(OSV News) — “There are people who really hate Donald Trump and want to shoot him!” Father Jason Charron said he shouted to a crowd as he was leaving the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for former President Donald Trump on July 13.
Just a few minutes later, shots rang out. A bullet grazed Trump’s right ear, and a Pennsylvania firefighter seated behind him was killed. Two others were critically injured but are reported to be recovering.
Opening prayer and sudden violence
Father Charron, 48, was near his car when he heard the “popping” of gunfire and saw people hurrying toward exits, which struck him as strange, as he knew Trump was speaking. He was in his car when a parishioner attending the rally called him to tell him what had happened.
A few hours earlier, Father Charron had been on that stage giving an opening prayer for the rally. He said the Trump campaign had invited him to pray but did not give a reason for reaching out to him. He presumed it may have been because of his public pro-life advocacy, which includes efforts to build a pro-life shrine in Pittsburgh.
“Can you hear me? Isn’t our God great?” Father Charron had shouted to the crowd before his 40-second prayer.
“Let us pray,” he said. “Our Father and God, we pray that at this time of crisis in our nation and in our world, that your Holy Spirit will use this crisis to remind us of the need to get right with you, to right our relationships with each other, that we will repent of anything that’s holding us back, that our relationships being made right in your sight, we might make our nation great again, and — through your grace and your goodness — and making our country great again that our world may be set right. Through Christ our Lord, Amen!”
A Ukrainian Catholic priest of the Eparchy of St. Josaphat, based in Parma, Ohio, Father Charron is pastor of two Catholic parishes — Holy Trinity in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Wheeling, West Virginia — as well as a former seminary and high school instructor and a well-known face in the region’s pro-life movement.
The need for religious presence
“The problem with our political landscape is that religious leaders have evacuated their presence from the stage, and I think at this point in our nation’s history, that the clarity that comes with and in the Gospel is needed now more than ever. Our presence spiritually is critical in navigating these tumultuous times,” said Father Charron, who is also a married father of seven with one grandchild, as Ukrainian-rite priests are permitted to marry before ordination.
He was the only member of the clergy on the rally stage, he said. He didn’t accept the invitation to pray at the rally out of partisan politics, and he would have also prayed for a Democratic rally if asked, he told OSV News July 14.
After the prayer, which was around 3 p.m., he said, he sat onstage with other speakers before the group was escorted off the stage prior to the former president’s address. They met Trump briefly backstage, and Father Charron said he spoke to him quickly about supporting Ukrainians in their ongoing war. Then, with another engagement planned, Father Charron headed to his car, never having planned to listen to Trump’s address.
Words of warning
A group of about 15 to 20 rallygoers outside a safety perimeter who could not see the stage engaged him, asked if Trump had arrived and what the priest had spoken about with Trump.
“And I said to them, ‘You know, I did my part, folks. I prayed, and now it’s up to you guys to continue praying, because there are people who really hate Donald Trump and want to shoot him,'” he recalled. “That’s why we pray. We’re here to pray for protection, and people want to shoot him.”
Violence against Trump was a possibility Father Charron said he had discussed privately with friends, but he was surprised to hear himself say it aloud to strangers at the rally.
“It just kind of came out of my mouth,” he said, recognizing that the words appear imprudent and rash. When he got the call that Trump had been shot, his mind went immediately to those words.
“It was surreal,” he said. “I thought, if he dies, we’re in the bowels of civil war.”
Addressing his parishioners
The following day, he spoke about his experience with his parishioners during the liturgy, and he encouraged them to strive for sainthood amid the United States’ difficult circumstances.
“We are at the boiling point and an intersection and inflection point between political and salvation history in which the role of each man, woman and child is going to be decisive in the final outcome,” he said he told them. “Our role in that outcome can be good or evil, but the time for mediocrity is over. And everything in our lives has built us up for this moment of greatness to become saints in the great struggle for Godly order. You may not have chosen the fight, but the fight has chosen you. We have two options: to be saints or swine.”
Personal impact
Raised in Canada but a longtime U.S. resident, Father Charron said proximity to Trump’s assassination attempt has changed him. The words he shared with the small group of rallygoers took on a new meaning in light of the subsequent shooting, he said.
“There’s a segment of our society that has so vilified Donald Trump regardless of their politics to see him as subhuman or evil incarnate, and they have objectified those who are politically aligned with his movement,” he said. “This is an obstacle to a well-ordered society built on trusting relationships.”
Part of what impelled Father Charron to accept the invitation to pray at the rally was his pro-life convictions, he said, especially amid indications that the Republican Party may soften its anti-abortion platform amid national pressure.
“I wanted to be a clear presence for the right to life,” the priest told OSV News. “This is a time to dig in on the right to life and the right to defend mothers and families, and I want to be a counterweight to those who know what’s right and don’t do it, manifesting that worst cowardice.”
