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Firing of House Chaplain Creates Uproar on Capitol Hill
Firing of House Chaplain Causes Uproar on Capitol Hill
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s decision to fire the House chaplain erupted into controversy Friday on Capitol Hill, as the speaker faced pushback in his own party and Democrats sought to exploit a delicate and potentially explosive political issue.
Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s abrupt decision to dismiss the House chaplain triggered an explosion on Friday over religion, pitting Republican against Republican and offering Democrats a political opportunity in a year already moving their way.
The chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, said in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday that he was blindsided when Mr. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, and suggested that a prayer he gave in November about the new tax law may have been a factor in the speaker’s decision.
Mr. Ryan moved quietly two weeks ago to remove the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy — so quietly that some lawmakers assumed the Catholic priest was retiring. But in an interview on Thursday with The New York Times, Father Conroy said he was blindsided when Mr. Ryan asked him to resign, and suggested politics — specifically a prayer he gave in November when Congress was debating a tax overhaul — may have been a factor in the speaker’s decision.
“May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” he said then. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
Father Conroy prayed then for lawmakers to “guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.” Shortly after, he said, he was admonished by Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin, who is also a Roman Catholic.
The issue emerges at a delicate time for Republicans, who are already facing significant headwinds in the coming midterm elections. A public clash between Southern evangelical Republicans and Northern Catholics could play to the advantage of Democrats, who are pressing hard to bring working-class Catholic regions in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin back into the Democratic fold.
“Padre, you just got to stay out of politics,” he recalled the speaker saying.
In a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers Friday morning, the speaker insisted that neither politics nor the prayer had anything to do with the firing, according to Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York, who was in attendance and questioned the speaker.
As reports of the dismissal circulated in the Capitol, some Republicans, in a closed-door meeting on Friday morning, demanded an explanation from Mr. Ryan, while Democrats commandeered the House floor in a boisterous, if unsuccessful, attempt to force the House to investigate Mr. Ryan’s decision.
Mr. King said in an interview that Mr. Ryan told the assembled lawmakers that he had removed Father Conroy because of complaints about his availability and the quality of his pastoral care. Mr. King said he had never heard such complaints, and told the speaker that he needed to give a more public explanation.
At the House Republican meeting, Mr. Ryan told lawmakers that complaints about Father Conroy’s pastoral care — not politics or prayer — led to his decision, according to several who attended. The speaker’s spokeswoman, AshLee Strong, said simply that he had “made the decision he believes to be in the best interest of the House.”
“I said, ‘This issue is not going to go away quickly,’” Mr. King said, adding, “As far as the complaints, I never heard any of them.”
But the dismissal appears to be an unforced error in a political year when Republicans cannot afford mistakes. The controversy exposed long-simmering tensions between Roman Catholics and evangelical Christians over who should be lawmakers’ religious counselor. And a public clash between Southern evangelical Republicans and Northern Catholics could play to the advantage of Democrats, who are pressing hard to bring working-class Catholic regions in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin back into the Democratic fold.
A House Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Mr. Ryan gave the Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, an additional reason: He said he was upset that the chaplain had granted an interview to The National Journal.
The controversy was heightened when Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and a Baptist minister, said Thursday in an interview with The Hill newspaper that he hoped the next chaplain of the House might come from a nondenominational church tradition who could relate to members with wives and children.
In the interview, Father Conroy expounded on matters ranging from sexual harassment to a possible spiritual crisis in Congress. He said he was asked during his job interview whether he had ever molested a child. And while he said he had never been asked to counsel a victim of sexual harassment or assault, he had handled cases of workplace abuse during his tenure in the House.
Catholic Democrats quickly called his remarks anti-Catholic, as Catholic priests are celibate, and Mr. Walker’s spokesman later said Mr. Walker was not excluding a particular faith group. One Republican, Representative Peter T. King of New York, took issue with the comments.
“Think about it: Who are the people that run for office?” he was quoted as saying. “Are they all highly skilled in every endeavor? No! They’re not. Many of them, I can tell you, don’t know how to say hello in the hallway, let alone work with office people that maybe they don’t think they have to listen to.”
“To be excluding one religion up front, that has all sorts of connotations coming from the evangelical community,” Mr. King said in an interview. He said he had received several inquiries from priests about Mr. Ryan’s decision, and he told the speaker, “This issue is not going to go away that quickly.”
Democrats did not hesitate to amplify the moment. They commandeered the House floor on Friday for a boisterous but unsuccessful effort to establish a select committee to investigate the matter. Their “privileged resolution” to set up the panel was set aside on a largely party-line vote.
The House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, issued a statement arguing that Mr. Ryan did not have the authority to dismiss the chaplain. “I have expressed my forceful disagreement with this decision to the speaker,” she said. “It is truly sad that he made this decision, and it is especially bewildering that he did so only a matter of months before the end of his term.”
In a statement after the vote, Ms. Pelosi — who, like the speaker and Mr. King, is Roman Catholic — defended Father Conroy and said the speaker had no authority to force him out.
The outrage broke down largely along party lines. Of 148 members of Congress who signed a letter to Mr. Ryan demanding answers on why he ousted Father Conroy, just one, Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, was a Republican.
“It is my hope that we will honor Father Conroy’s service by pursuing justice and making clear the true motivations of this unjust action,” she said. “I have expressed my forceful disagreement with this decision to the speaker. It is truly sad that he made this decision, and it is especially bewildering that he did so only a matter of months before the end of his term. The speaker did this knowing that he had no power to fire Father Conroy and instead chose to force him out by demanding his resignation.”
“This will have ramifications,” Mr. Jones said Friday afternoon. “This is bigger than Father Conroy and the House of Representatives. This is about religion in America.”
Then 147 Democrats — and one Republican, Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina — sent a letter to Mr. Ryan asking him to describe the steps he took leading to the chaplain’s ouster, and to justify his decision.
The controversy was multifaceted, pitting evangelicals against Catholics but also resurfacing lingering anger over this Congress’s singular accomplishment, the 10-year, $1.5 trillion overhaul of the tax code.
“We believe that, absent such details, questions will inevitably arise about the politicization of the process for hiring and dismissing a House chaplain,” the lawmakers wrote.
To supporters of that legislation, especially to one of its chief architects, Mr. Ryan, the prayer issued by Father Conroy would have stung: “May all members be mindful that the institutions and structures of our great nation guarantee the opportunities that have allowed some to achieve great success, while others continue to struggle,” the priest said in the midst of the debate. “May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
Mr. Ryan’s move appeared to expose a religious divide among Christians in the House. Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina, who is a Southern Baptist minister, was quoted in The Hill newspaper saying that the next House chaplain should be “somebody who has a little age, that has adult children, that kind of can connect with the bulk of the body here.”
Father Conroy, who was named to the post in 2011 by another Catholic Republican speaker, John A. Boehner, said that he did not regard his November prayer as political in nature.
Mr. King said Roman Catholics took umbrage at that statement, because Catholic priests, who take a vow of celibacy, would be excluded from considerations under the criteria Mr. Walker set forth. “To be excluding one religion up front, that has all sorts of connotations coming from the evangelical community,” Mr. King said.
“If you are hospital chaplain, you are going to pray about health,” he said. “If you are a chaplain of Congress, you are going to pray about what Congress is doing.”
Father Conroy had served in the role of chaplain since he was nominated in 2011 by Speaker John A. Boehner, a fellow Catholic. In the Times interview, Father Conroy was categorical: His departure was not voluntary.
He said Mr. Ryan’s remarks to him afterward marked the only time anyone from the speaker’s office had chastised him for veering into the political realm.
“I was asked to resign, that is clear,” Father Conroy said. As for why, he added, “that is unclear.”
“I’ve never been talked to about being political in seven years,” he said.
“I certainly wasn’t given anything in writing,” he said. “Catholic members on both sides are furious.”
In an election that ultimately will revolve around President Trump, the controversy may well prove ephemeral.
About a week after his prayer during the tax debate, Father Conroy said, he heard from the speaker’s office. “A staffer came down and said, We are upset with this prayer; you are getting too political,” he said. “It suggests to me that there are members who have talked to him about being upset with that prayer.”
“Whatever Democrats try to do, if they try to politicize this or capitalize on this, I just think it is way too obscure,” said Douglas Heye, a longtime Republican political strategist and a Catholic. “If you are having a larger conversation about ‘Catholic issues,’ Trump is going to dominate that.”
Shortly after, when he saw Mr. Ryan himself, Father Conroy said that the speaker told him, “Padre, you just got to stay out of politics.”
Ten years ago on Capitol Hill, the number of Catholic Democrats in the House was more than double the number of Catholic Republicans. Now it is nearly even.
“That is what I have tried to do for seven years,” Father Conroy said. “It doesn’t sound political to me.”
Some on the left see an emerging issue for Mr. Ryan and his supporters. “Partisans will likely frame this as a Catholic versus evangelical contest,” said Christopher J. Hale, a strategist who did Catholic outreach for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. “They made a political football out of a good Catholic priest.”
“If you are hospital chaplain, you are going to pray about health,” he added. “If you are a chaplain of Congress, you are going to pray about what Congress is doing.”
The spat is particularly pointed because religious power in Washington has shifted drastically under Mr. Trump to white evangelical leaders. Unlike Mr. Obama, who relied regularly on a religiously diverse group of interfaith advisers, including prominent Catholics, Mr. Trump has elevated a select group of conservative evangelicals who routinely defend his political agenda, and it is rare to see a Catholic bishop in the White House.
Father Conroy said that was the only time anyone from the speaker’s office had ever chastised him for veering into the political realm. “I’ve never been talked to about being too political in seven years,” he said.
Mr. Trump himself famously feuded with Pope Francis during his 2016 presidential campaign over Mr. Trump’s push to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico, which Francis called “not Christian.” Last year, some of Mr. Trump’s evangelical advisers sought to quiet Vatican criticism of the rightward direction of American Catholicism.
A congressional aide for Mr. Ryan said that no specific prayer had led to the decision.
Before Francis became pope, the Vatican seemed to favor Republican mainstay issues, such as opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Francis’ rise helped reset the role of Catholicism in American public life, and prioritized political and economic messages on immigration and climate change.
Father Conroy said he received the news of his dismissal from Mr. Ryan’s chief of staff. “The speaker would like your resignation,” Father Conroy recalled being told. He complied.
The pope, like Father Conroy, is a Jesuit, an order of priests viewed by some as more liberal. Father Conroy’s resignation is all the more contentious in Catholic circles because Mr. Ryan is a Catholic conservative.
“As you have requested, I hereby offer my resignation as the 60th chaplain of the United States House of Representatives,” Father Conroy wrote in a letter to Mr. Ryan several days later. “I wish all the best of the House of Representatives, and for your upcoming search for a worthy successor in the office of the chaplain.”
“We are a long way from Pope Francis at the White House and in the Capitol,” said John Carr, the director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. “The divisions are greater, they are more stark and they are more angry.”
His final day will be May 24.
On Friday, the Catholic Association, a more conservative group, came to Mr. Ryan’s defense. Maureen Ferguson, a senior policy adviser with the organization, called criticism surrounding his decision to ask Father Conroy to step down “downright absurd.”
Father Conroy’s resignation is all the more contentious in Catholic circles because Mr. Ryan is a Catholic conservative, whereas Father Conroy is a Jesuit, a branch that is viewed by some as more liberal.
“Anyone who knows Speaker Ryan knows he is a devoted Catholic,” she said. “Much ado is being made about nothing.”
Asked whether differences in politics were a factor in his ouster, Father Conroy said: “I do not want to politicize this. I have thoughts about it, but I am not contributing to that.”
For others, it far more serious. The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and an editor at large of America magazine, said he has heard from Catholics who are “dismayed” that a chaplain would be fired for apparently defending the poor, and he worries about the anti-Catholic dog-whistling.
But, he said, Capitol Hill is an inherently political place. “There are Catholics who are Republicans and there are Catholics who are Democrats,” he said. “I don’t know if there is a religious divide; there certainly is a political one.”
“The implication that, as one legislator said, a ‘family man’ would be more suitable smacks of anti-Catholicism,” Father Martin said. “By that yardstick, Jesus wouldn’t qualify either.”
Father Conroy said that his only communication with Mr. Ryan or his office since he was asked to resign came on Wednesday morning, when the speaker thanked him for his seven years of service before the House welcomed President Emmanuel Macron of France.
Father Conroy said he did not ask Mr. Ryan why he was asked to resign, and he does not plan to contest his departure. “I do not want to debate this,” he said. “My understanding going into this is that I serve at the prerogative of the speaker.”
But lawmakers from both parties are demanding answers.
Mr. Jones and Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, began circulating the letter for their colleagues to sign, asking Mr. Ryan for more information.
“I’m very upset,” Mr. Jones said. “If this is true about the prayer, and we have freedom of religion in America, how about freedom of religion on the floor of the House?”
“The members of the House vote for the chaplain,” he continued. “This is not a one-man decision. The House should have the facts of whatever the problem is.”
Mr. Connolly said he was worried about the precedent Mr. Ryan’s decision could set. The letter asks the speaker for a description of the process that was followed, and for a justification of the decision.
“We believe that, absent such details, questions will inevitably arise about the politicization of the process for hiring and dismissing a House chaplain,” the letter says. “Not revealing such details could also risk resurrecting prior questions of religious bias.”
“Pat is a fairly popular figure in the House,” Mr. Connolly said. “He’s counseled people and tended to their personal and spiritual needs. This is a personal and jarring decision that affects all of us in a big way.”
Because of the lack of clarity surrounding his resignation, Father Conroy said that he had been fielding calls from friends and House members, some inaccurately congratulating him on his retirement or worrying that he was sick.
“They asked me why I am leaving, why I am abandoning them, congratulations on your retirement, what is next,” he said. “To which I say, ‘I wasn’t looking for a job.’”
“For the most part, that information has been met by shock,” he continued. “That is the gratifying part.”
Father Conroy said that he had thoroughly enjoyed being the House chaplain, and that he had not politicized his work.
“I have found it myself to be personally liberating because I have not been allowed to engage in the politics of the day, which has been very healthy for me,” he said. “I’m grateful that that was my ministry.”
When Pope Francis visited the United States in 2015, Father Conroy gave him a personal blessing in Spanish. He has traveled with congressional delegations to Southeast Asia and to the Middle East. He has also acted as personal spiritual adviser to many members of both parties, and to their families.
“I’m going to miss that kind of stuff,” Father Conroy said. But, he added, “There will be another ministry.”
