President-elect Donald Trump announced Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, as his pick to be the U.S. ambassador to Vatican City.
Trump's choice to nominate Burch is in recognition of the important role that he and his activist organization played in mobilizing American Catholics to get out and vote for Trump both in 2020 and 2024.
In an official statement, Trump said, "Brian is a devout Catholic, a father of nine, and President of CatholicVote. He has received numerous awards and demonstrated exceptional leadership, helping build one of the largest Catholic advocacy groups in the Country."
Trump ended his statement by saying, "Brian loves his Church and the United States — He will make us all proud."
Burch accepted Trump's nomination saying, "The Catholic Church is the largest and most important religious institution in the world, and its relationship to the United States is of vital importance."
He confirmed that he was "committed to working with leaders inside the Vatican and the new Administration to promote the dignity of all people and the common good.”
Burch's nomination as ambassador to the Holy See has certainly ruffled feathers among the elite in the Catholic church, a group that has become increasingly leftist, and according to some Catholics, heretical.
Burch is a critic of Pope Francis, and that animosity has been growing ever since Pope Francis and the Vatican began investigations designed to intimidate and silence conservative critics within the Catholic Church.
One such critic was Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, who openly called out Pope Francis for pushing progressive ideology in the Catholic Church which flew in the face of biblical teaching. Strickland went so far as to call Pope Francis a “usurper of Peter’s chair.”
Strickland has since been removed from overseeing the Texas diocese and that has created a lot of anger among conservative Catholics, including Burch.
The Catholic Church, especially in America, has been slowly dividing over progressive issues clashing with traditional and biblical ideas. This political division has only intensified under Pope Francis and his openly leftist ideology.
Catholic voters in America appear to be swinging right as they supported Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris by a 20-point margin after voting for President Joe Biden by a 5-point margin in 2020.
Biden had a bit of an advantage with Catholic voters as he is Catholic himself, but after years of attacks on the Catholic Church by the left, many devout Catholics are swinging right and could stay there in future elections.
