Mar-A-Lago prayer event labels Trump voters' 'only Catholic option'

The dinner program advertised a speaker lineup of heavyweights on the political far right, such as Roger Stone, the self-described "dirty trickster,” and retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as Trump's national security adviser. 

Invoking Psalm 23, Flynn told his audience that the United States is in "the valley of the shadow of death." 

"This nation was built on a set of judeo-Christian principles and values, and we have to be fearless about that," Flynn said. 

Mainstream conservative Catholics and political figures were also advertised as feature speakers, including chastity speaker Jason Evert*, Daily Wire host Michael Knowles and James Caviezel, the actor who played Jesus in "The Passion of the Christ."

Knowles, who generated controversy in 2023 when he called for "transgenderism" to be "eradicated" from public life, at Mar-a-Lago accused liberals of hijacking children's education for "their most effective attack on the family."

Said Knowles, "Parents might not want pornography in their kids' elementary schools. They might not want drag queens reading to their children in the libraries. They may not want teachers calling their son Sally in the fifth grade. But that's just too bad, according to the libs."

The Mar-a-Lago event was broadcast live in part by Real America's Voice, a right-wing outlet that promotes conspiracy theories prevalent on the far right, including QAnon. 

After calling on a man he identified as "Father Dennis" to pray for the attendees and Trump family, and to bless the meal, Yep introduced a video of Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance spliced with patriotic images and an audio recording of the "J6 Prison Choir" singing the national anthem.

Composed of several jailed individuals accused of crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, the J6 Prison Choir's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner has been a regular feature at Trump’s campaign rallies. 

The video shown at Mar-a-Lago highlighted instances of police officers fighting back against people storming the U.S. Capitol, and depicted men wearing orange jumpsuits in lonely prison cells before ending with the message: "Supporting certain prisoners denied their constitutional rights."

Yep, a 39-year-old former seminarian who has said he spent 14 years discerning priesthood with the Legionaries of Christ, called on other speakers to highlight what he described were "non-negotiable" issues for Catholics, such as opposing abortion, and the right to worship. 

The program linked "right to worship" with examples of what speakers said were cases of a "weaponized" government arresting political enemies, such as Peter Navarro, a former Trump adviser who is serving four months in federal prison for ignoring a subpoena from the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.

"He was locked up because he refused to submit, he refused to surrender, he kept the faith, because he kept the courage of his convictions," said Jack Posobiec, a far-right conspiracy theorist who described Navarro as a hero and "a political prisoner."

During his speech, Posobiec said more than 1,000 Catholics attended the event at Mar-a-Lago, all in a collective effort "to destroy communism and save Western civilization."

"The hour is growing short. The time is growing late. We do not have much time left," said Posobiec, who is Catholic. He focused his remarks on presenting what he suggested was a historical overview of communism, which he linked with the anticlerical and anti-elitist attitudes that fueled the 18th century French Revolution. 

“The French Revolution itself was a proto-communist revolution,” said Posobiec, who claimed that the same ideology that led to French Carmelite nuns being martyred and Paris’ Cathedral of Notre Dame being desecrated during the 1790s is now corroding the United States under the guises of "wokeism," social justice and "cultural Marxism."

Americans, Posobiec said, can accept those forms of supposed Marxist ideology or "choose to restore the United States as it was founded in its original form." Of cultural Marxists, Posobiec vowed to publish a book that will "use their playbook against them."

"And we will specifically call them that which they are," Posobiec said. "Because they reject the human rights of others, they reject the humanity of their oppressed classes, I submit to you that they themselves have become the unhuman."

On the right-to-life issue, the event featured remarks from antiabortion activists Terry Beatley, Patricia Sandoval and Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life and an ardent supporter of the former president. 

"The government has no authority to authorize the killing of a baby, period," said Pavone, a former priest whom the Vatican removed from the clerical state in December 2022 for what it said were "blasphemous communications on social media" as well as "persistent disobedience" of his bishop. 

Being disciplined by the Vatican has not blunted Pavone's rhetoric nor his support for Trump. Speaking of the former president, Pavone said to applause at Mar-a-Lago: "We are gathered tonight at the home of the most pro-life candidate this country has ever seen. And he will continue to be."

Artur Pawlowski, a Polish Canadian evangelical street preacher and political activist who clashed with Canadian authorities because of his protests of public health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, declared that Christians in North America are being denied their right to worship God and live in peace.

Also declaring Trump to be the rightful president of the United States, Pawlowski said America "belongs to God," adding that there could be "no free America without the God of Freedom."

Said Pawloski, "America, bring God back to America. The cross and the flag, married together under a holy matrimony of freedom." 

*Clarification: After publication of this article, Jason Evert wrote to NCR to say that while he had initially agreed to speak at the March 19 "Catholic Prayer for Trump" event at Former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, he later decided not to participate.