Follow-Up: Sisters of Charity of New York Open Letter Asks 12 Bishops to Publicly Apologize Over White House Prayer
New York — According to October 26 religious media reports, the Sisters of Charity of New York launched an open letter demanding that the 12 Catholic bishops who prayed for President Trump in the Oval Office at the White House publicly apologize to the faithful and to the Pope; the open letter has gathered about 2,500 signatures. The letter says the bishops 'let a political operation put prayer on a stage,' at a time when early voting had already begun; the sisters wrote that their 'first allegiance is not to a president, a political party, or even an institution, but to the Gospel.' Background: On October 22, the 12 bishops met with Trump at the White House and prayed in the Oval Office, and the White House subsequently released photos and video of the event; the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated on October 23 that the event was not organized by the conference and was unrelated to it (reported in this site's October 23 supplement). Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob issued a public apology on October 25, saying attendees had not been told in advance that the prayer would be recorded and released and that he had been 'used'; Des Moines Bishop William Joensen also expressed regret. A White House spokesperson did not directly respond to whether the bishops' consent had been obtained to release the footage, emphasizing instead Trump's record for Catholic Americans. Conference documents bar the Church from endorsing any candidate or political party, and the episode is still developing.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 教堂内的木质长椅（资料图）。图片：BogTar201213，CC BY-SA 4.0，取自维基共享资源。
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