A sermon for the ages.<\/p>\n
Delivered not on the Mount but from a much derided (and with good reason) social media platform on September 16th, 2025, yet a sermon from the Mount still apt for these dark, dark days.<\/p>\n
The original Biblical Sermon on the Mount, otherwise known as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), was in two parts. Part one: the conduct of Christians before God. Part two: our relationship to the world.<\/p>\n
For people of a particular age and for regular churchgoers, the Beatitudes have a familiar refrain: \u201cBlessed are \u2026, Blessed are \u2026, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness \u2026, Blessed are the peacemakers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second part \u2026 \u201cYou are the salt of the earth \u2026 You are the light of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Archbishop Blake\u2019s sermon was also in two parts. The first concerned Trump\u2019s America: he referred to 47 crazed school attacks by September last year, 19 children\u2019s lives horrifically ended. In 12 months, 45,000 lives brutally lost from civilians using arms, 770,000 homeless people with many cites banning them from sleeping in public and food distributors fined in some areas for giving them food.<\/p>\n
A total of 48 million battling substance use disorder, often injecting in public. Some 42 million living in poverty; 30 million with no health insurance; 51,000 undocumented migrants detained, half of them unaccompanied migrant children taken to emigration courts with no legal representation.<\/p>\n
Up to 32,000 new HIV infections a year and 2.2 million needing prep, as Trump axed HIV prevention programmes. <\/p>\n
[\u00a0Who are the Burke children trying to impress? Could it be their mother?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n This while having the wealthiest population in the world, including 25 million millionaires, more than 10,000 centimillionaires (own over \u20ac100 million) and 870 billionaires.<\/p>\n All while boasting 219 million Christians. Churches are full. Jesus is worshipped. God is praised and the culture collapses, mired in pretence, corruption, culture wars, ruthlessness, depravity and a callous abuse of the poor. What seems to matter is money, power and fame alone.<\/p>\n The second part of his sermon was directed at the British government.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom, its king and prime minister shamefully rolled out the red carpet for a second time for this monstrous president with his Maga bullying policies leading the world towards hell. <\/p>\n Archbishop Blake was not the first bishop to confront Donald Trump. In January 2025, at the Washington National Cathedral prayer service, Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde spoke directly to Trump at his second inauguration as president asking him to grant mercy to families fearing deportation and those fleeing war and persecution.<\/p>\n She pointed out that \u201cthe vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,\u201d adding they were \u201cgood neighbours\u201d and \u201cfaithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara and temples\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOur God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Bishop of Derry Michael Router, then auxiliary bishop in Armagh, described Budde\u2019s sermon as \u201ca wake-up call to all of us on the challenges inherent in trying to live out our Christian faith in today\u2019s fractured world\u201d.<\/p>\n The Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI), which represents 150 Irish Catholic religious congregations from across the island, wrote to Budde thanking her for her \u201ccourage in publicly conveying the truth, grounded in the Gospel, that reminds us all of our duty of care\u201d. <\/p>\n But nothing from other Irish Church leaders.<\/p>\n [\u00a0The \u2018Irish pope\u2019 who was equally disliked by Irish patriots, Protestants and BritainOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n However, Pope Leo earlier this year said \u2013 without naming Trump \u2013 that the world was being \u201cravaged by a handful of tyrants\u201d who spend billions on war. <\/p>\n![\"Bishop](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/LORGOPRQJ5BKHGKLNKCDIQOUKE.jpg\")
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde used her sermon to call on Donald Trump, who was attending, to protect LGBTQ and immigrant rights. Photograph: The Irish Times Stock Images <\/p>\n