What Is Jump Against Trump? Catholic Priest Posts Meme For Trump Opponents Advocating Suicide

A meme bearing the hashtag #JumpAgainstTrump was posted by a Catholic priest to his private Facebook page recently and incited outrage among churchgoers.

Father Philip Pizzo, a Roman Catholic priest at the St. Benedict Joseph Labre Church in Queens, New York, posted the image on his Facebook page, inciting rage from followers and parishioners, the New York Post reported Monday.

The meme read “Show your hate for Trump – do it for social justice” implying that Trump protestors and opponents hurl themselves from buildings. The post, Pizzo defended, was done in jest and was not posted to promote others to harm themselves. Pizzo had told the Post that he considered the meme to be “funny.”

“I do not promote suicide,” Pizzo told the outlet. “I’ve helped many people over the years, and it does not promote suicide. It was funny.”

Pizzo, 67, from Richmond Hill set his Facebook profile to a private setting.

Pizzo had reportedly used Facebook to post other political memes. One supposedly mocked Hillary Clinton, according to Gothamist. Pizzo is a member of the Diocese of Brooklyn, a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church that services over a million Catholics in the Brooklyn and Queens boroughs.

The Diocese of Brooklyn took to Twitter Tuesday to apologize on behalf of Pizzo: “Father Pizzo regrets any offense he has caused. Suicide is a serious subject and his post does not at all represent the view of the church.”

The church is said to service a large population of parishioners that are “mainly Latin American and Caribbean,” according to the Post.

The Diocese of Brooklyn also issued a statement explaining that what Pizzo had posted to his personal account and then deleted it: “He [Pizzo] says he intended it as satire only, regrets the offense it has caused and has deleted it.”

Suicide is condemned by the Catholic Church and is listed as a sin because it directly violates the Fifth Commandment.