Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York, joined Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, on March 24 in addressing claims made by former commissioner Carrie Prejean Boller regarding her removal from the Religious Liberty Commission.
The discussion comes after Prejean Boller was removed from the commission last month following a Feb. 9 hearing that focused on rising antisemitism. During this hearing, Prejean Boller engaged in contentious exchanges with Jewish American witnesses.
Bishop Barron said in a March 20 post on X that some views expressed by Prejean Boller at the commission were not aligned with Catholic teaching. “Over the past several weeks, Carrie Prejean Boller has complained that she was removed from the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty because of her Catholic beliefs, and she has called out myself and other Catholic members of the commission for not defending her. This is absurd,” Bishop Barron wrote.
He continued: “Mrs. Prejean Boller was not dismissed for her religious convictions but rather for her behavior at a gathering of the Commission last month: browbeating witnesses, aggressively asserting her point of view, hijacking the meeting for her own political purposes.” Cardinal Dolan agreed with these comments in his own March 24 post on X: “[Bishop Barron’s] comments are characteristically clear, and I agree wholeheartedly.”
At issue during the hearing were questions raised by Prejean Boller about whether criticism related to Gaza should be considered antisemitic and statements regarding Catholics’ stance toward Zionism. Bishop Barron addressed these points directly: “The Catholic position on matters of ‘Zionism,’ to which I fully subscribe, is as follows: all forms of antisemitism are to be unequivocally condemned; the state of Israel has a right to exist; but the modern nation of Israel does not represent the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies and hence does not stand beyond criticism.” He added, “If Mrs. Prejean Boller were dismissed for holding these beliefs, it is difficult to understand why I am still a member of the Commission… To paint herself as a victim of anti-Catholic prejudice or to claim that her religious liberty has been denied is simply preposterous.”
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, chair of the Religious Liberty Commission, said it was his decision to remove Prejean Boller from the group: “No member of the Commission has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue,” Patrick said.
In response via social media directed at Bishop Barron, Prejean Boller stated: “Asking me to deny Catholic teaching in order to satisfy a political ideology is itself a violation of my religious freedom.” The capstone hearing for this session’s Religious Liberty Commission is scheduled for April 13.
