Prayer dedication prayers: O’Donovan and Beaman represent the new president’s priorities

As with everything that happens during a presidential inauguration, the choice of clergy to pray during the ceremony is not just a formality; it is a statement from the incoming president that telegraphs the values ​​of his government to the country.

And for Joe Biden – a lifelong Catholic who regularly quoted his faith in his recent speeches, quoting everyone from St. Francis of Assisi to the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” – the two men who prayed have personal significance. Father Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit priest and spiritual mentor for Biden, will present the call at the beginning of the service on January 20, and Rev. Silvester Beaman, a friend and confidant, gives the blessing at the end.

The participation of Beaman and O’Donovan in the inauguration of Biden places them in a long line of clergy who prayed during inauguration events, until the second inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an Episcopalian, in 1937. Trump’s inauguration in 2017 has six religious leaders, a record including Franklin Graham (who attended George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2001), Paula White, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.

Biden is only the second Catholic to become U.S. president after the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. But in recent years, he was also criticized by fellow Catholics for his stance on abortion rights. In 2019, he announced that he no longer supported the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortions, a more progressive stance than he had previously adopted (although this is in line with what his fellow Democratic presidential candidates proposed in 2020) .

Some Catholic clergymen have suggested that he be forbidden to partake of the Lord’s Supper – the central feature of the Catholic Mass – and some have already completely denied him. However, Biden claims that he is a devout Catholic (he received a congratulation from Pope Francis after his election), and his appeal to his faith throughout his campaign suggests that his Catholicism will be an important part of not only his inauguration ceremony but also his presidency.

Fri Leo O’Donovan’s appeal is a sign of Biden’s commitment to its Catholic roots

The careers of Biden and O’Donovan have been crossing for decades. O’Donovan, a native New Yorker, served as president of Georgetown University from 1989 to 2001, a time marked by the university’s evolution to a highly selective, diverse, and more financially stable institution. But there were also controversies; especially in 1992, he was ordered by a Vatican court to defend an organization for abortion rights advocates.

In 1992, while Biden’s son Hunter was a student in Georgetown, O’Donovan invited Sen. Pray to give a lecture on how his faith informs his civil service. “I never talked about my faith in public,” Biden told Esquire in 2011. ‘Either way, I’ve never worked so hard on a speech in my entire life. What I realized when I wrote was the greatest sin a man or woman can commit is the abuse of power. ‘

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Georgetown University

Since leaving Georgetown’s presidency, O’Donovan has returned to teaching as a visiting professor at institutions including Fordham University, General Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. At the request of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whose son attended Georgetown, O’Donovan served on the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company.

In 2015, Biden’s son Beau, the former Delaware Attorney General, died at the age of 46 after a recurrence of brain cancer. Biden asked O’Donovan to give the praise during Beau’s funeral. “Joe, I’m so sorry,” O’Donovan told Biden and then started crying.

“He started comforting me,” O’Donovan later told the National Catholic Register. “He became the pastor there.”

In 2016, O’Donovan became director of the mission at the Jesuit Refugee Service USA, and has since sharply criticized President Trump’s immigration policy. On November 12, 2020, days after his election, Biden participated in a virtual fundraiser for Jesuit Refugee Service, announcing that he would increase the target for admitted refugees in the US from the Trump administration’s 15,000 per year to 125,000 per year. Biden also wrote the foreword to O’Donovan’s 2018 book Blessed are the refugees: beatings of immigrant children.

On Inauguration Day, O’Donovan’s prayer will not only represent a long friendship and a connection to one of the most tragic events in Biden’s life; it will be a statement about the new president’s continued commitment to his Catholic roots. Biden often spoke of his faith as a ‘comfort’ in a time of tragedy and grief during the loss of his own family members. And it seems especially important to a president who at one time or another is eligible through suffering and grief for many Americans.

Reverend Silvester Beaman’s Reminder is a reminder that there is still work to be done

O’Donovan’s call – traditionally a prayer for help – will likely ask for God’s blessing on the ceremony and on Biden before the new president swears to uphold the Constitution. After the ceremony, Rev. Silvester Beaman offers a prayer of blessing or a blessing for the meetings.

Hailing from Niagara Falls, New York, Beaman is a graduate of Wilberforce University, the first privately owned black university owned and operated by African Americans. Wilberforce is associated with the African Methodist Episcopal denomination, as well as Beaman’s church, Bethel AME, a predominantly black church in Wilmington, Delaware. (Biden’s home is in Greenville, a suburb of Wilmington.)

Biden and Beaman met in 1993, after Beaman took over Bethel. Biden attended a community event that Beaman held and introduced himself to the new pastor, and the two men struck up a friendship. Beaman occasionally traveled with Biden during his previous presidential campaigns and became a friend to the entire Biden family, especially Beau.

Beaman told NBC News that while Beau Biden was the Delaware Attorney General, he found a partner in his work. “Beau and I became affectionate,” Beaman said. “We have become good friends in the trenches associated with social issues in Wilmington and the state.” He also participates in Beau’s funeral service in 2015.

Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images

Amid national unrest and protests against racism and police violence following the death of George Floyd, on June 1, 2020, Biden met with 15 Black community leaders in a meeting in the sanctuary. by Bethel. He promised to address institutional racism and set up a police oversight body during his first 100 days if elected. “The vice president came to hear from us,” Beaman said before the group prayed. “It’s a domestic dog.”

The June 1 meeting in Beaman Church became the feed for three misleading and racist Trump campaign ads, which used footage of Biden kneeling in the church reservation in front of Beaman and other black leaders. In an advertisement released in June, the video is topped with images of violent protests, with the church band fading and a narrator saying, ‘Antifa is destroying our communities. Riots. Plunder. Still, Joe Biden kneels down. ”

In August, the footage was digitally edited to show that Biden was alone in an advertisement aimed at suggesting that the former vice president was fearful and defeated, but gave up all but one of the champions.

In September, the footage reappears, this time in slow motion and visible with the black leaders. The words “Stop Joe Biden and his rioters” follow on footage, with Vice President Mike Pence saying, “You will not be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” Beaman told Religion News Service that the ad was ‘openly racist’, an ‘attack on the African American Church’. Along with other AME leaders, Beaman signed a letter denouncing the ad and calling on federal law enforcement to investigate it, as it could ‘incite violence and encourage racial tensions that lead to people from color in the harmful direction. ‘

On Wednesday, the blessings of Beaman – a friend and confidant of nearly 30 years – will be a promise to be connected to the concerns of black communities, a matter of great importance, as Biden is currently in the role of president tree.

And Beaman is well aware of the interests: “I will stand in front of a building built by slaves, and I will stand on a stage that has desecrated a crowd,” he told NBC News. ‘The last word on the day will be the voice of God. I ask God to use me to channel His final grace at the event and speak to the moment. And it is an honor to do so. ‘