Bishops back refugees at USCCB plenary

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the current vice president of the US Bishops’ Conference (USCCB), was on Tuesday elevated to the presidency for a three-year term, winning slightly more than the necessary majority on the first ballot, writes Michael Sean Winters.

In the contest for the vice presidency of the conference, the bishops chose Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, an immigrant from Mexico, on the third ballot. The selection comes after Gómez delivered an impassioned sermon at his cathedral last week about the need for the Church to stand with immigrants who are fearful in the wake of last week’s presidential election.

The need to defend migrants and refugees was a topic of much conversation at the USCCB plenary. In his last presidential address, departing USCCB president Archbishop Joseph Kurtz pledged that the bishops would “stand with immigrants”. Cardinal-designate Blase Cupich told The Tablet: “Archbishop Gómez put his finger on the issue when he drew attention to the fact that this is a human and not purely legal problem and now the role of the Church is to stand with those who are afraid.” The USCCB had been planning an education campaign to promote immigration reform next year but the election of Donald Trump ended any prospect of reform. In an interview the night before the USCCB meeting, Mr Trump pledged to deport 3 million migrants.

Bishop Timothy Doherty of Lafayette, Indiana, was elected chairman of the Committee on Child Protection, while Bishop Robert Deeley will become chairman of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. For the Committee on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs, a post of special significance given President-elect Trump’s vow to ban Muslims from migrating to the US, the bishops selected Bishop Joseph Bambera of Scranton. None of these contests was seen as a choice between the conference’s  ideological divisions. Perhaps the committee chair contest that most clearly reflected a choice between the culture-warrior wing and the more pastoral wing, the bishops elected Bishop Robert Barron to serve as chairman of the Committee on Evangelisation, a clear win for the culture-warrior approach.  

As chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, the bishops elected Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Military archdiocese. It was unclear how other episcopal conferences would react to having the archbishop of the US military as their contact.