Brooklyn priest to pray at inauguration after ‘unlikely’ friendship with President Trump

CNA Staff, Jan 16, 2025 / 11:40 am

A priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn who has been asked to pray at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump is describing the experience — which includes a personal friendship with the president — as “mind-boggling.” 

Father Francis Mann is scheduled to deliver the closing benediction at Trump’s second inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20.

The Brooklyn Diocese told CNA that Mann was unavailable for an interview. But in a Wednesday profile at the diocesan newspaper the Tablet, the priest described the distinction as an “indescribable honor.” 

The retired diocesan priest, who was ordained in 1979, originally struck up what the Tablet called an “unlikely friendship” with Trump after he came across the gravesites of Trump’s parents in a Queens cemetery. 

“It was slightly overgrown,” Mann told the Tablet. “I thought this shouldn’t be. This is a historic site. So, I went and bought a weed whacker and some decorations and fixed up the plot.” The priest then sent a photo of the graves to the president.

Several weeks later Trump personally called Mann to inquire about the photograph. Learning that the priest had done the work on his own volition, Trump said the two should “get together the next time he was in New York,” according to the Tablet. 

After his loss in the 2020 election, Trump called Mann up and invited him to a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The priest described the once and future president as “the nicest, most down-to-earth guy.” 

“There are no airs about him. He has a great sense of humor. He’s a regular guy,” Mann told the Tablet. 

The president and the priest have continued to stay in touch and to meet up, including at Trump’s summer residence in New Jersey as well as a dinner at the president’s country club. Trump subsequently endorsed “The Wounded Butterfly,” a children’s book written by Mann. 

Trump also sought Mann’s advice on winning the Catholic vote in the 2024 election. The president-elect handily won over Catholic voters in his successful November bid for the presidency.

The Tablet reported that Mann intends to make the Jan. 20 benediction “personal” and that he “will be asking for a blessing for his friend, the president of the United States, the new vice president, and the country they will lead.”

“It’s taken me longer than I thought to process having been chosen to be such a significant part of the inauguration’s moment in history,” Mann reflected.