
Liz Plank (@feministabulous) video screengrabs / Instagram
CV NEWS FEED // Michigan’s bishops and other Catholics are crying foul after Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer posted a video mocking Holy Communion on social media. In the video, Whitmer stands wearing a Harris-Walz campaign hat and places a Doritos chip on the tongue of a kneeling pro-abortion writer.
The song “Dilemma” by Nelly ft. Kelly Rowland plays in the video as the governor places the mock communion on the tongue of left-wing Canadian columnist and content creator Liz Plank.
Plank, who has written for MSNBC and was behind an initiative called “Hotties for Harris,” has repeatedly expressed pro-abortion views and referred to pro-life pregnancy resource centers as “fake clinics.”
According to political commentator Collin Rugg, Plank and Whitmer created the widely scrutinized video “as a bizarre way to get more votes for Harris.”
After a day of mounting criticism from Catholics, Whitmer released a statement claiming there was nothing offensive about the video, but expressing an apology for the fact that it was “construed as something it was never intended to be.”
“Over 25 years in public service, I would never do something to denigrate someone’s faith,” the statement read:
I’ve used my platform to stand up for people’s right to hold and practice their personal religious beliefs. My team has spoken to the Michigan Catholic Conference. What was supposed to be a video about the importance of the CHIPS Act to Michigan jobs, has been construed as something it was never intended to be, and I apologize for that.
The New York Post reported that the deeply controversial video, which Plank posted to her Instagram account @feministabulous, “is an apparent takeoff on a TikTok meme in which friends feed each other food and stare uncomfortably into the camera.”
Whitmer’s followup statement, which seemed more a defense of the video than an apology to Catholics, is unlikely to quell the burgeoning Catholic backlash.
The Post noted that Plank “tried to shoe-horn the vid into a statement on industrial policy — specifically about the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which gave billions in funding to boost the semiconductor industry.”
On Thursday, the Michigan Catholic Conference, which speaks for the state’s Catholic bishops, issued a news release denouncing the video.
In the release, the group’s President and CEO Paul A. Long called the clip “not just distasteful or ‘strange;’ it is an all-too-familiar example of an elected official mocking religious persons and their practices.”
“While dialogue on this issue with the governor’s office is appreciated, whether or not insulting Catholics and the Eucharist was the intent, it has had an offensive impact,” Long added. “The time is now for those in public office, their handlers, and strategists to return a level of respect, civility, and appreciation for those who have found peace and fulfillment in life by worshiping God and serving their neighbor.”
CatholicVote responded to the video on X: “How else can this be interpreted other than mockery of Catholics and the sacrament of Holy Communion, not to mention the distasteful pornographic innuendo?”
“Gretchen Whitmer is only the latest example of the gross anti-Catholic bigotry festering inside the Democratic Party,” CatholicVote added.
The video also caught the attention of at least one sitting Catholic lawmaker.
“As a Catholic you see so much of this BS you can get numb to it but a Governor of a state openly mocking the sacrament of Holy Communion really is over the top,” wrote Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-MO.
The Daily Wire host Michael Knowles, also a Catholic, quipped that the video was an example of “decadent-empire behavior,” and dubbed Whitmer “Governor Nero,” referring to an infamous Roman Emperor who violently persecuted the early Church.
Sr. Mary Joseph Calore, SSCJ, replied to Knowles: “Guess it’s time for a blasphemous mockery of Communion.”
Students for Life America President Kristan Hawkins wrote: “Mocking God and His Church: this is what the Democrat Party is now. Christians and Catholics shouldn’t vote for or tolerate a political movement whose holiest sacrament is abortion.”
Catholic political commentator Liz Wheeler responded to the video with a seeming reference the results of a recent study, reported by multiple sources, showing that millions of American Christians are not planning to vote in next month’s presidential election.
“It’s wild that some Christians refuse to vote when Democrats obviously loathe you because you’re Christian,” Wheeler wrote.
Animator Seamus Coughlin, another Catholic, commented on the video: “If she was mocking like, an obscure back water rain dance or something, the media would be clamoring for her resignation.”
“But instead shes mocking 1/4th of the US population, 1/7th of the WORLD population and God Himself,” added Coughlin, the creator of popular YouTube channel FreedomToons. “So naturally the media doesn’t care.”
Related: Catholic Charities suit: Whitmer tramples rights of therapists who help gender-confused kids
