The United States’ Catholic bishops will elect their next president and vice president on Tuesday in Baltimore. The vote acts as a barometer for the bishops’ priorities, hinging on whether they choose an outspoken culture warrior as their next leader.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as a whole was often at odds with the approach of Pope Francis. His successor, Pope Leo XIV, is continuing a similar pastoral emphasis on marginalized people, poverty and the environment.
Half the 10 candidates on the ballot come from the conservative wing of the conference. The difference is more in style than substance. Most U.S. Catholic bishops are reliably conservative on social issues, but some place more emphasis on opposing abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
“The slate of 10 candidates perfectly reflects the dynamics of the American hierarchy in that it’s split down the middle,” said David Gibson, director of Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture.
There is no clear front-runner. The candidates were nominated by their fellow bishops, and the winner will succeed outgoing leader, Military Services Archbishop Timothy Broglio, for a three-year term. The current vice president, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, is too close to the mandatory retirement age of 75 to assume the top post.
Among conservatives up for leadership, Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley is seen as a strong contender, having already been elected in 2022 to serve as secretary, the No. 3 conference official.
Coakley serves as adviser to the Napa Institute, an association for conservative Catholic powerbrokers. In 2018, he publicly supported an ardent critic of Pope Francis, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who was later excommunicated for schism.
A well-known name on the ballot is Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese, whose popular Word on Fire ministry has made him a Catholic media star. He serves on President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, along with another candidate, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana.
Some Catholic insiders are hoping for a leader who could help unify U.S. bishops and work well with the Vatican. They point to contenders like Archbishop Charles Thompson of Indianapolis and Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.
As Latinos, Flores and another candidate, Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia, represent a growing segment of the U.S. Catholic Church. Flores has also been the U.S. bishops’ leader in the Vatican’s synod process to modernize the church.
“Certainly, the two names that get talked about the most are Flores and Coakley,” said Steven Millies, a professor of public theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
Flores has an “ideologically unusual perspective,” according to Millies. From his diocese along the U.S.-Mexico border, he is traditional on sexual ethics and outspoken in defending migrants.
The bishops plan to discuss immigration during the meeting. On many issues, they appear as divided and polarized as their country, but on immigration, even the most conservative Catholic leaders stand on the side of migrants.
The question is how strongly the whole body plans to speak about the Trump administration’s harsh immigration tactics.
Fear of immigration enforcement has suppressed Mass attendance at some parishes. Local clerics are fighting to administer sacraments to detained immigrants. U.S. Catholic bishops have already shuttered their longstanding refugee resettlement program after the Trump administration halted federal funding for resettlement aid.
Pope Leo recently called for “deep reflection” in the United States about the treatment of migrants held in detention, saying that “many people who have lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what is going on right now.”
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