Holy Week at White House features dinner with Christian leaders, religious service

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 15, 2025 / 16:52 pm (CNA).

The White House has announced plans for the Christian Holy Week leading up to Easter, which will include a Wednesday dinner and a Thursday religious service with Christians from a variety of communities.

President Donald Trump on Palm Sunday kicked off Holy Week with comments acknowledging Jesus Christ’s “excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross” and the gift of redemption and the forgiveness of sins merited through his suffering and death. He added that “through his resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.”

Trump urged prayers for “an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved nation” and for the intention that the United States will “achieve a future that reflects the truth, beauty, and goodness of Christ’s eternal kingdom in heaven.”

Jennifer Korn, director of the White House Faith Office, told CNA that Catholics and Christians from a variety of Protestant communities are expected to be in attendance for the Holy Week events.

To celebrate Holy Week, the White House on Wednesday will hold a dinner and prayer service, which will be livestreamed online. On Thursday, the White House will host a prayer and worship service, which will include Christian hymns performed by musicians associated with Liberty University, a private Christian school.

Korn said Trump is hosting these events to ensure that Holy Week is “honored with the observance that it deserves.” She said the various events are “engaging with America in the way that America celebrates Easter.”

Trump’s motivation for the celebrations

The 2025 Holy Week celebrations are also more robust than the events Trump held during his first administration. Korn noted that in his second administration, Trump has “a resolve that is really different [from] last time.”

Trump has publicly spoken about his belief that God saved him from being assassinated at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

“He’s been very transparent about that day — both publicly and privately — saying that it changed his life and he truly does believe that God spared his life to be president again and to really bring America back,” Korn said.

“We see that appreciation and humility that comes from a very near death experience,” she said, adding that, in private conversations, Trump speaks about that day in the same way he speaks about it in public: “He truly believes that.”

Korn also noted that Trump decorated the Oval Office with “two gold angels on two sides of the office.” During a meeting, she said the president told her to “look up at the ceiling” and said the angels are there “to guard over and look over the Oval Office” and his work and the work of his administration.

Trump in February established the White House Faith Office, which was created to help root out anti-Christian bias, defend religious liberty, and ensure that religious communities are part of the public policy discussions.

The new office replaced the former White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Korn said the creation of the Faith Office was historic and that it is different from the initiatives of previous presidents, adding it has “never been done before in the West Wing.” In meetings with the president, she said he frequently asks her: “How are my pastors doing, how are my priests, how are my rabbis doing?”

The separation of church and state, Korn said, “doesn’t mean that people of faith don’t have a voice in the government.” She asserted that this office is “bringing that voice back” with efforts to promote religious liberty domestically and abroad, among other initiatives.

In addition to the Holy Week celebrations, Korn noted that the White House is also hosting a Passover event on Thursday afternoon. The Jewish celebration of Passover, which began on April 12 and ends on April 20, overlaps with the Christian Holy Week this year.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263401/holy-week-at-white-house-features-dinner-with-christian-leaders-religious-service