What the clergy praying at Biden's inauguration signal about his priorities
As with everything that happens at a presidential inauguration, the selection of clergy to pray at the ceremony is not just a formality — it’s a statement by the incoming president, telegraphing the values of his administration to the country.
And for Joe Biden — a lifelong Catholic who has frequently cited his faith in his recent speeches, quoting everyone from St. Francis of Assisi to the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” — the two men offering prayers hold personal meaning. Father Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest and spiritual mentor to Biden, will offer the invocation at the start of the service on January 20, and Rev. Silvester Beaman, a friend and confidant, will give the benediction at the end.
Beaman and O’Donovan’s participation in Biden’s inauguration places them in a long line of clergy who have prayed at inauguration events, stretching back to the second inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an Episcopalian, in 1937. Trump’s inauguration in 2017 featured six religious leaders, a record, including Franklin Graham (who participated in George W. Bush’s 2001 inauguration), Paula White, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York City.
Biden is only the second Catholic to become US president, following John F. Kennedy’s election in 1960. But in recent years, he has also been criticized by fellow Catholics for his stance on abortion rights. In 2019, he announced that he no longer supported the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortions, a more progressive stance than he previously took (though it was in line with what his fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates proposed).
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-the-clergy-praying-at-biden-s-inauguration-signal-about-his-priorities/ar-BB1cRKPK?li=BB141NW3&ocid=DELLDHP