Now that he’s back in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump is shaming his predecessor — the self-proclaimed “Catholic” Joe Biden — and once again helming one of the most pro-Catholic presidential administrations in history. To honor the Catholic liturgical season of Lent, which began with Ash Wednesday, Trump’s White House Management Office arranged for Mass to be celebrated in the White House.
But one of those thirteen colonies — Maryland — was established specifically for Catholics.
In a statement acknowledging the significance of Ash Wednesday, the President and First Lady Melania Trump wrote, “This Ash Wednesday, we join in prayer with the tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians beginning the holy season of Lent — a time of spiritual anticipation of the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” The couple continued, “During the Lenten season, Christians spend 40 days and 40 nights praying, fasting, and giving alms to deepen our faith and strengthen our belief in the Gospel.”
The Trumps noted that on Ash Wednesday, “followers of Christ wear crosses of ash on their foreheads — a sacred reminder of our mortality and our enduring need for Christ’s infinite mercy and redeeming love.” The President and First Lady ended, “Let us prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle,” adding: “May Almighty God bless you, and may he continue to bless the United States of America.”
Trump’s friendliness to Catholics is not a novelty, though it is a welcome change from Biden’s reign. During his first term, Trump appointed numerous Catholics to positions of influence, including Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon and U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
But he really has outdone himself in his second term, surrounding himself with countless Catholics: Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Education Secretary Linda McMahon, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, Border Czar Tom Homan, and many others. In fact, Catholics account for more of the second Trump administration’s cabinet secretaries and political appointments than those of any other faith or denomination.
It’s true, of course, that Trump is no saint, and even some of his Catholic allies have their issues — especially when it comes to unnecessarily hot-button subjects like in-vitro fertilization or chemical abortion — but it’s clear that the President recognizes the significant contribution that Catholics have made to the United States of America, in all areas of life, ranging from law and education to literature and architecture.
This recognition of the Catholic contribution to America’s heritage is not only different from the Biden administration’s view, but differs even from the position of self-described Christian nationalists, many of whom claim on social media that America was founded as a specifically protestant nation. Such a claim is demonstrably false.
Protestants, of course, played a significant role in the nation’s founding and made up the vast majority of the population of the thirteen American colonies, which would soon become the United States of America. But one of those thirteen colonies — Maryland — was established specifically for Catholics. In contrast to the colonies of, say, Massachusetts or Virginia, which were overwhelmingly protestant in their religious, social, and even cultural makeup, Maryland was founded as a “Catholic Proprietary,” to give a home to Catholics who might not be welcomed in the other colonies.
George Calvert, the First Baron Baltimore, sought the permission of King Charles I of England to found a home for (mostly English) Catholics in the New World. After Baltimore’s death, the king gave his son, Cecil, the Second Baron Baltimore, the charter for Maryland. Both Baltimore’s knew that Catholics, especially in England, were often persecuted.
The reign of Henry VIII and the Elizabethan persecution that followed were both still fresh in the minds of many English Catholics, many of whom came from long lines of recusants. The First Baron Baltimore himself had even been stripped of his role as Secretary of State upon affirming his Catholic faith. Nearly 150 years later, Charles Carroll, representing Maryland, would become the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.
America was and still is a majority protestant nation, but not a uniquely protestant one. In fact, according to historian Bradley J. Birzer, much of the ideology which went into the foundation of the United States of America was deeply Catholic. The ideas established by St. Augustine in The City of God, St. Thomas Aquinas in his numerous philosophical tomes, and even St. Robert Bellarmine in his writings on where faith meets the state — even the doings of English Catholic bishops and nobles in the early 13th century, when the tyrannical King John was brought to heel — were all central and even foundational to the religious, legal, and cultural tradition which the Founding Fathers relied upon when they themselves founded the United States of America.
Maryland has changed much in the nearly four centuries since it was first established, but President Trump’s affinity for American Catholics is evidence that the United States of America is still, most certainly, a home for Catholics.
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