Författare: Joanne M. Pierce Professor Emerita of Religious Studies Coll

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon on Jan. 21, 2025, in which she appealed to President Donald Trump to have mercy toward groups frightened by his position on immigrants and LGBTQ+ people – especially children – drew reactions from both sides of the aisle.

In a post on his social networking site, Truth Social, Trump called her comments “nasty in tone” and remarked that she “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.”

“She and her church owe the public an apology!,” he posted. Several conservatives criticized her sermon, while many progressives saw her as “speaking truth to power.”

As a specialist in medieval Christianity, I was not surprised by the bishop’s words, as I know that Christian history is full of examples of people who have spoken out, unafraid to risk official censure, or even death.

Early voices

Even in the early centuries of Christianity, followers of Jesus Christ’s teachings could be outspoken toward political leaders.

For example, in the first-century Gospels, John the Baptist, a contemporary of Jesus, confronts the ruler of Galilee, Herod Antipas, for marrying his brother’s wife – a practice forbidden in the Hebrew scriptures. For that, John the Baptist was ultimately beheaded.

In a prayer later called the Magnificat, Mary, the mother of Jesus, praises the glory and power of God who casts down the mighty and raises the lowly. In recent interpretations, these words have been understood as a call for those in authority to act more justly.

In the late fourth century – a time when Christianity had been made the official religion of the Roman Empire – a respected civil official named Ambrose became bishop of the imperial city of Milan in northern Italy. He became well known for his preaching and theological treatises.

However, after imperial troops massacred innocent civilians in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, Ambrose reproached Emperor Theodosius and refused to admit him to church for worship until he did public penance for their deaths.

Ambrose’s writings on scripture and heresy, as well as his hymns, had a profound influence on Western Christian theology; since his death, he has been venerated as a saint.

In the early sixth century, the Christian Roman senator and philosopher Boethius served as an official in the Roman court of the Germanic king of Italy, Theodoric. A respected figure for his learning and personal integrity, Boethius was imprisoned on false charges after defending others from accusations by corrupt court officials acting out of greed or ambition.

During his time in prison, he wrote a philosophical volume about the nature of what is true good – “On the Consolation of Philosophy” – that is studied even today. Boethius, who was executed in 524, is venerated as a saint and martyr in parts of Italy.

Thomas Becket and St. Catherine

One of the most famous examples of a medieval bishop speaking truth to power is that of Thomas Becket, former chancellor – that is, senior minister – of England in the 12th century. On becoming archbishop of Canterbury, Becket resigned his secular office and opposed the efforts of King Henry II to bring the church under royal control.

A stained glass window at the Canterbury Cathedral in England depicting the murder of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.
Dukas/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

After living in exile in France for a time, Becket returned to England and was assassinated by some of Henry’s knights. The king later did public penance for this at Becket’s tomb in Canterbury. Soon after, Becket was canonized a saint.

Another influential saint was the 14th-century Italian mystic and writer Catherine of Siena. Because of the increasing power of the kings of France, the popes had moved their residence and offices from Rome to Avignon, on the French border. They remained there for most of the century, even though this Avignon papacy increased tensions in western Europee.

Many Christian clerics and secular rulers in western Europe believed that the popes needed to return to Rome, to distance papal authority from French influence. Catherine herself even traveled to Avignon and stayed there for months, writing letters urging Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome and restore peace to Italy and the church – a goal the pope finally fulfilled in 1377.

Leaders speak up across denominations

The Reformation era of the 16th and early 17th centuries led to the splitting of Western Christianity into several different denominations. However, many Christian leaders across denominations continued to raise their voices for justice.

One important and ongoing voice is that of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. Early leaders, like Margaret Fell and George Fox, wrote letters to King Charles II of England in the mid-17th century, defending their beliefs, including pacifism, in the face of persecution.

In the 18th century, based on their belief in the equality of all human beings, Quaker leaders spoke in favor of the abolition of slavery in both the United Kingdom and the United States.

In fact, it was Bayard Rustin, a Black Quaker, who coined the phrase “to speak truth to power” in the mid-20th century. He adhered to the Quaker commitment to nonviolence in social activism and was active for decades in the American Civil Rights Movement. During the Montgomery bus boycott in the mid-1950s, he met and began working with Martin Luther King Jr., who was an ordained Baptist minister.

In Germany, leaders from various Christian denominations have also united to speak truth to power. During the rise of the Nazis in the 1930s, several pastors and theologians joined forces to resist the influence of Nazi doctrine over German Protestant churches.

Their statement, the Barmen Declaration, emphasized that Christians were answerable to God, not the state. These leaders – the Confessing Church – continued to resist Nazi attempts to create a German Church.

Desmond Tutu and other leaders

Bishop Desmond Tutu opposed the racial policies of the South African government.
AP Photo/Jim Abrams

Christians on other continents, too, continued this vocal tradition. Óscar Romero, the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador, preached radio sermons criticizing the government and army for violence and oppression of the poor in El Salvador during a national civil war. As a result, he was assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980. Romero was canonized a saint by Pope Francis in 2018.

In South Africa, the Anglican bishop Desmond Tutu, archbishop of Cape Town, spent much of his active ministry condemning the violence of apartheid in his native country. After the end of the apartheid regime, Tutu also served as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established to investigate acts of violence committed both by government forces and violent activists. Before his death in 2021, Tutu continued to speak out against other international acts of oppression. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

For some, Bishop Budde’s words might seem radical, rude, inappropriate or offensive. But she did not speak in isolation; she is surrounded by a cloud of witnesses in the Christian tradition of speaking truth to power. Läs mer…

Pope Francis recently appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy, a harsh critic of President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policy, to head the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

The move has led to concerns among some Catholics about how he might interact with the new administration, especially since Trump has announced plans to appoint Brian Burch, the head of a conservative Catholic political group, as ambassador to the Vatican.

As a specialist on medieval Catholicism, I am aware of the important roles that cardinals have played over the centuries in church administration and secular politics.

In addition to pastoral ministry, cardinals serving as bishops in their own countries can play an important part in shaping public opinion. Others are bishops who have served or still serve as papal ambassadors in various countries around the world.

Ancient origins

After the legalization of Christianity in the early fourth century by the Emperor Constantine, Christianity spread rapidly in both the Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire. Bishops, who were the heads of the central churches in cities and supported by the emperors, met together in several general – ecumenical – councils to condemn heresies and assign authority more clearly.

By the end of the fifth century, bishops of five major cities, including Rome, were given wider authority over an expanded geographical territory. They were called patriarchs, from the Greek and Latin words meaning “father.”

By this time, Rome survived numerous attacks from pagan European tribes and the Asian Huns before finally succumbing to Germanic barbarians in 476 C.E..

During this tumultuous century, the church had assumed more secular authority and had largely taken over Rome’s civil administration.

In fact, Justinian, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in the sixth century, referred to the pope as patriarch not just “of Rome,” but of “the West,” implicitly extending papal jurisdiction over all the churches of the former Western Empire; the popes themselves did not use the title until the seventh century.

And as Roman Christianity spread through Western Europe, so did this intertwining of political activity and religious authority.

First cardinals

In its earliest centuries, Christianity developed three classes of ordained clerics, each with different responsibilities: Bishops oversaw churches in a specific geographic area; priests ran individual local church communities – parishes; and deacons assisted the priests, especially in charitable outreach.

By the seventh century, deacons from seven of the oldest and most important churches of Rome served as special advisers to the popes. They were called cardinals, from Latin “cardo” – meaning hinge – and “cardinalis,” meaning key or principal.

Later, priests and bishops were also chosen for this honor. Over time, cardinals became powerful members of the church in Rome and Italian Catholicism.

After Christianity was legalized in the fourth century, the faith expanded rapidly beyond Rome’s old imperial boundaries. However, cardinals were not named from these countries until much later, in the 12th century.

Missionaries to Europe

Popes began to send missionaries to convert other pagan peoples in Europe. As early as the fourth and fifth centuries, some leaders of various Germanic tribes – like Clovis, king of the Franks – accepted baptism for themselves.
And thanks to another papal missionary, Augustine of Canterbury, the early Celtic church in England, adopted Roman Christian practice in the seventh century.

However, the 10th and early 11th centuries were a dark time for the papacy. Politically powerful families in Rome competed to have relatives chosen as pope, and there was no set mechanism for electing one. Some of these popes led immoral lives; at one point, a 20-year-old was chosen as Pope Benedict IX, who then sold the office to another cleric.

The power struggle for the papacy, not missionary activity, had become the main focus for Romans. But by the end of the 11th century, with the help of powerful European leaders called the Holy Roman Emperors, a series of reform-minded clerics were named pope.

One of them, Pope Nicholas II, set new rules for the selection of a new pope: He was to be elected by an assembly of cardinals. Later, a two-thirds majority was specified for election.

Popes also refocused their efforts on missionary activity. One result was the creation of the first cardinals outside of Italy: in France, England and Germany. However they were heavily outnumbered by Italians. In the later medieval period, cardinals from Austria, Hungary, Poland, Portugal and Spain would also join what came to be known as the College of Cardinals.

Political activity

Increasingly, cardinals were treated as important dignitaries and addressed as “Eminence,” even though many were not the sons of kings or nobles. Certainly, most of them became involved in European politics of the later medieval period, since secular and religious interests often intertwined. Many became wealthy patrons of the arts and architectural projects.

Not only were cardinals the primary papal advisers, but some also served in secular political positions. One of the best-known is Thomas Wolsey, who became Lord Chancellor of England in the 16th century under King Henry VIII, despite being a commoner.

Two cardinals also served as chief ministers to King Louis XIII of France in the 17th century: the Frenchman Armand-Jean du Plessis de Richelieu and Jules Mazarin — an Italian by birth.

Even into the modern period, naming a foreign cleric as cardinal was taken as a measure of the importance of their country in the Catholic world. For example, the first American cardinal, John McCloskey, was created cardinal in 1875, some 100 years after the birth of the United States. The first from strongly Catholic Latin America was named in 1906, when a Brazilian bishop, Joaquim Arcoverde de Albuquerque Cavalcanti, was created cardinal.

Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcom Ranjith receives the red three-cornered biretta hat from Pope Benedict XVI during a ceremony inside St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, on Nov. 20, 2010.
AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito

The Philippines, another strongly Catholic country, did not have a cardinal until Rufino J. Santos in 1960. The small Catholic community in pluralistic Sri Lanka was not represented by a cardinal until 2010, when Malcom Ranjith was chosen.

Contemporary issues

Since 1962, only bishops can be created cardinals; priests must agree to be ordained as bishops before being made cardinal.

Some nominees have refused the honor because they were unwilling to be ordained bishops for various reasons: health, advanced age, or because they didn’t want to leave their religious communities. Occasional exceptions can be made to this rule – for example, Cardinal Avery Dulles was a Jesuit and over 80 years old when named, and most recently, Timothy Radcliffe, a Dominican priest and theologian, is a 79-year-old member of the Dominican order. Both were allowed to remain priests.

Today, many cardinals are engaged in pastoral ministry, as bishops of a diocese or archbishops of a larger archdiocese. Other bishops and cardinals serve in one of the several departments, called dicasteries within the Vatican bureaucracy.

In addition, there are other offices within the College of Cardinals. For example, the leader or head of the college is called the dean; one of his duties is to coordinate the conclave that will be convoked in the event a pope dies or resigns.

Cardinals are appointed for life, although they can resign, voluntarily or under pressure. Resignation is rare; since 1900, only three have done so.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has held 10 consistories – special assemblies of the College of Cardinals – appointing a majority of the cardinals under 80 years old who will be eligible to elect his successor.

Not only has Francis chosen like-minded progressive candidates, but he has also included candidates from countries that are more marginalized or torn by violence. Most recently, cardinals have been selected from the Ivory Coast and Ukraine; another is a Chilean-born archbishop of Palestinian descent. These new cardinals contribute new and, perhaps, challenging perspectives to the once-heavily European College of Cardinals.

I expect that in the future, all these cardinals, including Cardinal McElroy in his key position, will play an important role in supporting or criticizing the politics of both church and state. Läs mer…