Heres what I saw when I attended a conservative Catholic gathering in DCs Trump Tower

[rug]

The entrance to the Trump International Hotel in Washington. (Getty Images)

March 17
By John Gehring
This opinion piece is by John Gehring, Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life, and author of The Francis Effect: A Radical Pope’s Challenge to the American Catholic Church. Gehring attended “Public Policy and Our Catholic Faith” on his own accord, took notes and recorded some of the talks and then offered this piece to The Washington Post for publication.

My interest was piqued when I heard that a group of well-heeled, politically active conservative Catholics planned to meet at the Trump International Hotel in Washington for a two-day, $1,250 a person symposium. Billed as an exclusive gathering of “Catholic leaders, clergy and important DC insiders,” the event didn’t sound like your typical religious conference.

As a Catholic progressive who writes about the intersection of religion and politics, I wanted to peek behind the curtain. Last week, I coughed up the hefty registration fee to listen to how an influential segment of Catholics and other religious conservatives are organizing in the Trump era. Over three-course dinners, wine receptions and panel discussions that featured academics, former and current Republican officials, and an address by Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, the symposium featured a blend of high-powered networking, liturgies, wonky policy discussions and insider D.C. political whispering.

Timothy Busch, a prominent Catholic philanthropist who hosted the gathering, set the tone during opening remarks at a National Press Club dinner attended by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and former senator Rick Santorum. “We were headed down a path that was pretty dark with a Supreme Court decision redefining marriage,” he told a crowd of about 75 business leaders, clergy, religious liberty attorneys and conservative activists. While acknowledging that President Trump’s policies and rhetoric toward immigrants don’t align with Catholic teachings, he spoke in buoyant terms about the new political potential in Washington.

“In the early weeks of this administration more has been done to address the biggest tragedy, the biggest catastrophe, and that is abortion,” said Busch, an Orange County, Calif. attorney who owns luxury hotels and the Napa-based vineyard Trinitas Cellars. “More has been done to benefit the causes of life, which is more important than anything we have in our society … Everything else is trumped by this issue of life.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/03/17/heres-what-i-saw-when-i-attended-a-conservative-catholic-gathering-in-dcs-trump-tower/?utm_term=.20ee19e6a94c