WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on the ouster of the House chaplain, the Rev. Patrick Conroy (all times local):
2:05 p.m.
The top House Democrat says the ouster of the House chaplain by the speaker was abrupt and unjust.
Nancy Pelosi tweets that "Father Pat Conroy’s service for the last seven years has been a blessing of grace & dignity to the House."
The California Democrat says his ouster "is hard to understand & impossible to support."
Speaker Paul Ryan Ryan demanded Conroy’s resignation. He told Republicans Friday morning that he’s heard complaints that Conroy did not sufficiently tend to the pastoral needs of lawmakers.
But Pelosi said she’s never received such a complaint.
Pelosi is a Catholic, like Conroy. She’s also a former speaker who says Ryan did not have the power to fire Conroy outright.
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11:59 a.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has told fellow Republicans that he fired the House chaplain after complaints from members that he wasn’t doing a very good job – not because of pressure over the Rev. Patrick Conroy’s political leanings.
Lawmakers exiting a GOP meeting Friday said Ryan told them that Conroy was forced after lawmakers complained that had not been adequately tending to the pastoral needs of lawmakers.
"He had a number of complaints that the chaplain was not meeting the pastoral needs of the members in general," said Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.
Ryan’s office won’t say why Conroy was asked to resign. It would be the first forced ouster in the history of the House.
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