Catholic CNN religion commentator says Catholic students shouldn't wear MAGA hats to sanctioned events

Father Edward Beck, a Roman Catholic priest and CNN religion commentator, wrote a column for the network Tuesday in which he argued that a Catholic high school should never have permitted its students to wear "Make America Great Again" hats to a school-sanctioned event.

What did he say?

The column was meant to elaborate on a tweet about the controversy over a group of Covington (Kentucky) Catholic High School students who were confronted by Native American activist Nathan Phillips during a school trip to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life.

In the tweet, Fr. Beck said "The boys acted inappropriately and chaperones should have intervened. And boys should not have been permitted to wear MAGA hats if they were representing the school."

That tweet currently has nearly 17,000 retweets and 10,000 comments.

In his column, Fr. Beck argued:

The boys attended the march representing a Catholic boys' school. Any hat donned should have had the school name or a logo identifying them as participants in the March for Life event — not a hat with a logo that may suggest stances not in accord with the mission statement of their school.

He pointed to issues like immigration, capital punishment, the environment, and climate change as areas where some Catholics might believe that the teaching of the church might clash with what he described as "MAGA philosophy."

He also referred to comments he received on his thread, where "[s]upposed Christians have said the most vile and uncharitable things imaginable." A quick scan of the thousands of comments revealed quite a few attacking the Catholic Church as a whole over disagreement with Beck.

In addition to being a CNN contributor, Father Beck has also been a contributor for ABC News, CBS News, MSNBC, and Fox News.