Charron said he met briefly with Trump before the former president came out to address the crowd at the rally, which took place at an outdoor venue at the Butler Farm Show in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

“I talked to him about the situation in Ukraine and shook his hand. It wasn't a very deep conversation,” Charron said.

The priest told CNA that the Trump campaign contacted him a few days ago and asked him to offer a blessing at the rally. In one interview that aired on the “Pints ​​with Aquinas” podcast Saturday night, Charron recounted the prayer he offered at the event.

“My prayer was for protection. My prayer was for the restoration of right relationships in our society: relationships at the individual level, at the family level, at the social level, so that our nation would once again be great in the eyes of God. And let our nation be great again, I said, for our world to be great again, in the eyes of God,” Charron said.

“All this presupposes that people, first of all, begin to live their day to day in accordance with the will of God”, added the priest.

Charron said he is aware of Trump's policy statements that conflict with Catholic teaching, including Trump's recent statements that he supports the availability of abortion pills. But he alluded to Trump's pro-life actions, which include, while president, appointing three US Supreme Court justices who helped form a majority that overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which allowed states to ban abortion.