How will Pope Leo XIV deal with the Catholic bishops in his native United States who, as a collective body, resisted the pastoral priorities set by his Argentine predecessor and helped pave the way for Donald Trump’s election?
Several astute Vatican observers have suggested that Pope Francis took deliberate steps to ensure that Cardinal Robert Prevost, a dual citizen of the United States and Peru, would be a leading (if not the prime) candidate to succeed him as Bishop of Rome.
Since his election to the See of Peter on May 8, Pope Leo XIV has shown signs that he intends to continue, at least in general terms, the pastoral priorities that Francis put forward during his 12 years in office. This should not be surprising, given that the new pope was one of Francis’s most important aides these past two years while heading the office that helps select bishops around the world.
However, the priorities that the late pope set for the universal Church were never fully embraced by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
These include the obligation to better care for creation (including the environment), the urgency to oppose racism and any form of discrimination against those considered diverse or different, a push for compassion and a more “pastoral” approach to remarried divorcees and others in so-called “irregular” relationships, and of course, the signature program of Francis’s pontificate – promoting synodality at all levels of the Church, thus encouraging the participation of all the baptized (and not just the ordained clergy) in the life and decision-making of the entire ecclesial community.
However, the nearly 275 active members of the USCCB were notorious for their opposition to Pope Francis. They were, at best, lukewarm towards his reforms and priorities, and at worst, they outright resisted them.
The new pope begins to reshape the US hierarchy
Leo XIV now has an opportunity to reset the relationship between the Roman Pontiff and the US hierarchy. And if his initial moves are any indication, this relationship could become even more challenging than it was under his predecessor.
Three of the four bishops Leo has now appointed to the United States are immigrants. The very first came on May 22 when he named 58-year-old Michael (Micae) Phạm Minh Cường, a Vietnamese refugee/boat person, as the bishop of San Diego (California). A week later, he tapped Nicaragua-born Pedro Bismarck Chau, who will be 58 at the end of June, as the auxiliary bishop of Newark (New Jersey). And this past Thursday (June 5) the new pope appointed Simon Peter Engurait, who was born in Uganda in 1971 and immigrated to the USA less than two decades ago, as the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux (Louisiana).
These are telling appointments, given the hateful and fear-mongering rhetoric that Donald Trump (and his Catholic vice president, JD Vance) hurled against immigrants to help them win the White House.
There are currently five other U.S. dioceses without a bishop, and nearly 20 more where the officeholder has already reached the normal retirement age of 75. Among these are major archdioceses such as New York and Chicago, both led by cardinals, as well as Mobile (Alabama), New Orleans, and Las Vegas. This gives Leo a prime opportunity early in his pontificate to begin reshaping his native country’s Catholic hierarchy.
Time to replace Cardinal Dolan
It’s likely the pope will allow 76-year-old Cardinal Blaise Cupich, who is known to be one of his greatest supporters, to stay a few more years in Chicago, the city where Leo was born and raised.
But many are watching to see what the pope does with Timothy Dolan of New York. The gregarious cardinal, who only recently turned 75, was – from the very start – a ringleader of the USCCB’s resistance to the late Pope Francis. And not only that.
Dolan has also been – and continues to be – the US Catholic Church’s friendliest face vis-a-vie Donald Trump. While the cardinal has never missed an opportunity to laud the contribution that immigrants have made (and even continue to make) to the United States, he has been extremely careful not to publicly criticize the Trump administration’s legally questionable policies and inhumane treatment of immigrants.
In fact, Dolan has gone out of his way to praise Trump, even claiming that the US president “takes his Christian faith seriously”. That’s an odd thing for a Catholic priest to say for several reasons. But certainly, none more than the fact that he’s talking about a man who recently boasted on national television that he’s never felt the need to ask forgiveness from God.
There is no record of how Dolan voted last November, but his words and actions leading up to the election certainly signaled tacit support, at least, for the Trump/Vance ticket. But so did the behavior of many other bishops in the United States. The most disturbing thing was the complicit and cowardly silence they displayed. There is a US tradition that religious leaders do not endorse political candidates (that is also because they risk forfeiting their group’s tax-free status if they do). But this has more to do with refraining from commenting on the policies and promises that candidates put forward.
The American bishops, however, have allowed one exception to this rule – the USCCB insists loudly that the “pre-eminent priority” for Catholic voters must be opposition to the threat of abortion.
Keeping silent for fear of Trump’s vengeance
Trump’s position on abortion, of course, is anything but clear or consistent. Before he ran for president, he was proudly “pro-choice”. But like everything else he does, Trump sees abortion as something merely transactional – that is, whatever gets him what he wants.
This cynical approach was obviously acceptable to the Catholic bishops, and it allowed them to close their eyes and shut their ears to all the other despicable and anti-Christian, indeed, inhumane, things he spewed on the campaign trail. But most disturbing about the Trump candidacy was not any policy he put forward or any promise he made. It was the hateful and divisive rhetoric he used to stoke the basest and most evil instincts of our human nature.
There is nothing courageous or prophetic about a man (as opposed to a woman) who rails vehemently against abortion, especially if he’s a vowed celibate and/or homosexual. Such a man simply has no skin in the game, as it were. It takes far more courage, instead, to stand up to someone who has for decades notoriously carried out vengeance against anyone who has opposed him.
Trump has openly declared, dating as far back as the 1970s, how much he relishes getting even with those who have slighted him even in the least. The US bishops said nothing in opposition to Trump, precisely out of fear that he would punish them if he were to get elected.
Even a second grader at a Catholic school could see the problem with Trump
Cardinal Dolan and many other bishops admitted in a few honest moments that they wanted to keep open channels of friendly conversation with Trump in order not to antagonize him. They feared that he might punish entities like “our beloved Catholic schools” in the event of his being elected.
Our “shepherds” seem to have forgotten what a child who has completed the second grade in one of “our beloved Catholic schools” understands quite well – that almost everything that Trump ranted and even boasted about during the presidential campaign is wrong and unacceptable, especially from a Christian point of view.
Here is just a partial list that’s printable in a family publication:
- lying
- sexually harassing or abusing women
- bullying people
- cheating people
- mocking and making fun of weaker people
- denigrating by calling them ugly and vulgar names
- threatening people
- being vindictive
- saying he’s never felt the need to ask forgiveness from God
- dehumanizing immigrants by calling them animals
The forces of light and darkness
It’s not clear how many Catholics in the United States actually read the lengthy voting guide that the USCCB published. And there’s no way of knowing what level of respect or deference Catholics pay to their Church leaders. But the bishops’ collective silence in the face of Donald Trump’s vile and treasonous behavior (remember, this is a man who encouraged a violent attack on the US Capitol and then gave a presidential pardon to those who perpetrated it), gave cover to 59% of Catholics who were among the 77 million people who voted for him.
Even one of Leo XIV’s two brothers voted for Trump. In this, the pope–who, before his papal election, publicly opposed at least some things Trump and Vance espoused–is no different from most Americans. We all have siblings or relatives who supported (and continue to support) a man we find utterly depraved and unfit to hold any office, let alone the highest in the land.
Despite our disappointment and utter disbelief that people we love could do this, some of us are even more dismayed that our Catholic leaders supported Trump or were too cowardly to speak out against him.
And so it is with trepidation that we await to see how Pope Leo engages with the bishops and the president of his deeply divided homeland. It will not be easy. It may be the supreme test of the first US-born pope in history, especially as Mr. Trump increasingly displays his intention to destroy any institution or individual that opposes him.
As the US president delights in spreading darkness and division around the world, we hope and pray that Leo, who is the antithesis of Trump, is able to rally the forces of light and goodness, unity and peace.
We also hope that the US bishops align with the pope’s program this time and fully embrace his priorities.
With thanks to Union of Catholic Asian (UCA) News and Robert Mickens, where this article originally appeared.
