A Ukrainian Catholic priest who gave the benediction during former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday spoke of “people who want to shoot” the Republican presidential candidate just minutes before the assassination attempt that left Trump wounded, two others critically injured and one bystander dead.
Jason Charron, pastor at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, told Fox News Digital on Sunday night in a phone interview that he was contacted by the Trump campaign last week “to give the opening blessing and prayer” during Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Charron said his benediction was “a petition to God that He would allow us to see through the present crisis in [the] nation and world.”
Then, before the former president appeared on stage to speak, Charron was preparing to leave for another obligation when he stopped first to meet with a group of Trump supporters.
“They saw me giving the prayer and they wanted to know if Trump was here yet and all that stuff,” Charron said.
As Charron spoke to the “large group of people on the barricade,” shaking hands and taking pictures, he told the crowd that he had done his part by praying for Trump but that they must do theirs, too.
“And that is to pray for him and his protection because there are people who want to shoot him,” Charron recalled.
“And their obligation is to, you know, continue this offering of prayer.”
Charron told Fox News Digital that he “said it quite loudly, which was, I think, uncharacteristic of me.”
“But it just came out of my mouth, you know, that there are people [who] want to shoot him and kill him, and they have to pray for his protection,” Charron added.
“And I didn’t think that it was going to be that day.”
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Charron hadn’t yet left the Butler Farm Show grounds when a bullet grazed Trump’s ear.
Authorities said the gunman, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, fired several shots, critically wounding two spectators and killing a former fire chief who was shielding his family from the bullets.
A U.S. Secret Service sniper returned fire, killing the shooter, the agency said.
Charron said he considers his predictive remarks to be an act of God perceiving the thoughts of others – such as Crooks having thoughts of assassination – and placing in Charron’s heart a forewarning “to remind people to pray for protection.”
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Added Charron, “If you speak to any priest or minister, they’ll tell you that things like this are quite common in the ministry. So, it’s a reminder that we’re not dealing with just the lower things of what we can see and sense — but that we are, on a daily basis, navigating a universe of unseen powers and spiritual realities.”
Charron said he also got to speak with Trump before the former president addressed the crowd.
During their brief conversation, Charron said, he thanked the 45th commander-in-chief for how Trump’s administration handled what was then an escalating situation in Ukraine.
“I said that he didn’t get the credit that he deserved,” Charron said, adding that Trump was “grateful” to receive such acknowledgment.
Charron claimed that Trump also said he was “heartbroken” to learn of all the casualties in Ukraine and that it “didn’t have to be this way.”
When asked on Sunday night about the shooter’s actions, Charron said the church “condemns murder as a violation of the Fifth Commandment.”
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“We pray at the same time that, before he took his last breath, he repented of his decision to take another man’s life,” Charron said.
Charron said he also believes that what happened Saturday is “a natural outflow of the culture we created by Roe v. Wade in which human life is disposable.”
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He added, “If it’s inconvenient or if it’s problematic to our worldview, then, you know, certain human lives can be disposed of.”
So, “it’s that same demonic disregard for the dignity of the human person.”