On
House Speaker John Boehner's last day on the job, the Catholic lawmaker released a deeply personal account of how he came to his decision to leave Congress, attributing it to the hand of God.
"This is my last day as Speaker of the House. And this is the story of that decision," Boehner writes in an introduction to a video titled, "The Power of the Holy Spirit."
In the video, Boehner talks about his appearance on
"Face The Nation" the Sunday after his decision to quit was announced — and after the Sept. 24 visit to Congress of
Pope Francis.
"[W]e get to the second-to -the-last question and [moderator John] Dickerson says, 'Do you think the power of the Holy Spirit brought you to this decision?'" Boehner relates.
"Well I mumbled out something but the question kept bothering me and bothering me…"
Boehner then says Cardinal Donald Wuerl came to give the Speaker a gift commemorating the papal visit, "and I asked the cardinal about… the question" of the Holy Spirit.
"And he says, 'Well John, we don't normally recognize the power of the Holy Spirit except in retrospect.' Then, instantly all the dots lined up, so" an emotional Boehner relates.
The video ends with Boehner blessing himself, and giving the camera a thumbs-up.