A group of Catholic leaders came to the White House Oct. 22 to pray for President Donald Trump. Unbeknownst to the well-meaning Catholics, their prayer in the Oval Office was recorded and the White House shared it without permission, according to Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob.

Everything is on camera, and every photo and every recording has the potential to go viral, depending on the timing, the content and agenda of the people doing the sharing. This is an unfortunate reality — even if you’re a member of the clergy.

Still, the incident has us scratching our heads. How low do you have to go to embarrass clergy while they are praying for your very soul?

“I wish I had been more shrewd and less simple, like those who exploited our meeting for partisan political purposes,” Des Moines Bishop William Joensen said after the video took off.

Indeed.

To be clear, praying for political leaders is hardly novel or uncommon, and the bishops who prayed for blessings could just as easily have been doing so for any supplicant. In many pulpits on most Sundays, pastors and priests are known to humbly request wisdom and good judgment from our elected officials. Republicans and Democrats. Sinners all.

Moreover, offering prayers in the White House is a tradition that has been observed by presidents of both parties for generations. It’s not just a tradition, but an honor to be asked. So we are not surprised the Catholics accepted the call to visit and minister to a sitting president, especially given the potential impact of his future actions on the rest of their flock. And if any president needed to hear prayers about good judgment and moral rectitude, Donald Trump is that president.

There are a lot more judgments to be made; Trump’s second term is far from over.

“I took some time to weigh the decision and ultimately felt that, if I had the opportunity to offer my voice in a way that might improve the lives of God’s children, I ought to take it. I pray for our elected officials on a daily basis, so it seemed appropriate to do so in person,” Grob said Sunday, adding that the meeting was not an endorsement of the president, his party or his policies.

Of course not. Reasonable people understand that.

And yet, times have changed. Going to the White House has become a journey littered with political landmines to which even the holy are not immune. No matter who sits behind the big desk, simply being there is certain to rile up folks on one side of the aisle or the other.

This is hardly the first time Trump has ruffled Catholics’ feathers, not least because he’s feuded with Pope Leo XIV.

But this exploitation of Catholic bishops who were praying for their president, not delivering papal edicts with political patinas, feels especially repulsive.

Especially when you consider what the Bible has to say about performative piety in the gospel of Matthew: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” The gospel suggests a different approach: “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.”

In other words, the guidance is that praying is good — the issue is with praying to be seen.

The Trump administration seems to have missed that particular New Testament memo. We are less than shocked, although we’ve also seen our share of performative piety around Chicago politics.

“We came in good faith to try to work for the betterment of our fellow human beings, to ease their suffering, to build up the common good, and to pray with a president, not to pose for a political photo opportunity to benefit the few,” Grob said.

Absolutely. We could all use some building up of the common good. The Catholic bishops came to the White House because it is their job and their calling. They should have been treated by the White House with a lot more respect.

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