Bishop Joseph Strickland called out New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan for not using the name of Jesus during the inauguration prayer for President Donald Trump.
In a January 20 post on X, Bishop Strickland condemned Dolan for failing to mention Jesus Christ during the cardinal’s opening prayer at the inauguration in Washington, D.C.
“How dare he not speak of Our Lord Jesus as he stands in prayer for our nation, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, He is the one true Lord for all of us, to fail to invoke Him is to fail to know the power of His Name! Pray for our nation!” Bishop Strickland wrote.
During his prayer, Dolan mentioned several people by name, including Trump, former President Joe Biden, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King. However, Jesus’ name was not used once.
Instead, Dolan addressed the prayer to “God, Supreme among the Nations, Supreme on the earth.”
In fact, Dolan was outdone by Protestant Franklin Graham, who ended his prayer “in the name of the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, Your Son, my Savior, and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen.”
Dolan’s neglect to mention Jesus is surprising considering this is hardly the first time that he has led public prayer at political events.
Dolan previously prayed at the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC), where Trump told viewers that his surviving an assassination attempt was “only by the grace of Almighty God.”
Dolan has been a constant figure at political events since he was elevated to his current role by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009. Not only did he say a prayer at the 2020 RNC, he also gave a closing benediction at the 2012 Republican Convention and prayed at that year’s Democratic National Convention.
Additionally, in December, Dolan praised Trump for his professed faith, saying that Trump “takes his Christian faith seriously.”
During his inauguration speech, Trump attributed his narrow escape from an assassination attempt to God, saying, “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
“In everything we do my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success,” he promised. “We will not forget our country. We will not forget our Constitution. And we will not forget our God.”