Democracy Dies in Darkness

‘Opposed to the dignity of the human person’: Kentucky Catholic diocese condemns teens who taunted vet at March for Life

January 20, 2019 at 3:00 p.m. EST
Omaha elder Nathan Phillips and high school student Nick Sandmann give their versions of viral moment on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. (Video: Erin Patrick O'Connor, Joyce Koh/The Washington Post)
correction

An earlier version of this article inaccurately described the statement of Catholic officials from Covington, Ky. Their statement condemned the teens’ actions toward “Native Americans in general” but did not apologize for those actions. The article has been updated. This version of the story also has been revised to add that students chanting “build that wall” is not audible on video, and to eliminate Nathan Phillips’s claim that one student blocked him from moving, which is contradicted by available video. (March 1)

A viral video of a group of Kentucky teens in “Make America Great Again” hats taunting a Native American veteran on Friday has heaped fuel on a long-running, intense argument among abortion opponents as to whether the close affiliation of many antiabortion leaders with President Trump since he took office has led to moral decay that harms the movement.