A group of House Republicans are gathering signatures on a letter to send to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., asking for “additional information” about the sudden resignation of the House chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy.
Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he is angered by reports that Ryan pushed out Father Conroy over an opening prayer that mentioned tax reform and fairness. The prayer was delivered in the days before the House passed a major tax overhaul bill that lowered individual and corporate rates.
“May their efforts these days guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans,” Father Conroy, a Jesuit priest, said during his prayer.
Jones said Father Conroy’s prayer should be protected from political retribution. “That is unacceptable,” Jones told the Washington Examiner.
Father Conroy, in his resignation letter, said he is leaving the position at Ryan’s request by May 24, a date set by Ryan’s chief of staff.
The move has angered both Democrats and Republicans.
Jones, in the letter to Ryan, said the House speaker must provide Congress with more information about why Father Conroy was asked to leave.
“We believe that, absent such details, questions will inevitably arise about the politicization of the process for hiring and dismissing a House chaplain,” Jones wrote in the letter. “Not revealing such details could also risk resurrecting prior questions about religious bias.”
Father Conroy was first appointed to serve as House chaplain by former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
