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WASHINGTON – As the pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Washington, DC, Reverend Kevin Gillespie often saw then-Vice President Joe Biden among worshipers on Sundays. And so, when Biden was elected just the country’s second Catholic president in November, Gillespie checked parish records.
“He’s a registered parishioner,” Gillespie told NBC News. “I looked for him. He is always there.
The occupant of the White House has been a regular practitioner for decades. Biden, who has often said his faith saw him go through searing personal loss, should put an end to this. But amid increased security and an ongoing pandemic, an ongoing routine may have to wait.
Biden attended the noon service at Holy Trinity on Sunday – one of the few the church is leading in person during the health crisis. But administration officials won’t say whether the new president, for whom Mass is a family affair, has decided which local church, if any, he could make his own for the next four years.
Attending church virtually or having a priest come to the White House to organize social distance services are among the alternative options being considered. However, he decides to worship, the president, and First Lady Jill Biden, are likely to receive weekly “spiritual encouragement” via text message, as they did during the campaign.
Gillespie is among those who have been in contact with the White House about the adjusted schedule of weekly Holy Trinity services – an in-person Mass held Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon and a virtual Mass Sunday morning. He also offered to send one of the Jesuit priests in the parish to the White House to celebrate Mass there, if requested.
“It’s up to them to say yes or no,” he said.
Bill Clinton was the last president to regularly attend church in Washington during his tenure and join a local church. He joined the Foundry United Methodist Church, about a mile from the White House. Jimmy Carter also joined a church about a mile from the White House, attending services at the First Baptist on 16th Street most Sundays during his tenure.
Donald Trump has attended services on occasion, most notably at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House, though his most frequent Sunday destination was a golf club he owns across the Potomac. in Virginia.
Barack Obama also enjoyed hitting ties on Sundays, but attended occasional services at various churches in the area, including St. John’s.
George W. Bush was deeply religious but did not become a regular presence in a church in the White House.
Like his father, George HW Bush, he spent time at the Chapel of Camp David, Maryland’s secluded presidential retreat. After 9/11 there were also security concerns, but young Bush attended services when he returned to his home state of Texas.
John F. Kennedy, the country’s first Catholic president, joined St. Matthews in Washington while he was in office and attended church regularly. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy attended another church, St. Stephen Martyr, because it was smaller and easier to secure. Part of the reason Kennedy attended church while in the White House was “he thought a president should,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss said.
Nixon did not attend church but held church services at the White House, which he used to invite political allies.
Reagan did not attend church regularly, and his team said it was for security reasons after the assassination attempt. But he was a staunch devotee after he left office and returned to California.
“Almost always, we find that we never really understood the private religious beliefs and practices of a president at the time he served,” Beschloss said. “And you usually have to wait decades to find out what he believed and what he practiced.”
With Biden, that doesn’t have to be the case.
Throughout the campaign and transition, Biden not only rarely missed weekend mass in his home Delaware parish, but he also attended services on holy days of obligation and strove to ” attend services while traveling. Her daughter, Ashley Biden, told The Today Show last week that she helped her father find a small church to attend mass on the road amid the Democratic Primary campaign fire, ahead of the pandemic.
But he also opted for home services. On Christmas, when the Bidens never left their Wilmington home, a close family friend, Reverend Kevin O’Brien, a Jesuit priest who is now president of Santa Clara University, virtually celebrated mass. for the Bidens.
The Bidens asked O’Brien to celebrate Mass on inauguration day – a service at the Apostle’s St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington that included bipartisan congressional leaders and close family and friends. He had held smaller private masses for the Bidens before his inauguration as vice president in 2009 and 2013.
“It was something so beautiful because it was so familiar,” O’Brien told NBC News. “I was so happy that I could help offer this – it was really the church that offered it to him.
O’Brien first met the Bidens at Holy Trinity and then at Georgetown University. Biden attended services at both – sometimes morning Masses at Holy Trinity, or the subsequent service at Georgetown’s Dahlgren Chapel, depending on his schedule.
O’Brien said he kept in touch with Biden after leaving the vice presidency and would send him and Jill Biden weekly “spiritual encouragement” via text message during the campaign – something that ‘he hopes would probably continue with him in the White House.
“I will be of any support I can for them over the next four years,” said O’Brien.
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