The U.S. bishops’ semi-annual meeting, which concluded in Baltimore on Thursday, was one giant raspberry to Pope Francis’ agenda. The meeting was heavy on the bishops’ favorite culture war themes, but largely dissed issues near and dear to Francis like income inequality and immigration.
The oversight on immigration was so glaring in light of the current debate in Washington that the bishops hastily arranged for Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, the head of the bishops’ migration committee, to remind the meeting about a letter the committee sent the Obama administration in September urging executive action on the immigration crisis.
The bishops failed to elect Francis’ favorite bishop, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, to represent them at the next critical leg of the family summit. They are, however, sending the president and the VP of the bishops’ conference, as well as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who has been highly critical of efforts to modernize the church. Newly appointed Chicago Bishop Blase J. Cupich was selected as an alternate.
And Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who spent the meeting denying that there was any discord at the recent family synod and blaming any perception of such on the media, was elected to head the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, giving him an elevated platform and a good excuse to dial-up the anti-abortion rhetoric.
The leadership of the pro-life committee has often been a bellwether for the direction of the bishops’ conference on cultural issues. It was most recently held by O’Malley, who emphasized a consistent ethic of life narrative, but now goes back to a prelate who will likely stress abortion as the most important issue for Catholics, which tends to tilt the conference toward the priorities of the Republican Party.
Both Tomas Reese and Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter estimate that only about a fifth of the U.S. bishops are with Francis. According to Winters, “20 percent are dead set against him and adopting the view, as put by Cardinal Walter Kasper last week in his address at The Catholic University of America, that they must view this pontificate as a bit of bad weather and just wait for it to pass.”
Winters says another 20 percent share the neoconservative/culture warrior orientation, but are “profoundly uncomfortable” being in opposition to the pope and another 40 percent are “either not particularly concerned with larger issues and just trying to be good bishops in their own dioceses” or “too confused to be enthusiastic about the pope.”
