Top responses to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani's inaugural address: 'Godless, rancid ideology'

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 02, 2026

'For God's sake, spare me...': Bishop Robert Barron

Bishop Robert Barron, who serves in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, said the line from Mamdani's speech "took my breath away."

"Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least 100 million people in the last century. Socialist and Communist forms of government around the world today — Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, etc. — are disastrous," he said.

"Catholic social teaching has consistently condemned socialism and has embraced the market economy, which people like Mayor Mamdani caricature as 'rugged individualism.' In fact, it is the economic system that is based upon the rights, freedom, and dignity of the human person. For God's sake, spare me the 'warmth of collectivism.'"

There was a line from Zohran Mamdani’s inaugural address yesterday that took my breath away. He said he intended to replace “the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism.” Collectivism in its various forms is responsible for the deaths of at least one…

— Bishop Robert Barron (@BishopBarron) January 2, 2026

Barron has been outspoken about the Christian foundations of American government. In September, he rebuked Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., for describing the idea of human rights coming from God as "very, very troubling" and akin to radical Islam.

He warned that Kaine's worldview attributes too much power to the government, noting that the 20th century was riddled with the consequences of state authorities believing they are empowered to bestow and revoke God-given rights.

In 2024, he publicly rebuked Politico reporter Heidi Pryzbyla after she went viral for claiming on MSNBC that Christian nationalists are united by the belief "that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority." Pryzbyla later apologized for her comments, saying she used "clumsy" words that were "interpreted by some people as making arguments that are quite different from what I believe."