Donald Trump and Polish president to visit Catholic shrine in Pennsylvania

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 18, 2024 / 15:50 pm

Former president Donald Trump and Polish President Andrzej Duda will visit a Polish Marian shrine in the Bucks County suburbs of Philadelphia on Sunday, Sept. 22.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa is located in Doylestown — about midway between the two most populated cities in eastern Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Allentown. The Catholic shrine pays homage to the historic Black Madonna icon in the southern Polish town of Czestochowa.

The Trump campaign confirmed with CNA that both leaders will attend the same event at the shrine. 

Father Maximilian Ogar, the press secretary for the shrine, told CNA that Trump and Duda will both be present for the unveiling of a monument at the shrine’s cemetery, which will commemorate the Polish solidarity movement’s fight for independence against the Soviet-backed communist regime of the 1940s through the 1980s. 

The event was organized by the Polish-American Smolensk Disaster Commemoration Committee (SDCC). Ogar could not confirm the exact time of the event but said it would take place in the afternoon. 

Ogar said that Trump and Duda are “both invited guests of the committee” and emphasized that this is neither a rally nor a campaign event. He said the event will be open to “a very limited amount of people,” possibly about 1,000. 

“[Trump is] strictly coming here as a private citizen, as a pilgrim, to pay respect to the people,” Ogar said, adding that “most of the events will be at our cemetery.” 

Following the event, Trump will “spend some time in the shrine” and have the opportunity to answer media questions, according to Ogar. He said Duda would attend Mass at the shrine.

In 2020 Trump described himself as a “nondenominational Christian.” His wife, Melania, who was born in Slovenia, is Catholic.

The national shrine in eastern Pennsylvania was first constructed in 1955 as a wooden barn chapel. In 1960, the shrine purchased more land and constructed a larger shrine. The icon of the Black Madonna in Doylestown is a copy of the Polish icon and was blessed by St. John XXIII, according to the shrine’s website.

St. John Paul II, the first pope from Poland, visited the American shrine twice as a cardinal. While serving as pontiff, he blessed and signed the Black Madonna icon that is now displayed at the national shrine. Former President George H. W. Bush visited the shrine during his presidential campaign in 1980 and former President Ronald Reagan visited the shrine while serving as president in 1984.

According to legend, the original icon in Poland was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a tabletop that was built by Jesus Christ when he was a carpenter. The existence and veneration of the icon in Poland are well documented as early as the 1300s.

Millions of Catholics venerate the icon in Czestochowa every year. For centuries, there have been reports of miraculous events, such as healings, from pilgrims who venerate the icon.

Nearly one-fourth of Pennsylvania’s population is Catholic, slightly above the national average. Nearly 6% of Pennsylvania is of Polish descent, which is more than twice as high as the national average.

Trump has been trying to court Catholic votes during his 2024 presidential campaign. In July, the former president accused the Biden administration of “[going] after Catholics.” In a speech, he called for “stop[ping] the Biden-Harris administration’s weaponization of law enforcement against Americans of faith.” 

Trump has been critical of Vice President Kamala Harris for her aggressive questioning of his judicial nominees about being members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization. He has also criticized the Biden-Harris administration over a leaked Richmond FBI memo that called for an investigation into supposed ties between traditionalist Catholicism and white nationalism and has criticized the arrests of Catholic and other pro-life activists who are in jail for violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Both campaigns have engaged in a contentious fight for the Catholic vote. The Harris campaign is hosting a “Catholics for Harris-Walz National Organizing Call” to court Catholic votes on Wednesday evening, Sept. 18. 

Bucks County is an important battleground in the swing state of Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden won the county by less than 4.4 percentage points in 2020 and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the county by about three-quarters of a percentage point in 2016.