The US bishops chose new leadership last week at their annual plenary session in Baltimore, Maryland. Archbishop Timothy Broglio, of the archdiocese of the military, was elected president of the conference and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore was chosen as vice president. Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley was elected as conference secretary.
Broglio worked as chief of cabinet to Cardinal Angelo Sodano from 1990 until 2001. When asked about Sodano’s role in protecting serial paedophile Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, Broglio said: “I had actually left the office by the time the great accusations [against Maciel] came up.” In fact, the Hartford Courant newspaper published extensive, detailed accounts of accusations against Maciel in 1997. Broglio told reporters, “Hindsight is always 20/20.”
The 1990s was also the period of time when Sodano and Broglio sought to appoint more conservative bishops in Argentina, recommended by the government, against the wishes of the Argentine hierarchy.
Broglio defended his earlier assertion that homosexual and “effeminate” clergy were “directly related” to the clergy sex abuse crisis, despite the fact that a 2011 study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the USCCB indicated there was no statistical evidence to support such a linkage. Asked about his previous comments, Broglio said, “It's certainly an aspect of the sexual crisis that can't be denied.”
In the final runoff ballot, Broglio defeated Lori by 138-99 votes. The bishops proceeded to select Lori, a more moderate candidate, as the conference vice president.
The contest for conference secretary pitted Coakley against Newark, New Jersey Cardinal Joseph Tobin, known as one of Pope Francis’ strongest supporters among the US bishops. Coakley, on the other hand, was one of 40 bishops who defended former nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano in 2018 when Vigano published a “testimony” in which he called on Pope Francis to resign. “While I lack any personal knowledge or experience of the details contained in his ‘testimony,’ I have the deepest respect for Archbishop Viganó and his personal integrity,” Coakley stated at the time. He defeated Tobin by a margin of 130-104.
In one of the meetings most poignant moments, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia addressed the bishops, detailing the on-going sufferings of the Ukrainian people, thanking the bishops for their generous humanitarian support, and urging them to continue supporting the Biden administration’s military assistance to Ukraine. He noted that Catholic dioceses had contributed $40 million in aid, on top of the $100 million from Catholic Relief Services.
Cardinal Robert McElroy urged the conference to continue to stand by Ukraine. Mentioning that some leaders in the new Congress have indicated they might roll back current aid levels, the cardinal said, “I urge the conference to make it a very high priority to move quickly to preempt any moves in our national policy in that direction.”
The bishops also voted to re-issue their 47-page quadrennial document on voting, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” with some additional social media campaigns. The text was adopted in 2007 and does not reflect the social magisterium of either Pope Benedict XVI or Pope Francis but the committee rebuffed calls for a shorter, updated document, akin to that issued by other episcopal conferences.
Brownsville, Texas Bishop Daniel Flores, who chairs the doctrine committee and led the effort to provide a national synthesis of diocesan synodal statements, commended those bishops who engaged in the synodal process. Such participation was uneven, however. The Archdiocese of the Military Services, for example, led by the conference’s new president, has done very little to embrace the synodal process.
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