family have been harmed by the president’s policies,” he added.
Grob said none of the members in the assembly gave permission for the public distribution or posting of video or photographs of the occasion.
When contacted for remark by the BBC, the White House did not instantly deal with questions regarding the assembly or subsequent feedback by the two bishops.
“There has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump, and his strong record proves it,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a assertion.
According to Pew Research Center, which analyses religion in the US, opinions of Trump’s efficiency have slipped among all main non secular teams. In a survey this month, 30% of all US Catholics said they accepted of his job efficiency, in contrast to 47% when he returned to the White House in 2025.
That could have an impact on the 3 November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. More Catholics in the survey, 42%, said they most popular the Democrats operating in their native House of Representatives races, where barely less, 39% favoured Republicans.
During his second time period, Trump has had a tense relationship with the head of the Catholic church, Pope Leo, as he has moved aggressively to take away people believed to be in the US illegally.
Nine days before the Oval Office assembly with the bishops took place, Bishop Brendon Cahill and Walter Kim, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, issued a assertion urging “Christian compassion and wisdom in the immigration debate”.
They said the immigration clampdown has led to the “sowing of fear, the fracturing of families, the deprivation of due process, and the vilification of our neighbors.”
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops also just lately condemned the Trump administration’s plans to livestream a navy execution, which were later scrapped.
Both Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are Catholics who have visited the Vatican during Trump’s second time period.
A Midwestern member of the bishops’ convention, Robert Barron of Minnesota, agreed to serve on the president’s Religious Liberty Commission last 12 months, as did former New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
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