Biden’s inauguration prayers: O’Donovan and Beaman represent new president’s priorities

As with everything that happens during a presidential inauguration, selecting the clergy to pray at the ceremony is not just a formality – it is a statement by the new president, telegraphing the values ​​of his administration to the country.

And for Joe Biden – a lifelong Catholic who has frequently cited his faith in recent speeches, citing everyone from St. Francis of Assisi to the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings” – the two men offering prayers have significance. personal. Father Leo J. O’Donovan, Jesuit priest and spiritual mentor to Biden, will offer the invocation at the start of the service on January 20, and Reverend Silvester Beaman, a friend and confidant, will give the blessing at the end.

Beaman and O’Donovan’s involvement in Biden’s inauguration places them in a long line of clergy who prayed at inaugural events, dating back to the second inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an Episcopalian, in 1937. Trump’s inauguration in 2017 included six religious leaders, a record, including Franklin Graham (who participated in the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001), Paula White and Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.

Biden is only the second Catholic to become President of the United States, after the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. But in recent years, he was also criticized by his Catholic colleagues for his position on the right to abortion. 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 taken (although this is in line with what his fellow Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential election).

Some members of the Catholic clergy have suggested that it should be forbidden to participate in Holy Communion – the central feature of the Catholic Mass – and some have already categorically refused it. However, Biden claims he is a devout Catholic (he received a congratulatory call from Pope Francis after his election), and his invocation of his faith throughout his campaign suggests that his Catholicism will be an important part of not only his inauguration ceremony, but also his presidency.

Bro. Leo O’Donovan’s invocation is a signal of Biden’s connection to his Catholic roots

Biden and O’Donovan’s careers have crossed paths for decades. O’Donovan, originally from New York, was president of Georgetown University from 1989 to 2001, a period marked by the university’s evolution into a highly selective, more diverse and more financially stable institution. But there were also controversies; most notably, in 1992, a Vatican court ordered him to suspend funding for an abortion rights organization on a campus.

In 1992, when Biden’s son Hunter was a student in Georgetown, O’Donovan then invited Sen. Biden to give a talk on how his faith informed his public service. “I had never spoken about my faith publicly,” Biden told Esquire in 2011. “Anyway, I’ve never worked so hard on a speech in my life. What I realized while writing that this is the greatest sin a man or a woman can commit is the abuse of power.

Kevin Mazur / Getty Images for Georgetown University

Since leaving the Georgetown presidency, O’Donovan has returned to teaching as a visiting professor at institutions such as Fordham University, General Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary. At the behest 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, a former Delaware attorney general, died at the age of 46 from brain cancer. Biden asked O’Donovan to deliver the homily at Beau’s funeral. “Joe, I’m so sorry,” O’Donovan said to Biden, then he started to cry.

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

In 2016, O’Donovan became mission director at the Jesuit Refugee Service USA and has since strongly criticized President Trump’s immigration policy. On November 12, 2020, days after his election, Biden participated in a virtual fundraiser for the Jesuit Refugee Service, in which he announced he would increase the goal of refugees admitted to the United States by 15,000 per year to 125,000 per year. Biden also wrote the foreword to O’Donovan’s 2018 book. Happy are the refugees: the beatitudes of immigrant children.

On inauguration day, O’Donovan’s prayer will not only represent a long friendship and connection to one of the most tragic events in Biden’s life; it will be a statement about the new president’s continued connection to his Catholic roots. Biden has often referred to his faith as a “comfort” in a time of tragedy and grief over the loss of his own family members. And that seems especially important for a president who takes office at a time marked by the suffering and grief of many Americans.

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

The invocation of O’Donovan – traditionally a prayer that asks 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, Reverend Silvester Beaman will offer a prayer of blessing, or a blessing for those assembled.

A native of Niagara Falls, New York, Beaman is a graduate of Wilberforce University, the first historically black private university to be owned and operated by African Americans. Wilberforce is associated with the African Methodist episcopal denomination, as is Beaman’s Church, Bethel AME, a predominantly black church located in Wilmington, Delaware. (Biden’s primary residence is in Greenville, a suburb of Wilmington.)

Biden and Beaman met in 1993, after Beaman took over Bethel. Biden attended a community event hosted by Beaman and introduced himself to the new pastor, and the two formed a friendship. Beaman occasionally traveled with Biden in his previous presidential campaigns and became a friend of the entire Biden family, especially Beau.

Beaman told NBC News that while Beau Biden was Delaware’s attorney general, he found a partner in his work. “Beau and I have become cognate spirits,” Beaman said. “We became good friends in the trenches dealing with social issues in Wilmington and the state.” He also attended Beau’s funeral in 2015.

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On June 1, 2020, amid national unrest and anti-racism protests and police violence following the death of George Floyd, Biden – who had sharply reduced his public appearances due to the coronavirus pandemic – met with 15 leaders of the black community at a meeting in the shrine. in Bethel. He has vowed to tackle institutional racism and set up a police oversight body during his first 100 days in office if elected. “The vice president came to hear us,” Beaman said before the group prayed. “He’s a homeboy.”

The June 1 meeting at Beaman Church served as fodder for three misleading and racist Trump campaign advertisements, which used images of Biden kneeling in the church sanctuary in front of Beaman and other black leaders. In an ad published in June, the video was superimposed on footage of violent protests, with the church context blurred and a narrator saying, “Antifa is destroying our communities. Riots. Looting. Still, Joe Biden kneels.

In August, the footage was digitally altered to make Biden appear alone in an ad designed to imply the former vice president was curled up in fear and defeated, having all but given up on campaigning.

In September, the footage appeared again, this time in slow motion and with the black rulers visible. The words “Stop Joe Biden and His Rioters” followed the footage, with audio from Vice President Mike Pence saying, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” Beaman told Religion News Service that the ad was “blatantly racist,” an “attack on the African American Church.” Along with other AME leaders, Beaman signed a letter denouncing the announcement and calling on federal law enforcement to investigate it, as it “could incite violence and encourage racial tensions that lead to people of color in danger ”.

On Wednesday, the blessing of Beaman – a friend and confidant for nearly 30 years – will signal a promise to be connected to the concerns of black communities, a matter of great importance as Biden ascends to the role of president at this time.

And Beaman is well aware of the stakes: “I’ll be standing in front of a building built by slaves and I’ll be standing on a podium that a mob has desecrated,” he told NBC News. “The last word on that day will be the voice of God. I ask God to use me to channel His final grace on occasion and speak of the moment. And it’s an honor to do so.