President-Elect Donald Trump has nominated Brian Burch, an outspoken critic of Pope Francis, as his forthcoming ambassador to the Holy See, sparking jubilation among faithful Catholics.
“Brian is a devout Catholic, a father of nine, and president of Catholic Vote,” Trump announced in a social media post. “He represented me well during the last election, having garnered more Catholic votes than any presidential candidate in history.”
The president-elect commended Burch for “helping build one of the largest Catholic advocacy groups in the country,” stressing that “Brian loves his Church and the United States” and has received numerous awards.
Interestingly, in 2016, Burch signed onto a Catholic anti-Trump manifesto, arguing that he was “manifestly unfit to be president of the United States.” The signatories urged the nomination of Republican presidential candidates who “do not exhibit [Trump’s] vulgarity, oafishness, shocking ignorance, and — we do not hesitate to use the word — demagoguery.”
CatholicVote did not endorse Trump in that campaign, describing him as “problematic in too many ways to receive our endorsement.” But by 2020, Burch’s organization had switched to explicitly supporting Trump, with its voter guide checking the box next to his name.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Burch said, “Trump is not merely our reluctant choice. … We need a general to lead us. Someone who knows the truth and is willing to fight for it — not simply someone who will calculate the path of least resistance to accomplish some good on the margins.”
Trump Hits Back at Biden and Francis
Burch’s nomination on December 19 is a diplomatic and political knockout punch to both Joe Biden and the leftwing pontiff. It came less than 24 hours after Francis phoned Biden to plead with him to commute the sentences of 40 federal death row inmates and to invite him to the Vatican before the end of his mandate. (The visit will take place on January 10, 2025.)
In a series of posts on X, Burch said, “I am committed to working with leaders inside the Vatican and the new administration to promote the dignity of all people and the common good. The Catholic Church is the largest and most important religious institution in the world, and its relationship to the United States is of vital importance.
“I look forward to the confirmation process and the opportunity to continue to serve my country and the Church,” he added. “To God be the glory.”
With a graduate degree in political philosophy from the University of Dallas, Burch spent summers early in his life working alongside migrant laborers on his family’s farm, harvesting watermelons and cantaloupes. He has often joked about learning Spanish from his coworkers, albeit “not the most elegant or appropriate words.”
He was one of the first to interview J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert who was, at that time, a relatively unknown candidate for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. As their interaction progressed, it developed into a close friendship.
“I have known and long admired Senator Vance for several years. I’ve also had the chance to spend time personally talking to him about his conversion to Catholicism and his vision for a new politics for America,” Burch said. “Vance is solidly pro-life. He chose to become a Catholic, in part, because of our Church’s teachings on the sanctity of all human life.”
Flaying Francis
Catholic Vote — “America’s top Catholic advocacy organization,” which Burch cofounded – has fiercely criticized both Pope Francis and his ally Joe Biden, who insists he is a “devout Catholic” but staunchly supports abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
In 2023, Burch flayed Francis for exhibiting a “pattern of vindictiveness and punishment” which “seems to fly in the face of what he says about being an instrument of mercy and accompaniment.”
Burch also has defended Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a Vatican whistleblower and former papal nuncio to the U.S., who was excommunicated by the Holy See in July for his “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff” and rejecting the “magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”
“Vigano may not have everything right,” Burch wrote in 2020 when the archbishop was warning against the papal endorsement of the abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccine and shutting down churches. “But there is one thing of which I am certain: Satan is real, and he’s on the prowl.”
After Francis published Fiducia supplicans in December 2023, permitting Catholic priests to bless couples in same-sex unions, Burch accused him of causing “massive confusion.”
Burch also has lashed out at Francis for offending devout Catholics over the course of his papacy, citing his 2015 remark that good Catholics need not breed “like rabbits,” which some interpreted as the pontiff’s attack on the Catholic Church’s teaching against contraception.
Burch also has joined in the chorus of voices protesting the collusion between Catholic and with the Biden administration in promoting illegal immigration, as The Stream has reported.
“American Catholics deserve to know the full extent of the U.S. government’s role in funding and coordinating with Catholic Church-affiliated agencies at the border, and what role these agencies played in the record surge of illegal immigrants over the past year,” Burch said in 2022.
In an email dated February 9, 2022, Burch said Catholic Vote was suing the Biden administration for communication records between federal agencies and Catholic nonprofits in Texas to understand how church-affiliated agencies were contributing to the border “chaos.”
Leftwing Catholics Attack Burch
Leftwing Catholics warned that by nominating Burch, Trump is picking a fight with the pontiff and seeking revenge for Francis’s unremitting resistance against Trump’s America First policies, which includes a plan to begin the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
“This is an operative who has been really a campaigner in the trenches for Donald Trump, so I think this appointment says something about the kind of relationship that Donald Trump wants to create with the Vatican,” Dr. Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and church historian at Villanova University, told the leftwing National Catholic Reporter.
In comments to NCR, Dr. Steven Millies, a public theology professor and director of the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, dismissed Burch as “an agitator, mostly, the opposite of a diplomat.”
“In this way, I suppose while Burch will be a good representative of this second Trump administration, his appointment signals what we already know: a difficult time lies ahead for U.S.-Vatican relations,” he said.
However, faithful Catholics, who recommended people for the position such as Joseph Strickland, the former bishop of Tyler, Texas, and former naval chaplain Msgr. Gene Thomas Gomulka, who blew the whistle on clerical sex abuse, praised Trump for appointing Burch.
“Brian Burch is a man of substance, not a mere internet bomb-thrower,” said Stream contributor Peter Wolfgang. “He has accomplished real things in the real world. Would it be so bad if Burch did — unofficially — represent to the Holy See a U.S. Church that often feels itself to be misunderstood by the present pontificate?”
“Very happy to hear that @BrianBurchCV has been selected to be the next Ambassador to the Vatican,” tweeted Harrison Butker, the outspoken Catholic kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs. “Brian has been a leading voice in the Catholic community here in America through his organization @CatholicVote and now in his new role, he can take those gifts to Rome.”
No More Pride Flags at U.S. Embassy
Catholics expressed relief that with Burch’s appointment, the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See would no longer fly the LGBTQ+ flag as it did during “Pride” month in June 2022 while Joe Donnelly was Biden’s ambassador to the Vatican.
Donnelly, who opposed same-sex marriage during his 2012 senatorial campaign, announced in five months after his election that he had changed his position and now supports “gay marriage.”
While campaigning in January 2023 in New Hampshire, Trump thanked CatholicVote for endorsing him. CatholicVote said it spent more than $10 million on the 2024 elections.
“I don’t know what it is with Catholics, but the FBI is going after Catholics,” Trump said, referring to an FBI memo leaked in 2023 that included “radical-traditionalist Catholics” among extremists targeted by the bureau.
“Why would any Catholic vote for a Democrat?” Trump said. “Think of it, what they’re doing, I hear stories that are just horrible. Why would a Catholic be voting for Biden or a Democrat? Doesn’t make sense, it’s horrible — what they’re doing is horrible.”
Burch’s nomination will require confirmation by the U.S. Senate and the Holy See before he can take up his post.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
The post Trump Picks Vocal Critic of Pope Francis as Vatican Ambassador appeared first on The Stream.
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