Milwaukee Archbishop Apologizes for White House Visit
Archbishop Grob says he and other bishops didn't give permission to post photos or videos.
Jeffrey Grob speaks to reporters after being installed as the 12th Archbishop of Milwaukee on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
The archbishop of Milwaukee is apologizing after the White House shared a video of him and other bishops praying over President Donald Trump.
In an apology posted to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee website on Sunday, Milwaukee Archbishop Jeffrey Grob said an Oct. 22 meeting at the White House was, “publicized by the administration without the consent of the participants.”
He said he and 11 other bishops took part in the meeting, which was organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation, according to Grob. He said they were invited, “to discuss matters of importance to the Church and our people, including immigration enforcement, religious worker visas, and human dignity.”
He said the 90-minute meeting was with “White House domestic policy staff and advisors.” After the meeting, Grob said they were “ushered into the Oval Office.”
“The president greeted us, took a seat at his desk and presented us with commemorative tokens,” Grob wrote. “We were then directed to stand behind him and pray.”
He said several photos were taken after that.
“Unbeknownst to the group of bishops a video was also taken,” Grob wrote. “But permission for the public distribution or posting of either the video or photos was not given by the bishops.”
Grob said he received “messages of serious concern” after a video and photos of the prayer were posted online.
“I also heard from some who felt wounded because of the ways they or their family had been harmed by the president’s policies,” Grob wrote.
“I feel a heavy sadness, not only over the pain I caused, but also for the fact that something so sacred to a group of religious leaders, prayer to our Heavenly Father, would be manipulated in that way,” he added in the apology.
Grob said the bishops did not go to the White House “to pose for a political photo opportunity to benefit the few.”
“We should never have been put in that position by the White House,” he wrote.
Jeffrey Grob is installed as the 12th Archbishop of Milwaukee on Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Bishop William Joensen of the Diocese of Des Moines also issued a statement about the visit. He said, “The advance communication we received indicated that we were to have a conversation and that key officials would be interested in hearing our perspective.”
“None of us bishops were unaware that our meeting was on the cusp of a national election,” Joensen wrote in his statement. “Yet in no way did any of us intend by our involvement to endorse any political party or any individual candidate.”
Grob, a Wisconsin native, was installed in his new role early last year. The Archdiocese of Milwaukee oversees 181 parishes in 10 counties across southeast Wisconsin.
He was one of nine Wisconsin bishops who issued a statement last year in response to federal immigration enforcement. The statement, in part, said that federal enforcement has, “achieved some beneficial outcomes.”
“We must also voice our strong concern regarding the indiscriminate nature of the current federal immigration enforcement. U.S. citizens are being racially profiled,” the statement said. “Immigrants are vilified, denied pastoral care, detained in poor conditions, and parents and children are being separated.”
In a statement sent to WPR Monday, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers wrote, “There has never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump, and his strong record proves it: he stopped the weaponization of the federal government against Christians, proudly defended and expanded our religious rights, pardoned pro-life activists, stopped the chemical mutilation of our nation’s children, and protected parents’ rights.”
Milwaukee Archbishop apologizes for White House visit, says permission for posting of video was ‘not given by the bishops’ was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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