A group of Catholic bishops is speaking out with regret after images and video surfaced showing them praying over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The footage, released just two weeks before the midterm elections, depicts twelve clergy members gathered around the president as he sits with his head bowed at his desk. While the White House presented the meeting as a spiritual gathering, several attendees now claim they were manipulated and exploited for partisan political gain.
Archbishop Jeffrey Grob of Milwaukee expressed deep remorse, stating that he was unaware the meeting was being recorded and that the clergy had not granted permission for the footage to be made public. Grob emphasized that the gathering was not an endorsement of the president or his policies, but admitted he should have heeded his own reservations about attending. He apologized for any damage caused by his inadvertent participation in what appeared to be a political event so close to a national vote.
The controversy stands in sharp contrast to the strict neutrality maintained by Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, who has consistently urged bishops to avoid political partisanship. While the pontiff has spoken out on specific policy issues like artificial intelligence and immigration, he has gone to great lengths to stay out of electoral politics, even deciding against a visit to the United States in 2026 to avoid interfering with the midterms.
Bishop William Joensen of Des Moines echoed these sentiments, lamenting that he had been too simple and not shrewd enough in handling the situation. Meanwhile, the White House has remained defiant, with spokeswoman Taylor Rogers ignoring questions about the bishops’ consent and instead praising the president as the greatest leader for Catholic Americans in history. President Trump himself described the meeting as great and praised the clergy members, though the incident has left some within the church feeling like victims of a calculated political stunt.
