On Tuesday, January 21, during Donald Trump’s inaugural prayer service at Washington National Cathedral, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde made a heartfelt plea for mercy on behalf of marginalised communities. Addressing the president directly, she urged him to consider the fears of minority groups, including LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and families at risk of separation.  

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said. “They are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives.”  

Trump’s response was swift, dismissing Budde as a “Radical Left hard-line Trump hater” and he accused her of being “not very good at her job.” He went on to demand an apology and she became the target of death threats from his supporters.  

Following her plea to Trump, Budde received messages of support from across the world. Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh Michael Router defended her during a St Brigid’s Day ceremony on February 1.  

“It was a forthright and courageous sermon to give, but it was also in many ways a standard sermon about the basic Christian principles of loving one’s neighbour and about being charitable and generous in our dealings with those less fortunate,” he said.

“It is amazing the negativity that a simple, sincere statement of Christian beliefs can engender,” Router continued. Comparing Budde’s work to that of St Brigid, he noted that her commitment to compassion and justice was inseparable from her faith.  

Similarly, the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI), which represents over 150 Catholic congregations, orders and societies across the island, wrote to Budde thanking her for her “courage in publicly conveying the truth, grounded in the Gospel, that reminds us all of our duty of care”.

Bishop Budde is the first woman elected to her position, leading 86 Episcopal congregations and 10 Episcopal schools across Washington D.C. and four Maryland counties. She also chairs the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation, overseeing the ministries of Washington National Cathedral. 

Her advocacy is not new. In 2018, she played a key role in a historic moment when Matthew Shepard’s remains were interred in the Washington National Cathedral. Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, was brutally murdered in 1998 in one of the most infamous hate crimes in American history. His parents held onto his ashes for 20 years, fearing that any gravesite would be vandalised. Budde and openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson presided over the memorial service on October 26, 2018.  

“His death was a wound on our nation,” Budde told The New York Times. “We are doing our part to bring light out of that darkness and healing to those who have been so often hurt, sometimes in the name of the Church.”  

In relation to Trump’s request for an apology, Bishop Budde remains steadfast. “I am not going to apologise for asking for mercy for others,” she said defiantly.