WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump appointed Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan to the newly formed White House Religious Liberty Commission.

Trump established the commission by executive order on Thursday. “The Commission shall advise the White House Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council on religious liberty policies of the United States,” including by “recommending steps to secure domestic religious liberty,” according to the executive order. 

The commission is tasked with focusing on areas such as First Amendment rights, attacks on houses of worship, debanking and censorship, conscience protections for vaccination, parental rights, and prayer and religious instruction at public schools. Notably, the Archdiocese of New York under Cardinal Dolan’s leadership instructed priests not to grant exemptions to COVID-19 “vaccine” mandates in 2021.  

Bishop Barron is the founder of the popular Word on Fire media organization and has a large social media following. The Minnesota-based bishop, who Pope Francis appointed to lead the Diocese of Winona in 2022, has on numerous occasions scandalized faithful Catholics. For example, he has described Jesus as the “privileged route” – rather than the only way (Acts 4:12) – to salvation, praised a book by notorious LGBT activist Father James Martin, SJ, suggested that hell may be empty, and told a homosexual commentator that he would not seek to reverse sodomitic “marriage.”

“I don’t think I want to press it further,” Barron told Dave Rubin about homosexual “marriage” in a 2017 interview. “I think it would probably cause much more problems and dissension and difficulty if we keep pressing it.”

“I wouldn’t want to get on a crusader’s tank and try to reverse that,” he added. Rubin is a “married” homosexual who has since procured children through in vitro fertilization and surrogacy.

Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, has also faced criticism from Catholics for refusing to penalize pro-abortion politicians, encouraging Fr. Martin’s LGBT activism, allowing blasphemous, pro-LGBT activity in New York City parishes, and equating Catholic feasts with Islamic and Jewish ones, among other things.