By Tyler Arnold
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 1, 2025 /
16:53 pm
Two members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States — Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron — have been tapped to serve on a new presidential commission on religious liberty created by President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 1.
Trump signed the executive order to create the Religious Liberty Commission in the White House Rose Garden surrounded by faith leaders from various traditions. The announcement coincided with the country’s National Day of Prayer.
“As we bow our heads this beautiful day in the Rose Garden on the National Day of Prayer, we once again entrust our lives, our liberties, our happiness to the Creator who gave them to us and who loves us,” said Trump, a self-described “nondenominational Christian,” before signing the order.
The new Religious Liberty Commission is tasked with creating a report on current threats to freedom of religion and strategies to enhance legal protections for those rights. The report will also outline the foundations of religious liberty in the United States and provide guidance on how to increase the awareness of peaceful religious pluralism in the country.
Some of the commission’s key areas of focus will include parental rights in religious education, school choice, conscience protections, free speech for religious entities, institutional autonomy, and attacks on houses of worship. It was created due to concerns that federal and state policies have infringed upon those rights.
Members of the newly formed commission include the two Catholic prelates and Protestant leaders, such as Pastor Paula White, along with rabbis and imams. The Catholic president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Ryan Anderson, was also appointed to serve on the commission, as was psychologist and television personality Dr. Phil McGraw and renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson.
The commission will be chaired by Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, an evangelical Christian who Trump said gave him the idea to create the commission.
“No one should get between God and a believer,” Patrick said at the event. “No one should get between God and those seeking him.”
Bishop Barron: ‘We are indeed a nation under God’
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was in attendance and delivered a prayer for the country and the president while on stage. Dolan, the archbishop of New York and a cardinal elector in the upcoming papal conclave, is in Rome.
“We know that the rights we enjoy to life, to liberty, to the pursuit of happiness are given not by government or popular consensus but by [God],” Barron said in his prayer, adding that “we are indeed a nation under God.”
Barron said religious liberty “has been reverenced from the very beginning of our republic as our first freedom” and prayed that God “might give us the grace to preserve it and strengthen it.”
He prayed that God will “bless our president” and that Trump will “strive always to please you in what he says and does, and may he govern under the direction of your providence.” He prayed that the president’s decisions will “always be particularly mindful of those who suffer and those who are most in need.”
Barron also prayed for the American people to always be “architects of justice and makers of peace” and asked God for a country that is “prosperous and strong, but above all righteous and docile to your will.”
In a post on X, Barron expressed gratitude toward Trump for appointing him to serve on the commission and said that religious liberty is a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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“I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter,” he wrote.
Barron added that he will try to model his service after Father Theodore Hesburgh, who was the president of the University of Notre Dame from 1952–1987 and served on 16 different presidential commissions in Republican and Democratic administrations.
Trump: ‘We have to trust our God’
At the event, Trump remarked that the National Day of Prayer is “a tradition older than our independence itself” and emphasized the importance of Americans putting their trust in God.
“We have to trust our God because our God knows exactly where we’re going, what we’re doing, knows every inch of our lives,” the president said. “And may he continue to hear our prayers to guide our steps and build up our beloved nation to even greater heights. We’re in the process of doing some great things.”
Trump, who earlier this year created the White House Faith Office and the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias, said that activity in the Faith Office has been robust with “a lot of people going back and forth.”
“That’s what we want: to defend and represent people of all faiths and their religious freedoms at home and abroad,” the president said.
He suggested that because he created the commission on religious liberty with several faith leaders, “we’re probably going to be sued tomorrow” and said in a mocking voice: “Separation of church and state — can’t do that, right?” He asserted that Attorney General Pam Bondi “will win that suit.”
“The separation, is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Trump said. “I’m not sure. But whether there’s separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be and you’re representing our country. And we’re bringing religion back to our country.”
During his speech, Trump also spoke about his efforts to combat antisemitism and the ongoing work to get the hostages held by Hamas returned home. He also discussed budget negotiations and the desire to prevent tax hikes, the reduced rate of illegal immigration, and potential trade deals with countries he has subjected to higher tariffs for trade with the U.S.
Tyler Arnold is a staff reporter for Catholic News Agency, based in EWTN News’ Washington Bureau. He previously worked at The Center Square and has been published in a variety of outlets, including The Associated Press, National Review, The American Conservative, and The Federalist.
