As CPAC opened its 2022 conference Thursday morning in Orlando, it did so with a Christian nationalist flourish, thanks to Fr. Frank Pavone, a Catholic priest with dubious credentials and the founder of the anti-abortion group Priests for Life.
In a morning mass, Pavone asked the Holy Spirit to direct attendees' anger in the right direction. In an opening invocation for the conference he delivered soon after, Pavone prayed for assistance as "we stand before the forces of falsehood, the enemies of freedom, the kingdom of death," and asked that God might "impel us forward to victory" as we "continue the work of making America great again." With a flourish, after the prayer, he donned his red MAGA cap again before walking offstage.
