Trump Picks Anti-LGBTQ Papal Critic as Vatican Ambassador
Brian Burch, the president of Catholic Vote, has slammed Pope Francis and liberal-leaning Catholics for their stances on LGBTQ issues.
Donald Trump has nominated Brian Burch, president of the political advocacy group Catholic Vote, and a fierce critic of Pope Francis, as the next U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican.
“Brian is a devout Catholic, a father of nine, and president of Catholic Vote,” Trump wrote in announcing the nomination. “He represented me well during the last Election, having garnered more Catholic votes than any Presidential Candidate in History! Brian loves his Church and the United States — He will make us all proud.”
A socially conservative political activist who regularly pushes right-wing propaganda, Burch has been especially critical of the pontiff’s more liberal ideological leanings (within the context of the Catholic Church) and his more conciliatory approach towards LGBTQ congregants.
Catholic Vote endorsed Trump’s presidential bids in both 2020 and 2024. It has been immensely critical of President Joe Biden for identifying as Catholic while supporting abortion and LGBTQ rights, which the organization sees as incompatible with Catholic teaching.
Following Pope Francis’ 2023 decision to allow priests to offer limited blessings to individuals in same-sex relationships, Burch appeared on the right-wing channel Newsmax and blasted him for creating “massive confusion” within the Catholic Church — which officially opposes and prohibits marriages between same-sex individuals.
Burch also said that Francis would not be in office much longer and that the next pope must “clarify” the church’s stance on human sexuality.
Burch has accused Francis of demonstrating a “pattern of vindictiveness” in governing the Church after the pontiff removed more conservative cardinals and bishops who had been critical of his leadership.
He has also claimed that Francis’ more liberal worldview has offended and chased away devout Catholics, leading them to seek spiritual guidance outside the Church, as reported by the arch-conservative Christian publication The Stream.
As evidence, Burch cited a 2015 remark by the pontiff that good Catholics need not breed “like rabbits,” which social conservatives and defenders of pro-natalist political positions saw as an attack on both traditionalists who favor large families and the Church’s stated policy opposing the use of contraception.
Burch has expressed views critical of unfettered immigration that place him in good stead with Trump, criticizing some Catholic Church-affiliated agencies or charities for allegedly coordinating with the Biden administration.
“American Catholics deserve to know the full extent of the U.S. government’s role in funding and coordinating with Catholic Church-affiliated agencies at the border, and what role these agencies played in the record surge of illegal immigrants over the past year,” Burch said in a 2022 statement announcing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit demanding correspondence between Catholic-affiliated groups and federal agencies.
Burch’s nomination will require U.S. Senate confirmation and approval from the Vatican before he can assume the post. But some Church observers believe that Trump is sending a signal that the incoming presidential administration may be more hostile towards the Vatican, and to Pope Francis in particular.
“Burch is an agitator, mostly, the opposite of a diplomat,” Steven Millies, a public theology professor and director of the Bernardin Center at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, told the National Catholic Reporter. “A difficult time lies ahead for U.S.-Vatican relations.”
Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and church historian at Villanova University, told the Reporter that Trump’s nomination of Burch is “very telling.”
“This is an operative who has been really a campaigner in the trenches for Donald Trump, so I think this appointment says something about the kind of relationship that Donald Trump wants to create with the Vatican,” he said.
Trump’s previous ambassador to the Vatican during his first term in office was Callista Gingrich, the wife of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who was largely praised for how she performed in the role. Gingrich has been nominated to serve as Trump’s ambassador to Switzerland in his second term.
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