The "Make America Great Again" hats worn by several Covington Catholic students in a viral video had no place at the March for Life, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington wrote Wednesday.

In an op-ed published by the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Rev. John Stowe said he joined the Diocese of Covington and other Catholic leaders "in apologizing in the wake of this incident."

The students wearing pro-Trump apparel at the March for Life in Washington, D.C., is problematic, he said.

"I am ashamed that the actions of Kentucky Catholic high school students have become a contradiction of the very reverence for human life that the (March for Life) is supposed to manifest," Stowe wrote. "As such, I believe that U.S. Catholics must take a look at how our support of the fundamental right to life has become separated from the even more basic truth of the dignity of each human person."

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Stowe was responding to the Jan. 18 encounter between students from Covington Catholic High School in Northern Kentucky and a Native American elder, Nathan Phillips, outside the Lincoln Memorial.

Covington students had been in Washington for the annual March for Life, which protests abortion, while Phillips was attending the inaugural Indigenous Peoples March.

Videos went viral over the weekend showing Covington junior Nick Sandmann wearing a red MAGA hat and standing close to Phillips, who is hitting a drum, while other students clap and chant.

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Some called Sandmann and the students' actions disrespectful and racist. But longer videos shared in the following days made others question whether Phillips or a group of Black Hebrew Israelites — who Sandmann says were yelling derogatory things at the students — were more to blame for the encounter.

Stowe focused more of his op-ed on the pro-Donald Trump apparel worn by some of the students.

"It astonishes me that any students participating in a pro-life activity on behalf of their school and their Catholic faith could be wearing apparel sporting the slogans of a president who denigrates the lives of immigrants, refugees and people from countries that he describes with indecent words and haphazardly endangers with life-threatening policies," he wrote.

"We cannot uncritically ally ourselves with someone with whom we share the policy goal of ending abortion."

President Donald Trump has come under fire throughout his presidency for policies that critics say harshly target immigrants and refugees. Most recently, he has shut down the federal government in a battle with Democrats to get funding for a wall along the Southern U.S. border. Last year, his administration reversed an earlier "zero-tolerance" policy that separated children from their parents at the border.

The bishop, who has led the Diocese of Lexington since 2015, highlighted how the anti-abortion movement "got its start among peace activists who saw their opposition to abortion as a natural extension of opposition to all forms of violence."

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The Archbishop of Louisville, meanwhile, released a statement this weekend saying he joined the Covington diocese in its condemnation of the actions of the students.

But more recently, the Diocese of Covington announced a "third-party investigation" into the matter "to determine what corrective actions, if any, are appropriate."

"We pray that we may come to the truth and that this unfortunate situation may be resolved peacefully and amicably and ask others to join us in this prayer," the diocese said in its Tuesday statement. "We will have no further statements until the investigation is complete.”