Who went to a National Catholic Prayer Breakfast and who didn’t

The White House spurned one of the largest gatherings of Roman Catholics in Washington this morning, out of concern that the gathering would be too Washington-centric, according to someone familiar with the Bush Administration’s Catholic outreach program.

Instead of having him drop by the first ever National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on Wednesday morning, the President’s advisers kept him at home. The prayer breakfast, which was to feature a rosary, Mass, and a speech by Avery Cardinal Dulles, sold more than 900 tickets in less than a month.

The event, including the Mass, was held at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington, a block from St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Washington’s Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, who ten days ago met privately with Sen. John Kerry, would not allow organizers to use the cathedral out of concern that the event would be too “conservative,” according to a source inside the Washington Diocese.

Sen. Kerry’s presidential campaign had attempted to get Kerry invited, but organizers did not extend an invitation.