Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste for shocking people via undiplomatic language. In a conversation with the great historian John Tracy Ellis, Curley, who had had his share of tussles with the Vatican, once blurted out, “Rome will use you, abuse you, and then throw you away!”
Like other bombastic Curleyisms, it was an exaggeration, but one that contained a nugget of truth: Roman authorities have often had difficulties grasping the distinctive character and achievements of the Church in the United States. Yet few particular Churches of the size and significance of American Catholicism have been as doggedly loyal (and generous) to “Rome” as we have. That is not a brag; it is a historical and empirical fact.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services-USA is the antithesis of Archbishop Curley when it comes to the art of rhetoric. A veteran of the papal diplomatic service with long Vatican experience, Archbishop Broglio chooses his words with great care. The opening sentences of his last address as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), at their annual meeting in Baltimore last month, were, I imagine, carefully crafted. They repay close attention:
Let my first words in this final presidential address to you be those of profound gratitude for your support and for the abiding unity experienced on a daily basis from the prelates who form this conference. I knew that we were united, but that fraternity has been so tangible in the more trying moments of these past three years. I am profoundly grateful.
In other circumstances, that expression of gratitude might be mere politesse. But please note that the archbishop did not underscore his gratitude for his brother bishops’ cooperation, support, or camaraderie. He underscored his appreciation of their unity. That, I suggest, was not an accident.
In recent years, the notion that the U.S. bishops are a divided and contentious bunch has spread throughout the world Church, to the point where I’ve been asked by senior churchmen from Africa and Asia, and in virtually the same terms, “Isn’t it true that the U.S. bishops are deeply divided?”
How did this canard spread? It has been spread through the Anglosphere by the London-basedTablet; it has been spread throughout the Francophone Catholic world by La Croix International; and those publications have, one imagines, absorbed this fictitious (and in some cases malicious) story line from the National Catholic Reporter and from Commonweal’s Massimo Faggioli (whose distorted view of the Church in the United States has not been improved by his recent translation from Villanova to Dublin).
The canard about the bishops’ alleged disunity and fractiousness is typically accompanied by other fairy tales: that the U.S. bishops intensely disliked, even disrespected, Pope Francis; that the U.S. bishops are joined at the hip to the Republican Party; that in matters of public policy the U.S. bishops care only about abortion; that the U.S. bishops don’t do enough for migrants and immigrants. In each case, the truth of the matter is quite the opposite.
The bishops as a body were deeply loyal to Pope Francis, even when he made their pastoral lives more difficult with (to take but two examples) Amoris Laetitia and Traditionis Custodes. The bishops are no more beholden to the Republican Party than they are to the Democrats. The bishops speak in the public square on a host of issues, and they do so with the voice of public reason, not as “culture-warriors” (another silly epithet applied to them by bears of little brain). And the Church in the United States does more for migrants and immigrants than any other institution in the country.
It is a sadness to think that the distorted picture of the U.S. Church that one finds internationally and in Rome has been confected, not only by disgruntled journalists and commentators committed to the failed project of Catholic Lite, but by some American bishops who resent being part of a decided minority in the bishops’ conference. If that is the case, and I fear it is, then a serious breach of the collegiality that Vatican II called the bishops of every particular Church to live, operationally and affectively, is being committed. And it should end.
The opening months of the new pontificate have seen a renewed papal stress on unity in the Church. I hope that those who spread disinformation about a disunited American episcopate take that to heart.
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“The canard about the bishops’ alleged disunity and fractiousness is typically accompanied by other fairy tales: that the U.S. bishops intensely disliked, even disrespected, Pope Francis; that the U.S. bishops are joined at the hip to the Republican Party; that in matters of public policy the U.S. bishops care only about abortion; that the U.S. bishops don’t do enough for migrants and immigrants.”
It’s funny how different perspectives can be, since I think of (and always have) the Bishops as loyal Democrats, very open to the concept of “Open Borders,” and the American Tax payer paying to support them; extremely weak on abortion (and now IVF–and soft on contraception goes without saying). Loyal followers of Pope Francis, etc.
Archbishop Broglio should have added one qualifier to this “gratitude for unity among the US bishops”. It should refer to unity in the Magisterium of the Church alone and should not aspire to unity in everything under the sun. My impression of most of the USCCB bishops is that they are weak, feckless and effeminate men who seek the adulation of others.
“The adulation of others” or walking in step as a “mutual admiration society” (Teresa Brewer 1956)? Methinks you tar “most” of the bishops with too broad a brush, but…
Also wondering, here, about any possible difference between “fraternal collegiality” and simple frat house loyalty–as among former seminarians? And, about “loyalty” to the former Pope Francis–as compared to Pope Leo XIV who recently announced that the accused, henceforth, will receive a hearing (unlike the exiled Bishop Strickland, or the three investigative priests under Cardinal Muller, who were summarily fired under Pope Francis–“I don’t need a reason, I’m the pope!” And, about the monotonony generated by the drumbeat against “bigots, rigidity, and backwardists”–a toxic culture which seems finally over for non-amnesiacs who still reserve a place for clarity and the Magisterium.
So, about the happily reported unity among bishops, what we need now is a better bridge between them and those many priests who reportedly feel left out of such unity, as under bishops who seem remote or who never quite scrutinized each other over their possible role in the Scandal of 2002.
Peter, you write: “Methinks you tar “most” of the bishops with too broad a brush, but…”
It’s my opinion that to a man almost every bishop knew that McCarrick was a serial sex abuser and said/did NOTHING. I suspect they were frightened of his using his power in the Church to cancel them. I have little respect for their protection racket.
I can’t rebut, and it is said that McCarrick had a hand in the Land O’ Lakes Declaration in 1968, and more recently in the sellout of the Church in China. But I have no direct info.
Are there at least ten in modern Nineveh?
Peter B:
Wrt: “direct info,” the link to the Land of Lakes Statement, showing the signatories, with Theodore McCarrick at top of the right hand column.
Link: https://archives.nd.edu/episodes/visitors/lol/idea.htm
My deepest thanks to George for writing this and to Carl for publishing it. We have many great Bishops who should be appreciated and supported.
“The bishops speak in the public square on a host of issues, and they do so with the voice of public reason…” WOW. Would one of those issues be so called man made climate change that they push? Would it be their opposition to deporting criminal illegal immigrants (aliens)? Would it be their unity in not permitting priests to care for the ill and dying in hospitals and nursing homes during Covid?
I accept your statement that the United States bishops are united. When Bishop Strickland raised the issue at the last USCCB meeting about Father James Martin participating in the sacrament of Conformation of a member of a so called same sex marriage, with his partner as sponsor, there was great unity of the bishops…unity of total silence.
There was great unity of the bishops when Cardinal Cupich announced that he was giving a life time achievement award to a militantly pro-abortion Senator. With over 400 active and retire bishops in the U.S. only ten, that is Ten, objected.
There are many more examples that could be given.
So, I agree that the bishops speak with unity, but I disagree that they speak “with the voice of reason.”
“We have many great Bishops who should be appreciated and supported.”
No bishop should be appreciated or supported for accommodating an occasion of sin and thus blasphemy against The Holy Ghost, In The Name Of The Spirit Of Perfect Divine, Eternal Complementary Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ.
“The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.’ Don’t be afraid, she added, because whoever works for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. Then she concluded: ‘nevertheless, Our Lady has already crushed his head’.”
“Do not let your hearts be hardened”, least your blasphemy of The Holy Ghost leads to the unforgivable sin, the refusal to accept, at the hour of one’s death, Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy.
“Penance, Penance, Penance”
“At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross
Let your Yes be Our Blessed Mother’s Yes!
✝️💕🌹🙏
“The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan will be about Marriage and the Family.’
No, it won’t. That final battle will be Christianity vs. islam, and it’s coming at us like a freight train.
When I travel to my gym at night, I travel past a Presbyterian church. It’s an ordinary looking edifice except for a full color electronic sign board that they installed a few years back.
Ordinarily they have what a appears to be an extract of a congregational mission statement about service to God and others, but on occasion they will have other information. Since it’s up, I’ve seen announcements for communion “service” this week, announcements for sermons to be delivered by female clergy, and at least one congratulation with two women’s names-which I suppose was for same sex pseudonogamy-to borrow an term coined by Anthony Esolen.
There are plenty of other local churches that have non-electronic signs with rainbow banners.
So while it is true that Islam is imperial, martial and supremacist, how can we say that the final battle won’t be with those that pervert and subvert the gospel, while maintaining a superficial adherence to it, subordinated to modern libertinism?
The homosexual element within the USCCBs is the boa constrictor in the room.
“You cannot be My Disciples if you do not Abide In My Word.” -Jesus The Christ
There is only One, Jesus The Christ, Who Founded One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church. The final battle leading to The Great Apostasy will be about Marriage And The Family.
You can only have a Great Apostasy from The True Church Of Christ, Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic, And Apostolic Church which is grounded in Divine Truth And Love. God, The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, Is The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, And Thus Divine Revelation Is Of God, not man.
Excellent analysis. Being committed to reason would logically require the bishops to abandon their commitment to leftist causes and ideologies. I simply do not see that happening anytime soon. The deafening silence that greeted Bishop Strickland is powerful evidence of that sad state of affairs. The bishops have no credibility or moral authority at this point.
Did they EVER advocate against the deportation of illegal criminals?
Where exactly are you writing from and what have you been reading? They have absolutely and unequivocally made that argument. You’d know that if you’ve been paying attention 🙄
Br. Jaques, to answer your question, please see the most recent NPR interview of Archbishop Cupich. Link is provided.
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1-5637601/chicagos-archbishop-weighs-in-on-a-year-of-immigration-enforcement
Well said! I have been increasingly concerned that the Church seems incapable of separating itself from the political world…and seldom has. Conversion from sin, change in one’s personal life to God’s glory seems to be fading as the Vatican’s mission. What has replaced its mission is concerning. Perhaps those US bishops with backbone bring the Church back into its core Gospel mission.
Im an american Christian who fell in love with the Cathilic Church When the Great Pope John Paul 2, was Pope. Since then a lot things have changed. John Paul 2 papcy was based on the 10 commandments. I remember people across this country filled church pews on Sunday that doesnt happen anymore.
So here are my questions – when the 10 commandments where taken out of the schools here- where was the united catholic bishops, when both benedict and frances were popes i saw them rob and earse John Paul’s 2 papcey. The art displayed has changed. So however united the American catholic Archbishops to vatican, they are not united in truth or the laws of God who is heaven. The papacy has earsed its involvement with Nazi Germany in this century.
How this artical is written, and how it is repeatitive in length i would say the Archbishops and the new American pope are up to no good.
Is there any reason to believe that Pope Leo, being American-born and bred, doesn’t know what’s going on in the Catholic Church here?
A couple reasons come to mind: he has not really lived in the U.S. since 1985, having spent most of his time in Peru and Rome, and he appears to be close to Cardinal Cupich, whose understanding of, well, nearly everything is either skewed or wrong. That said, the problems in the Vatican are deep-rooted and long-standing, as evidenced by how Rupnik has been handled, or by often sloppy/poor documents coming out of the DDF.
Maybe the bishops aren’t divided but the laity sure are.
I think at this point in time nearly everyone is divided. I don’t believe it’s all evolved “organically” either.
Thank you, George; always look forward to your writings, discussing your understanding of current Church issues and dynamics which far exceed my own.
Having said that, I must add that this article is somewhat puzzling to me in its claim of genuine unity among American Bishops. Curiously, For one thing, I read your penultimate paragraph as seeming to contradict this assertion.
Apart from that observation, I can’t seeing any unity between, say, Bishop Strickland on the one hand and the friends of Uncle Ted McCarrick like Cardinals Cupich and McElroy on the other.
It seems to me there is absolute division among the orthodox US Bishops and the heterodox ones, which the Holy Spirit speaking through St. Paul teaches is necessary in the Church: “For there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” ( 1 Corinthians: 11,19).
Humbly submitted.
Division is not of the Holy Ghost
https://www.catholic.com/encyclopedia/anathema
When Pope Francis issued Fiducia permitting blessing of same sex unions, the
African bishops rose up to defend the traditional teaching of the Church. The
Vatican responded with an exemption of sorts for Africa. Our bishops went along with
Fiducia. No courage there. It is hard to recall any instance when US bishops took unpopular stands in defense of truth and Church teaching. They turned a blind eye to McCarrick’s abuses for years and even now refuse to address concerns raised by Bishop Strickland over Fr. James Martin’s defiance of Church teaching on LGBT issues.
When the abuse crisis finally became public in 2002, bishops did not resign because of their obvious callous incompetence. They kept their jobs, except for Cardinal Law who was run out of Boston by his own people. But of course, he went off to a cushy job in Rome when he and his fellow incompetence should have retired to a monastery for prayer and penance.
Francy, … and one bishop who was credibly accused and forced to resign got to spend his last days under the protection of the trappist monks of mepkin abbey in sc!
You might wish to know that Bishop O’Connell was a devout and holy man. He spent his remaining years serving the community in total humility. What ever his sins, they were amply repented and his life was a witness to the mercy of Christ, as are the lives of the Trappist monks who know the essence of human existence as they live the Gospel.
Christ is a potter, He works with mud.
Drop the stone.
James: I note that you fail to give any consideration to victims of clergy sexual abuse. What about the trauma they’ll have to live with for the duration ofvtheir lives?
That was not the issue. You made Bishop O’Connell the issue.
If I accurately recall those who made their accusations against him were prominent activists in the pride culture. Their trauma appeared to be somewhat less than what you might expect.
It escapes me how educated Roman Catholics, indeed any Christian, expects any violator of any commandment to live in a perpetual state of remorse. Or, even more importantly, anyone the victim of another, should remain in a perpetual state of victimhood. What transpires in our lives need be handled creatively and with grace. We move on with Christ. Sins forgiven are gone. And we ourselves are required to forgive as a facet of our recovery from any injustice. Those the object of any hurt must move on for their own good.
Keeping a list of naughty and nice doesn’t help anyone and is against Christian practice.
Drop the rock.
Dear, dear James, you write: “That was not the issue. You made Bishop O’Connell the issue.”
You’re the one disclosing the name of someone in particular. You ought to examine your conscience over disclosing this.
You write on 12/12 at 2:46 PM that I have a conscience issue in regard to identifying Bishop O’Connell as the subject of your initial comment. His identity is well known from the media at that time. A simple web search with the information yourself initially provided will suffice to bring up the tragic story of his sins. A story worse than I remembered. There is no besmirchment in identifying a man who is known, who confessed his guilt, and received absolution. Deeply repentant the only scandal remaining is the scandal of the Cross. Our Lord did not inhabit our nature for 33 years and hang on the Cross because any of us are sinless. Jesus Christ came in to the world to save sinners — a lot of people take offense at that reality. It upsets their erroneous sense of justice. With your latest comment you attempt to pitch the rock at me. For what purpose?
My problem with you James is that you name the bishop when there was no need to. Examine your conscience and don’t obfuscate with more word salad.
It always puzzles me when people talk of sending errant clergy to monasteries. Monasteries are neither prisons nor retirement homes. If a priest or bishop has committed a crime like the abuse of a child (or anyone else, for that matter), or has aided and abetted any who have done so, he should be sent to prison. Why should a monastery get saddled with him? One can do prayer and penace behind bars as easily as behind grilles.
Ken T: you’re correct…I agree. My point is that bishops who were “credibly accused” got protection by the episcopal power brokers who in large part were homosexual – whether actively or not. Priests credibly accused were sent to jail or put out to pasture.
The trouble is when a crime can not be proven. If there’s not enough evidence to prosecute, it can’t result in a conviction. “Credibly accused” doesn’t guarantee sentencing.
Generally I agree. The monastic life while penitential is definitely not penal. Quite the contrary. But such an environment will prove the right place for specific individuals. It surely did for the individual referenced by DiogenesRedux and by those with whom he shared community.
Francy,
Other than all of continental Africa, the other public dissenters from Fiducia Supplicans (that is, steadfast guardians of truth) are Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Peru, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Coptic Church, and parts of France, Spain and Argentina.
For the others (premiere administrators all!), maybe what is needed is a remedial tutorial on the best-practices “80/20 rule”…a reminder of the incompetence of spending 80 percent of their time on the minutely wrong stuff. How many bishops are really and culpably unaware of what’s going on outside of their bubble-universe chancery offices?
Again, the novelist Honore de Balzac reminds us that “bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pigmies!”
Yeah Faggilo is now in charge of a useless MPhil program at Trinity College Dublin on Catholic Studies! The Irish Catholic lauded his appointment as a great asset to the Catholic (sorry) synodal church!!! That says all you need to know about the rigor of Irish Catholic intellectualism today! Do you want him back?????
Ah, that the episcopate were but far more divided. Unity in error, economic and administrative disfunction is nothing to be proud of. We’ve got a big problem. The body of laity essentially uncatechized or erroneously catechized. Vocations plummeting, departures on the increase, women religious evaporating, catholic education on the verge of extinction. Pew Research announces that only 9% of the laity believe in the Holy Trinity.
But oh, gee wiz, we sure got a lota bishops!
Junk the rose colored glasses.
Agreed. It’s indicative of a big, big problem with vocations if the majority of priests in the US are foreign-born.
America is not an outpost where missionaries are trying to convert the pagans…this land has been converted for centuries.
I appreciate how global the Church is, but again, if all our priests were formed in other nations, what does that say about our dioceses?
Agreed. This article has the strong whiff of that fairytale phrase “The New Springtime of Vatican II”. I’ve seen many more reasonable statements in the comment section.
Re Cbalducc/Olson above – Leo’s recent statements on mass immigration/Islamization suggest a limited grasp of current issues that are not limited to the U.S.
His apparent attachment to Cupich and his throwaway comments on the Durbin affair suggest a worrying lack of a depth of understanding of the American Church.
I’m afraid we have the Cupich pontificate by proxy.
Unity, and loyalty, are not very meaningful, unless those who are being commended are united and loyal to what is true and good.
The essay has 12 paragraphs:
– the first 7 are about unity and loyalty…
– 8 and 9 are the pivot to politics…
– 10-11 are about loyalty and politics…
– 12 is about unity.
The essay is about united in politics and united in loyalty to pontiffs. Those aren’t particularly impressive causes, especially considering that the primary political cause, named by Mr. Weigel, is “immigration,” which he (uncandidly) neglected to mention is unity in promoting and enabling (and drawing revenue from) massive-scale “illegal immigration.”
United for illegal immigration, etc, etc.
If illegal immigration is one’s cause, I guess one congratulates the USCCB.
The British episcopate of 1535 exhibited unity while John Fisher ascended the gallows. Unity around what? The zeitgeist or the Gospel?
I am not edified.
Exactly
They all submitted to Henry VIII except for Fisher.
About the Church in the United States and Rome. I just viewed a brief clip of Kristi Noem, Secretary for Homeland Security testifying before Congress, among the issues discussed charges of ICE and overly aggressive tactics, when a woman protester was seen and heard shouting words of exorcism at the Secretary, “The power of Christ compels you!…”
Wondering whether Rome’s relatively new pontiff Leo XIV is having a marked effect on US Catholics, when he made allusions to ICE “treating immigrants like garbage”, and that illegals are “Christ knocking at the door”. Let’s hope Leo realizes what he’s likely to have started here among his compatriots.
Another scenario came to mind when Venezuela’s Maduro was televised holding a crucifix toward the cameras while speaking out about the US’s threatening presence in the Caribbean. An appeal to Leo XIV? A Pope who seems more Peruvian, with greater affinity to Latin America than to his home of origin. After all, Leo’s a devotee of former Pope Francis.
Pope Leo. Please remember your roots and who it is you’re actually called to serve.