House chaplain wins his job back.
WASHINGTON » The embattled chaplain of the U. S. House of Representatives has won his job back just hours after sending a scalding letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan that accused a top Ryan staff aide of telling him “something like ‘ maybe it’s time that we had a Chaplain that wasn’t a Catholic.’”
Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, forced Rev. Pat Conroy to tender his resignation lastmonth, sparking a firestorm. Ryan has said he was dissatisfied with Conroy’s pastoral care to lawmakers.
But in a statement Thursday, Ryan— himself a Catholic — reversed course.
“It is my job as speaker to do what is best for this body, and I know that this body is not well served by a protracted fight over such an important position,” Ryan said.
Ryan’s statement came soon after Conroy delivered a two-page letter that said he has never “heard a complaint about my ministry” as House chaplain. Instead, Conroy said top Ryan aide Jonathan Burks told him the speaker wanted his resignation, and cited a prayer last year that was potentially critical of the GOP tax bill.
“I inquired as to whether or not it was ‘ for cause,’ and Mr. Burks mentioned something dismissively like ‘maybe it’s time that we had a Chaplain that wasn’t a Catholic,’” Conroy wrote to Ryan in a letter that was also sent to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCalif.
Ryan did not directly address Conroy’s explosive charge, saying, “To be clear, that decision was based on my duty to ensure that the House has the kind of pastoral services that it deserves.”
Burks, in a statement released by Ryan’s office, said “I strongly disagree with Father Conroy’s recollection of our conversation.”
Conroy also wrote that Burks mentioned a November prayer regarding the GOP tax bill that upset many Republicans. Then, Conroy prayed for lawmakers to make sure that “there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but benefits balanced and shared by all Americans.”
Conroy told The New York Times last week that shortly afterward Ryan warned Conroy to “stay out of politics.”