Catholic Author Comments on Trump’s Visit to National Shrine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 2, 2020​

MEDIA CONTACT

Michelle Nealy, mnealy@faithinpubliclife.org, (202) 735-7123

Austin Schuler, aschuler@faithinpubliclife.org, (540) 280-3393

Catholic Author Comments on Trump’s Visit to National Shrine

Washington, D.C. — A day after drawing criticism from national religious leaders for posing in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, President Trump will visit the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC today at 11:15 am. The focus of the visit will be international religious freedom. 

John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life and author of The Francis Effect, issued the following statement.

“President Trump is again using a church as a stage prop during a pandemic. This is shameless posturing at a time when people are dying and protesting against police violence. There is nothing “pro life” about a president who stokes the fire of racism and uses fear to divide people. Don’t be distracted by this tactic. Trump’s agenda is antithetical to Christian love and justice. 

Trump has distorted the value of religious liberty with policies that target Muslims and LGBTQ people. Religious liberty isn’t a brand owned by the Christian right. Respect for religious liberty also includes protecting immigrants, rejecting racism and defending the right to protest police violence.” 

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