ALTERNATIVE DECK: The American Conference of Catholic Bishops, some 250 men, mostly white and older than middle age, are among the nation’s most formidable reactionary forces. As a Catholic I have to protest.

It’s time to take a closer look at the far-right politics of American Catholic bishops. They won a 50-year campaign to reverse legal abortion, but they won’t rest, it seems, until the country becomes a Christian nationalist state, with their moral principles codified into law. The religious right has long been identified with white evangelical Christians, but the American Conference of Catholic Bishops, some 250 men, mostly white and middle-aged, is among the

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most formidable reactionary forces. As a Catholic I have to protest.

There was a time when I was proud of the principled but often unpopular views of my faith leaders. During the Cold War, they spoke out against nuclear proliferation. When neocons came to power in Washington, the bishops issued a strong letter on the economy, reminding the government of its responsibility to make a preferential option for the poor. They opposed Ronald Reagan’s support for autocrats in wartime Central America. Covering the region as a reporter, I met with several bishops who traveled south to see for themselves before making the policy decision.

Since that time, the proportion of conservative prelates in the US has increased with nominations by the two popes who preceded Pope Francis, and the USCCB drifted far to the political right, narrowing its focus to the “ultimate threat” of abortion. Its members lead the nation’s largest and barely monolithic faith group, 73 million American Catholics, but it also seeks to influence the law with amicus curiae memos on issues such as gay rights to prayer in schools, and with

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powerful lobbying arm, the Office of Government Relations, charged with influencing Congress. The bishops are driving the American Church to the point of schism with opposition to Pope Francis, who emphasizes pastoral care rather than doctrine, and who blamed lifelong Catholic Joe Biden, who is pro- choice is, virtually declined.

What shaped the conservatism of the American bishops?

The roots of today’s right-wing church hierarchy go back to the 1970s, when Catholic activist (and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation) Paul Weyrich persuaded evangelical minister and broadcaster Jerry Falwell to join forces in a moral majority. Weyrich suggested the term. As a movement, ultra-conservative Catholics and evangelicals would restore Founding Father values ​​and morals as Weyrich, Falwell, and their followers saw them, a promise kept by

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Reagan, their favorite presidential candidate. Abortion became the flagship of the Moral Majority.

That highly politicized obsession has put American Catholic bishops at sharp odds with the global Church (and public opinion) in their animosity toward Pope Francis, who calls capital punishment, euthanasia, and care for the poor equally important pro-life issues. For moderate Catholics like me, the deviation hits close to home, pushing the American church too far from too many of Christ’s most basic teachings as they engage in modern culture wars.

On sexual orientation, Francis, who recently served as pope for 10 years, famously said: Who am I to judge? but American bishops rail against the intrinsic disorder of homosexuality. They ignore his urgent call to action on climate change and its existential threats. They are dragging their feet with his unprecedented process of preparing for a global synod this year in Rome, which is asking people, especially women, at every level of church life, not just bishops, to update assessments and aspirations. wear intended to define the mission of today’s church.

During the COVID pandemic, some American prelates attempted to undermine the authority of both church and state. Francis encouraged vaccination, but Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco handed out communion unmasked and unvaccinated, playing the injured victim (a Christian nationalist trope), claiming that cultural elites treated Catholics with deliberate discrimination by restricting public gatherings. U.S. military service archbishop Timothy Broglio contradicted the pope by saying that Catholic servicemen could request a religious exemption from the gunshot, despite the Pentagon’s orders they were given. Broglio is the newly elected president of the USCCB.

The American Church has a history of discrimination against black Catholics in parishes and seminaries

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the bishops, with notable exceptions, err in not adequately condemning white supremacy. Following the Black Lives Matter protests, Archbishop Jos Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the US bishops for three years until the end of 2022, and vice president of the group before that, called out social solidarity movements as pseudo-religions part of a deliberate effort to the Christian roots of society and to suppress any remaining Christian influences.

Wealthy laymen support the vision of far-right prelates. Southern California billionaire Timothy Busch, for example, is the founder of the Napa Institute and its influential summer conference where well-to-do conservative Catholics bump into bishops, archbishops and right-wing politicians. Archbishops Gomez and Cordileone are advisers; last year Trump administration Atty. General Bill Barr was a keynote speaker. Busch, who finds unregulated free markets congruent with Catholic teaching, has little to say about Francis’ attack on the sacred workings of the global economy.

Perhaps the biggest concern, the USCCB has been increasingly willing to make the wall between church and state a mere gossamer curtain. Invoking new theories of religious freedom, the bishops have opposed legislation and court decisions that most Americans support, especially laws protecting same-sex marriage and access to contraceptives.

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Pope Francis is nearing the end of his pontificate. No less than 82% of American Catholics have a positive attitude towards him. But he may not appoint enough like-minded cardinals to elect a similar successor.

Moderate prelates in the US do not agree with the USCCB’s right-wing hardliners, but are a minority. I can only hope that their numbers grow over time, giving the Church the leadership without political considerations that American Catholics deserve.

Mary Jo McConahay is the author of “Playing God: American Catholic Bishops and the Far Right.”