America’s Catholic bishops don’t usually enjoy being political commentators. It’s not in their job description. When they do choose to comment on some policy, some less-than-religious political analyst at the New York Times usually writes an op-ed fretting about the fraying separation of church and state. Even if that doesn’t happen, the intersection of ecclesial and political authority quickly becomes a touchy business. Just ask the Middle Ages.
So, while America’s Catholic bishops are probably enjoying discussing the election around morning conference coffees and evening socials during their second annual plenary meeting in Baltimore this week, public comments to the press have been somewhat limited.
There are already several rather important issues on the agenda. There’s a new Bible translation they need to approve for use during the celebration of the mass; the conference is planning on having a discussion on opening causes for beatification in Rome for two holy women; and there are a couple of appointments that also need to be made; not to mention a Eucharistic revival to expand.
That all said, whether it’s on the official agenda or not, a response to the election is going to be a consideration — especially after what happened on Inauguration Day four years ago.
The day Joe Biden, who is a Catholic (at least nominally), took the oath of office, the conference’s president at the time, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, issued a statement that warned of the “moral evils” contained in the incoming administration’s agenda. While he was certainly right to say something about it, the statement received pushback from the Holy See’s Secretariat of State (which tried to bottle it up) and from a number of Gomez’s fellow bishops.
This time around, the bishops aren’t dealing with a potentially hostile administration. Donald Trump and his incoming administration seem to share a lot of the same cultural goals and priorities. The trouble is that there are a few rather important issues about which they do not agree.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio took a first stab at those issues during a press conference on Tuesday. Flanked by Bishop Mark Seitz (who leads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration committee) and by Bishop Michael Burbidge (chairman of the USCCB’s pro-life committee), the three men attempted to lay out their concerns on immigration and pro-life issues.
On the one hand, the bishops informed the press that they are planning on watching what happens with Trump’s campaign promise to carry out a mass deportation of illegal immigrants — if his approach undermines human dignity, they’ll say something.
In terms of pro-life issues, bishops at the press conference seem to have dropped the ball a bit. Burbidge said he was optimistic about working with an administration that may be more friendly to the pro-life cause — as he should be — but he neglected to mention the Trump administration’s problematic stance on the abortifacient drug mifepristone. At the same time, he also emphasized that the Catholic Church is opposed to in vitro fertilization (IVF) while suggesting that bishops will wait to see whether Trump’s campaign promises materialize into reality.
If we’re being honest, Trump’s win puts Catholic bishops in a rather difficult position: It’s far easier to criticize your enemies than it is to correct your friends.
Despite being the president who got Roe v. Wade overturned, Trump’s 2024 campaign platform could only be considered the pro-life option when you compare it to the platform of his far more radical opponent. While he kept repeating that abortion legislation ought to be left to the states, both Trump and JD Vance have said the new administration won’t block access to mifepristone — even though it both kills children and is incredibly dangerous for women.
Then there’s the IVF issue. Back in August, Trump informed NBC News that he was planning to force insurance companies to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. Just days later, JD Vance (who is a Catholic convert) defended that position to the media, saying that the point was to help Americans “afford to have families” even if they are struggling with infertility.
That, unfortunately, is not the Catholic moral position. IVF involves creating living human embryos, and then freezing or discarding those not implanted in the womb of their mother. For that reason, the USCCB has condemned it.
Catholic bishops, like other faith leaders in the United States, now have a choice. They can bide their time and wait to react to an adverse event with a strongly worded statement. Or, they can preempt the issue by gently reminding the incoming administration that every human life, even if created in a lab, is a precious gift from God with an eternal soul and should not be subject to death by mifepristone or years in a freezer.
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