More than 1,000 people came together in Washington, D.C., March 19 for the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast to pray for the country, which was an effort commended by Pope Leo XIV in a letter to attendees.
Archbishop Joseph Naumann, archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, read the Pope’s message at the event. According to EWTN News, which livestreamed the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, the annual event began in 2004 in response to Pope Saint John Paul II’s “call for a new evangelization.”
The tradition of praying for one’s nation goes back to biblical times, Pope Leo noted, recalling that Saint Paul invited Christians to pray specifically for people in authoritative positions, “confident that their prayer, united to that of Christ, would be both powerful and effective.”
The Pontiff also recalled the history of the annual event and how Pope John Paul II asked the faithful “to re-evangelize cultures that were previously Christianized long ago, with methods that are appropriate to our own time.” This mission, Pope Leo said, cannot be separated from cultivating “a deep friendship with God in prayer,” emphasizing that spending time with Jesus daily with an open heart enables one to know Him and be transformed by His grace.
“It is in this light that I would like to reiterate the ongoing need for evangelization, and at the same time, invite you to persevere in a truly authentic and fruitful life of prayer,” Pope Leo continued.
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday this year, the Prayer Breakfast is focused particularly on “the contribution of Catholicism to this beloved country,” Pope Leo said, noting that this contribution, as is the case in any country, depends on authentically following Jesus.
“Wherever she finds herself, the Church seeks to carry out her mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God, making available to everyone the Lord's gifts of truth and life, in order to unite all people to God,” Pope Leo said.
This mission is oftentimes pursued amid struggles, but Christ’s love helps Catholics to overcome the difficulties in order to share His love with others, he continued.
In light of this, Catholicism’s contribution to this country, as with any, "has depended and largely will depend upon the authenticity of those who follow the Lord. To be Jesus’ disciples implies not only adhering to His teaching, but also to his way of life, aligning our thoughts, desires, and actions with His own.”
“As long as you remain faithfully united to Him and grounded in His love,” he said, “I am confident that the Church in the United States will persevere in its mission to be a leaven in society, and thus continue to contribute to building up the reign of justice and charity, both within your own nation and around the world.”
The Pontiff concluded by entrusting all participants to the intercession of Mary Immaculate and Saint Joseph and by imparting his apostolic blessing.
Jonathan Roumie leads Divine Mercy chaplet, says Christ’s mercy ‘is being offered to each one of us right now’
According to the National Catholic Register, about 1,500 guests were in attendance. The event’s webpage schedule said those present had the opportunity to attend Adoration, Confession, and Mass the evening before at the Immaculate Conception Church. They also prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet, led by guest speaker and Catholic actor Jonathan Roumie at the breakfast.
Before leading the prayer, Roumie reflected on Christ’s divine Mercy and on what he has encountered amid portraying Jesus in the TV series The Chosen, which recently filmed the Passion. Roumie said it is has been a “profound privilege” to portray Jesus, saying from the outset his desire has been “to help people encounter [Christ] not just as a figure in history, but as a living person, Someone Who sees us, Someone Who knows us, and Who calls us to Himself.”
Roumie said that in filming the Passion, he began to see more clearly “that this is not just something we remember, but that this is at the very heart of our faith: that God would enter into our suffering and offer Himself completely out of love for us.”
He said he was particularly struck by the mercy of Christ, in that it “is not distant or inaccessible” or something “confined to the past.”
“It is present,” Roumie said. “It is real, and it is being offered to each one of us right now, in our weakness, in our sin, in the places where we feel the most unworthy. That is where His divine mercy meets us.”
Attendees hear message from President Donald Trump
Later in the event, attendees also received a message from President Donald Trump about religious freedom. In the message read at the event, Trump greeted the attendees, whom he described as “incredible patriots.” In the message read to those present, he also said his administration is committed to protecting Catholics’ right “to worship God freely and without fear.”
The President also praised the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast’s efforts praying for the country and promoting Catholic Church teaching, saying the work “is a shining example of how devotion to God and love of country can transform our culture, inspire our government, and uplift our nation.”
Other speakers included Catholic political commentator Michael Knowles; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; Claire Lai, daughter of Hong Kong-imprisoned Catholic journalist Jimmy Lai; and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La. The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast also presented this year’s Christifideles Laici Award, which spotlights people who serve the Church through various forms of evangelization, to Alex Jones, a co-founder of the Hallow app.
Michael Knowles and America’s ‘intrinsically Catholic character’
In his keynote, Knowles reflected on what he described as the “intrinsically Catholic character” of the U.S., saying that this argument was first made by 19th-century analyst Alexis de Tocqueville. De Tocqueville argued that “over time, the overwhelmingly Protestant Americans would trend in two directions when it came to religion,” either toward becoming Catholic or giving up Christian religion entirely, Knowles recalled. This predication was not rooted in “demographic trends, but on America’s very nature,” as de Tocqueville observed America as a uniquely democratic country, according to Knowles.
De Tocqueville saw Catholics in the U.S. as “not only the most republican and the most democratic class of citizens which exists, but also at the same time the most faithful believers and the most zealous citizens,” Knowles later explained. “Not only did their faith not undermine Catholic citizenship, it actually encouraged it, because Catholics’ natural fitness for America ran deeper than mere democracy.”
Knowles argued that the constitutional three-branch governmental framework outlined by the Founding Fathers bears “a striking resemblance” to Saint Thomas Aquinas’ outlining of an ideal political regime.
Looking back on the course of U.S. history, “a distinctly Catholic character begins to appear,” Knowles said. He argued that this is not “wishful thinking,” but something evident given that currently, though only a little more than 20% of the U.S. population is Catholic, 28% of congressmen, 38% of governors, and at least two-thirds of the Supreme Court are Catholic.
Concluding, Knowles observed that the prominence of Catholicism in public life as of 2025 would have been a surprise to the Founding Fathers. He noted that the current U.S. vice president is Catholic and every currently viable 2028 presidential candidate is Catholic, saying that this is something that few forefathers could have predicted and “only a firm faith in Providence could have permitted.”
“And yet here we find ourselves, a quarter millennium later, a people and a place so improbably and perfectly suited for each other,” he said, “that not only can a Catholic become president, but an American can even be the Pope.”