The U.S. Catholic bishops confirmed that the church will continue to refrain from endorsing political candidates after the IRS changed nonprofit law to permit religious leaders to make explicit endorsements.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops put out a statement earlier this week reiterating its politically neutral stance when it comes to specific candidates. It followed the IRS’s decision to give churches a carve-out from nonprofit law and allow them to support political candidates, a move that formalized the tax-collecting agency’s long-standing informal policy.

“The IRS was addressing a specific case, and it doesn’t change how the Catholic Church engages in public debate,” said Chieko Noguchi, a spokesman for the Bishops Conference.

“The Church seeks to help Catholics form their conscience in the Gospel so they might discern which candidates and policies would advance the common good. The Catholic Church maintains its stance of not endorsing or opposing political candidates.”

Unlike Catholics, Protestant pastors and leaders from other faiths regularly made political endorsements before the IRS’s new policy. It remains to be seen how the IRS’s decision impacts political organizing at churches to register and mobilize voters.

While the Catholic bishops do not endorse candidates, they do occasionally take political positions based on the teachings of the Catholic Church. Recently, the president of the U.S. Conference, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, criticized the GOP’s “big, beautiful” budget bill for making cuts to Medicaid eligibility and green energy tax credits.

Broglio also voiced displeasure with the reduced amount of time the bill defunds abortion giant Planned Parenthood, the weakening of a school choice provision, and the removal of restrictions preventing federal funds from covering transgender operations.

In Washington State, Catholic clergy and the Trump administration are fighting a law that would require priests to break the sacred seal of confession for investigations into suspected child abuse. The Catholic clergymen and Trump administration oppose the law on constitutional grounds for specifically singling out Catholic priests and not giving them an exemption granted to other professions.

Some U.S. Catholics, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, hold differing positions from the bishops on certain issues, with illegal immigration being a particularly contentious subject.

The late Pope Francis repeatedly criticized the Trump administration’s mass deportation program and took Vance to task in February for using the Catholic theological concept of ordo amoris — the hierarchy of love — to justify it. Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has not spoken specifically about the Trump administration since becoming pope, but he has generally taken a pro-immigration stance.

Pew Research data on U.S. religiosity released in February found that 49 percent of Catholics are Republican-aligned and 44 percent are Democratic-aligned. White Catholics are more likely to support Republicans, with 60 percent favoring the GOP. Hispanic Catholics are more skewed toward Democrats, with 54 percent backing the Democratic Party.

The most conservative religious groups in the U.S. are white Evangelical Protestants, with 70 percent identifying with the GOP, and Mormons, 73 percent of whom are Republicans. On the other hand, 66 percent of Jewish Americans and 72 percent of historically black Protestants are aligned with Democrats.