Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde said she is “not going to apologize for asking for mercy for others,” a plea she made to President Donald Trump from the Canterbury pulpit on Tuesday.
“It was a pretty mild sermon,” Budde said of her Tuesday sermon to Time. “It certainly wasn’t a fire and brimstone sermon. It was as respectful and as universal as I could with the exception of making someone who has been entrusted with such enormous influence and power to have mercy on those who are most vulnerable.”
During the National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral, Budde, 65, asked for Trump to have “mercy” for LGBTQ youth and illegal immigrants.
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” Budde said. “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”
Budde’s plea came following Trump’s executive order, which declared that a person’s gender is determined by the sex they were born with at birth.
“I had a feeling that there were people watching what was happening and wondering, Was anyone going to say anything?” Budde said in an interview with the New York Times. “Was anyone going to say anything about the turn the country’s taking?”
She also asked Trump to have mercy for “communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.” Trump has issued several executive orders to curb illegal immigration. His administration is currently facing a lawsuit for his executive order to end birthright citizenship.
“They may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” Budde said on Tuesday. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, and temples, I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President.”
Trump did not appreciate Budde’s words, taking to X to call Budde a “so-called Bishop” and “Radical Left hard line Trump hater.”
However, Budde, who said she has garnered mass support for her sermon, told Time she has “heard from many people who are grateful that someone was willing to speak on their behalf.”
“I hope that a message calling for dignity, respecting dignity, honesty, humility and kindness is resonating with people,” Budde added. “I’m grateful for that. I’m saddened by the level of vitriol that it has evoked in others, and the intensity of it has been disheartening.”
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Budde told the New York Times that she did not expect the fierce backlash, saying she has received death threats.
“Maybe this was naïve on my part, when I decided to plea to the president I thought it would be taken differently,” Budde said, “because it was an acknowledgment of his position, his power now, and the millions of people who put him there.”
