Challenging Times for U.S.
Catholics who Support Pope Francis' and his Reform of the Catholic Chruch
June 1, 2024
By John R. Connolly
Sad to say, but the reality is that, in the last four years, the Catholic Church in the United States has moved further and further away from implementing the mission of Pope Francis to reform the church according to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. The two major factors contributing to the diminishment of the influence of Pope Francis in the U.S. Catholic Church are the bishops who govern the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the radical right-wing Catholic movement in the United States. These bishops have moved the Catholic Church in the United States further to the far right both theologically and politically. It is true that there are a minority of moderate U.S. bishops who do not go along with the right-wing hardliners, but they do not exercise the important leadership positions in the USCCB. The radical right-wing Catholics strongly oppose Pope Francis’ mission to reform the Catholic Church. In the past four years these Catholics politically have moved further to the right consolidating their allegiance to Trumpism and the Maga Republicans.
The U.S. Bishops’ Response to Pope Francis
From the very beginning of Pope Francis’ papacy, the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been reluctant to adopt the reforms of the new pope openly and enthusiastically. As a general rule they have been reluctant to publicly criticize the opponents of Pope Francis. At times some of the leading U.S. bishops have sided with these opponents. Pope John Paul II and Pope Bendict XVI appointed the majority of these bishops who were trained to view the church primarily as a hierarchical and dogmatic institution with a centralized authority. Many of the theological views of the Second Vatican Council had not yet been fully integrated into this vision of the church. In the past four years the major emphasis of the U.S. bishops has not been on reform of the church but on maintaining the status quo. Their focus has been on the church’s teaching on abortion, the “preeminent priority of abortion, with the political objective of institutionalizing the Catholic Church’s ban on abortion as the law of the land. Although this objective has met with some success, it has resulted in a de-emphasis on the U.S. church’s mission to preach the Catholic Church’s social teaching on the other life issues like racism, sexual discrimination, human trafficking, violence against women, dehumanization of immigrants, care for the environment, homelessness, and poverty. The bishops’ decision to emphasize the teaching on the “preeminent priority” on abortion was made in direct opposition to Pope Francis’ teaching that abortion and all the other life related social teachings of the Catholic Church are “equally important.”
The other major emphasis of the U.S. bishops’ teaching during the last four years has been in the area of human sexuality and related issues, e.g., the connection between sexuality and marriage, marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the church’s views on homosexuality, same-sex marriage, gender theory, transgender persons, and sex-change operations. Pope Francis teaches that the Catholic Church’s teaching on human sexuality does not prevent the church from pastorally reaching out to LGBTQ Catholics and including them within the church. The Church is a field hospital, not an exclusive institution. Salvation is for all. The present policy of the U.S. Bishop’s Conference Office of Government Relations is to lobby against all legislation that protects the personal, civil, legal, and health care rights of LGBTQ persons. Strange as it might seem, this is being done in the name of religious freedom.
With their focus on abortion and human sexuality, the leadership of the U.S. bishops have increasingly looked for, and found, support for their theological and political agendas among radical right-wing Catholics and Trump Maga Republicans, rather than in Pope Francis’ reform.
In 2016 instead of questioning the audacity and legitimacy of Cardinal Burke’s dubia a number of U.S. bishops sided with the Cardinal and urged Pope Francis to address the charges of heresy made against him. On August 25, 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano accused Pope Francis of covering up sexual abuse by Cardinal McCarrick and urged the pope to resign. Instead of coming to Pope Francis’ defense, a number of U.S. bishops, with leadership positions in the USCCB, publicly vouched for Vigano’s personal integrity, some going as far as to state that they found credibility in the accusations. Even though all of Vigano’s accusations have been demonstrated to have been erroneous and false, none of the U.S. bishops who supported Vigano have ever apologized to Pope Francis.
The U.S. bishops’ reception of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality has been nominal and unenthusiastic. The leadership of the U.S. bishops has placed more emphasis on the 2024 Eucharistic Congress than on the synod. Their participation in the synod has been spotty and uneven basically being left up to the individual diocesan bishops. A number of the features of a synodal church like an inclusive and participatory notion of authority, the baptismal right of all Catholics, including the laity, to participate in the exercise of authority in the church, a listening church, the method of “Conversations in the Spirit,” and the possibility of the development of doctrine are not enthusiastically embraced by a number of the leading U.S. bishops. They also are reluctant to discuss the possibility of any changes in the church’s teachings on issues like same-sex marriage, communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, the inclusion of LGTBQ Catholics, and the ordination of women to the diaconate.
The leadership of the U.S. bishops has also been reluctant to fully endorse and implement Pope Francis’ liturgical reform. In his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (July 16, 2021) Pope Francis proclaimed that the Vatican II reformed Roman Missal is the universal missal for the Catholic Church in the Latin Rite. In abrogating Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum Pope Francis’ legislates that there are not two equally licit forms of the Roman Missal, the Vatican II reformed missal as the “ordinary form” and the Tridentine Latin missal as the “extraordinary form,” in the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. There is only one Roman Missal and that is the Vatican II reformed liturgy. Pope Francis does allow priests to celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass, with the permission of the local bishop. However, it is clear in Traditionis Custodes that Francis’ ultimate objective is the unification of the Latin Rite Catholic Church through the universal acceptance of the Vatican II liturgy. Pope Francis urges bishops to work toward restoring the Vatican II Missal as the universal missal for the Catholic Church in the Latin Rite. (Francis, Letter, Traditionis Custodes,5.) In his Apostolic Letter, Desiderio Desideravi (June 29, 2022) Francis confirms this position when he writes, “we cannot go back to that ritual form which the Council fathers, cum Petro et sub Petro, felt the need to reform, approving under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and following their consciences as pastors, the principles from which was born the reform. (Francis, Desiderio Desideravi, 61). At no point, did the U.S. bishops, as a whole, publicly give their endorsement to these reforms or develop a strategy for implementing them. The matter was largely left up to the individual bishops. As a result, some bishops said that further study was required before they could implement the norms in their diocese. Some did follow the recommendations; others said that they were going to continue to allow and encourage the celebration of the Tridentine Latin Mass. One bishop actually held a conference in his archdiocese in support of the Tridentine Latin Mass.
The Right-Wing Catholics’ Opposition to Pope Francis
The radical right-wing Catholic movement also began early in Pope Francis’ papacy. What motivates and unifies these radical right-wing Catholics is their opposition to Pope Francis and his mission to reform the Catholic Church. Not only do they oppose his reform, but they have questioned the legitimacy of his papacy, have attempted to force him to resign, and a substantial number have rejected the validity of the Second Vatican Council or only half-heartly support it. Their tactics have often been mean-spirited, vicious, unjust, and hardly Christian. Their arrogance and vehemence often go far beyond what one would expect from someone simply looking for clarification or further discussion on an issue. Any Catholic who disagrees with their interpretations of the teachings of the church is labeled either as an unfaithful Catholic, an apostate, a heretic, or schismatic. At various times they have accused Pope Francis of all of the above. The views of these radical right-wing Catholics are disseminated on so-called Catholic websites and in the right- wing Catholic media. Spokespersons for this movement can be found at the highest level of the Catholic hierarchy, as well as among Catholic priests, men and women religious, and lay women and men. Financial support is provided by wealthy Catholic Trump Republican donors who actively work to further the agenda of these radical-right wing Catholics.
There are many elements in the U.S. radical right-wing Catholic movement’s opposition to Pope Francis’ reform and their theological interpretations of the Christian Gospel that are incompatible with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Yet, the leadership of the U.S. bishops has refused to speak out on their theological distortions and lies. The radical right-wing Catholics present their own theological positions, beliefs and teachings as if they were the only authentic interpretations and claim that their views represent the official teaching of the church. Yet, they do not have any jurisdiction to speak for the Catholic Church in any official way. They are setting themselves up as an independent magisterium in opposition to the magisterium of Pope Francis and the Vatican. Yet, what so is ironic about their vision of Catholicism is that many of their views are so obviously contrary to some very fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church.
Spreading lies about the pope, misrepresenting his teachings, making false accusations, and calling him a heretic based upon their own erroneous interpretations of the teachings of the church are not actions that are compatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church accepts Jesus’ command to love God and your neighbor as yourself. Lying and bearing false witness are actions that violate the letter and the spirit of the eighth commandment. Spreading conspiracy theories about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the legitimacy of Pope Francis’s papacy, and attempting to remove him from office based upon lies and fabricated evidence are not actions compatible with the moral teaching of the church. At what point does questioning the legitimacy of Pope Francis become schism? If one actually rejects Pope Francis as the vicar of Christ on earth and the head of the Catholic Church, how can one be in full communion with the Catholic Church? Does this not place one in some kind of objectively grave sinful condition? Would such a person meet the church’s qualification for Eucharistic communion? Certainly, spreading conspiracy theories about the Second Vatican Council, rejecting its teaching, and calling it a heretical council are actions that are not compatible with the full acceptance of the teachings of the Catholic Church. All the Ecumenical Councils represent the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church throughout history. It is not the prerogative of a Catholic to choose which councils do or do not represent the true teaching of the church. Pope Francis himself has clearly stated that those who reject the Second Vatican Council have placed themselves outside the church. Either you are with the church and follow the Second Vatican Council or you do not stand with the church.
By refusing to speak out against these erroneous views and distortions of the faith, the U.S. bishops are allowing the right-wing Catholic Movement to preach these lies and distortions to Catholics in the United States. Ironically, the silence of the U.S. bishops has enhanced the credibility of the radical-right wing Catholics by allowing them to continue to present their views under the false claim that they are authentic teachings of the Catholic Church. Now is the time for the U.S. bishops to speak out as a body and condemn these errors. Not only is the integrity of the Christian Gospel at stake here, but so is the unity of the Catholic Church in the United States, as well as the credibility of the U.S. bishops themselves.
The following section of this essay was added on June 3, 2024.
The Political Agenda of Right-Wing Catholics
Politically, the radical right-wing Catholic movement in the United States has endorsed the Trump agenda along with all of its lies. In the 2020 election these right-wing Catholics supported Donald Trump primarily because of his opposition to abortion. With the support of the right-wing Catholic media, and even some Catholic cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, and laity they preached the “gospel according to Donald Trump. Some even threatened Catholics with damnation if they voted for Joe Biden. Even after the election of Joe Biden, the radical right-wing Catholic support for Trump continued in full force but moved to a more deceptive and incendiary level. They supported Trump’s on-going efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Even today they support his fraudulent claim that he won the 2020 election and that it was stolen from him.
On January 6, 2021, Trump’s violent insurrection to attempt to overthrow a legitimate U.S. presidential election began at a rally of his supporters. After repeating his false claims that the election had been stolen, he urged them to fight. “We fight like Hell and if you don’t fight like Hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Trump told the crowd that “you’ll never take back your country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.” Trump then urged his supporters to march to the Capitol to give the Republicans, “the kind of pride and boldness they need to take back our country,” stating that he would lead them. Being thoroughly excited and inflamed, the angry and violent protesters marched to the Capitol. They violently broke through the barricades guarding the Capitol and forced their way into the Capitol building. Shouting inflammatory remarks against the Democrats and calling for Mike Pence to be hanged, they managed to break into the House and Senate Chambers and temporarily forced a postponement of the certification of the 2020 election. Eventually, the House and Senate reconvened and officially certified Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States in the early hours of the morning of January 7, 2021. The coup and insurrection were defeated. We all witnessed this horrible event on TV. On February 8, 2024, Mitch McConnell said, “We were all here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next.” Still today the right-wing Maga Catholics continue to support the January 6, 2021, insurrection and the violent attack on the Capitol by Trump’s supporters and even propose outlandish attempts to justify it. Some go as far as to claim that God and Jesus supported the actions of the January 6 rioters. In outright blasphemy they identify the political aspirations and violent tactics of the insurrectionists with the Christian Gospel of salvation.
At the time, Trump’s actions were condemned by the leadership of the Republican party. On January 11, 2021, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy stated that President Trump bears responsibility for the January 6 attack on Congress by “mob rioters” and he made it clear that Biden was the rightfully elected president. At Trump’s impeachment trial on February 14, 2021, Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell said “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day [January 6, 2021]. The people who stormed the building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.” Even Trump himself on January 7, 2021, condemned the rioters stating that they defiled the seat of American democracy. He went on to say, “To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country, and to those who broke the laws, you will pay.”
On January 13, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on the charge of “incitement and insurrection.” The vote was 220 in favor to 197 against impeachment. Ten republicans, along with all the Democrats, voted for impeachment. All 197 who voted against impeachment were Republicans. On February 15, 2021, at the Senate impeachment trial, 57 senators voted that Trump was guilty of insurrection and 44 voted for acquittal. Since the vote fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction, Trump was acquitted. A number of Republicans voted against Trump’s conviction because they maintained that it was unconstitutional to impeach a president who was no longer in office. At the same time, Mitch McConnell and a number of other republicans, including, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, Thom Tillis, and John Cornyn suggested that Trump and his followers should be held responsible and punished for their participation in the attack on the Capitol. However, they argued that the courts, not impeachment, was the proper venue for trying any crimes that Trump and his supporters might have committed. At this time, these republican leaders clearly supported the view that the Justice Department and federal State courts could and should bring indictments against Trump and his followers for any crimes they committed on January 6. But that was 2021.
Today, Trump is already the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for the 2024 presidential election. He has consolidated his base. Through intimidations and threats, he has gained the support of a substantial number of republican senators and members of congress. He has managed to gain complete control of the Republican National Committee. Today, all Maga republicans, including many Catholics, absolutely adhere to the foundational lies of Trump’s campaign. They also are equally committed to the lies that he has fabricated since 2021.
Now we are told that January 6 was not an insurrection but was simply a group of citizens exercising their political right to protest, or maybe a group of tourists visiting the Capitol. Trump praises the rioters as patriots and hostages, promising to pardon them if he is elected president. The GOP republican House of Representatives is in the process of attempting to revise the history of January 6 to whitewash the historical events that we all witnessed on television. Trump is presently facing indictments in four different jurisdictions. Trump’s response to these indictments is the creation of a new lie. Today, he is fraudulently claiming that the Justice Department and President Biden are criminalizing the justice system in order to interfere with his presidential campaign. No evidence has been provided for this accusation. This is the man who has responded to every indictment by saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong,” without offering any evidence. Then he attacks President Biden, the Justice Department, the judges. the prosecutors, and the witnesses. “It is a witch hunt.” The Maga oppressor assumes the role of the victim. His supporters love it. Republican members of congress and senators, some of whom condemned Trump immediately after January 6 and urged that he be prosecuted for any crimes he might have committed are now jumping on the bandwagon of the criminalization lie. The Republican National Committee and Trump’s supporters are raising money to help pay for his legal fees. Some Republican members of the House of Representatives have even suggested that the House pass a bill to help Trump pay for his court costs.
In order to appeal to evangelical and Conservative Christians, including right wing Catholics, Trump has increasingly infused his campaign with a new series of lies and distortions about the role of Christianity in the United Staes. On February 22, 2024, in a speech at the National Religious Broadcasters (NCB) International Christian Media Convention in Nashville he placed the cause of what he called, the breakdown of Christianity in America squarely on Joe Biden, the Democrats, communists, and the radical left without offering an ounce of evidence. In a rambling conglomeration of lies he told the audience, “We will protect God in our public square.” “Remember every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out the churches.” “They want to tear down your crosses.” “No one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration.” And shamelessly, he went on to proclaim, “The left is trying to shame Christians. They’re trying to shame us. I am a very proud Christian.” Trump added that he was shocked that any Christian would vote for a democrat. As the myth imploded, Trump and his Maga Christian supporters presented him as a prophet and the savior whom God has sent to “make America Christian again.” In a video posted by Trump on Truth Social on January 14, 2024, an evangelical preacher speaks of Trump as being specially created by God and being pre-anointed by God to become president and to save the United States. The implications of the video are quite clear. Trump is being compared to Jesus Christ as another savior. At his hush money trial during Holy Week, 2024, Trump compared himself to Jesus Christ, falsely suggesting that his trial experience was analogous to the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.
Robert P. Jones, the founder and chief executive of P.R.R.I. (formerly the Public Religions Research Institute), maintains that these religious claims of Trump and his followers are an outright fraud. He writes, “Trump has given us adequate evidence that he has little religious sensibility or theological acuity. He has scant knowledge of the Bible, he has said that he has never sought forgiveness of any of his sins, and he has no substantive connection to a church or a denomination. He’s not only one of the least religious but also likely one of the most theologically ignorant presidents the country has ever had.” In another comment, Jones wrote that Trump “almost certainly lacks the kind of religious sensibility or theological framework necessary to personally grasp what it would even mean to be a Jesus-like, messianic figure.”
The Threat to Democracy
Trump’s political philosophy, if he has any, is closely aligned with 20th century nationalism which embraces white racism and elements of fascism and neo-Nazism. It is a form of political strategy that closely resembles that of Steve Bannon and the “alt-right.” Trump himself has admitted that he is more attracted to authoritarian and autocratic rulers like Vladimir Putin in Russia, X. Jinping in China, and Kim Jong Un in North Korea. His acceptance of the U.S. Constitutional Democracy, a government of the people by the people, with three branches of government, guided by a constitution is at best ambiguous. He obviously did not keep his oath to protect the constitution on January 6, 2021. In his 2024 campaign he is constantly threatening to ignore constitutional boundaries if he is elected president. He talks about being a dictator on the first day. He claims that he will use the Justice Department to punish all his enemies, both on the left and the far right. He threatens to use the National Guard, and perhaps the U.S. military, to round up and deport immigrants and refugees, and, maybe, even set up detention camps. He threatens to gut the civil service system and hire only radical right-wing Maga republicans who are absolutely loyal to him, basically creating a Gestapo-type government. He and many of his supporters say that, if Trump loses, they will not accept the results of the election. Such threats are a clear indication that Trump, if elected president, will not feel bound to govern within the framework of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, nor will he accept the checks and balances of our democracy. He will attempt to impose his ideas on the people of the United States and pose a threat to the freedom of all of those who do not absolutely endorse his Maga Trumpism.
The Maga Catholics and Catholic Teaching
The political agenda of the radical right-wing Catholics who support Trump not only threatens many of the traditions of our constitutional democracy, but many of their beliefs, actions, and methods are radically incompatible with some of the basic teachings of the Catholic faith. Two of the most fundamental beliefs of the Catholic Church are loving God and your neighbor and a commitment to the truth. The two fundamental commandments of Christian faith are to love God and your neighbor as yourself. In the Gospel of Mark one of the scribes asked Jesus what was the first of all the commandments. Jesus replied, “this is the first: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is God alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the second, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). Jesus dies on the cross out of love, affirming his love for God and his commitment to accept God’s will and, as an expression of his love for all human persons and all of God’s creation, by bringing salvation to all. Jesus came to love and to serve others. Most certainly, the right-wing Maga Catholics’ acceptance of Trump’s political strategies which include the demonization of people, name-calling, hateful rhetoric, bullying, sexual and racial discrimination and the use of violence are incompatible with the Catholic Church’s acceptance of Jesus’s teaching on love. In the book of Galatians St. Paul teaches that Christians live according to the Sprit and are known by their actions which are love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity. Those who do not follow the Spirit, but live according to the flesh, produce such actions as idolatry, hostilities, bickering, jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions and envy. (Gal 5:16-23).
The teaching of the Catholic Church that is violated the most by the radical right-wing Maga Catholics is the eighth commandment, which states that “you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that this commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. (Catholic Catechism, CC, 2464). It speaks of Jesus as “the Truth.” (CC, 2465). Truth is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words.” (CC, 2468). The Catholic Catechism goes on to state that the disciples of Christ consent to “live in the truth.” (CC, 2470).
The fundamental principles and political strategy of Trump and his Maga followers, Catholic and Protestant, are rooted in a series of ever escalating lies and fraudulent claims. The foundational lie is Trump’s fraudulent claim that the 2000 presidential election was stolen. After many fabricated and false lawsuits failed to overturn the election, Trump sent his Maga Republican supporters to the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election through a violent insurrection. When the insurrection failed, a new lie was invented claiming that January 6 was not an insurrection, but simply a group of citizens peacefully exercising their constitutional right to protest or a group of tourists visiting the Capitol. From this arises the fraudulent claim that the January 6 rioters who were convicted and jailed for their crimes are hostages and that he will pardon them if he is elected because they are true patriots. When faced with four indictments, Trump began fraudulently claiming that the Justice Department and President Biden were criminalizing the justice system in order to interfere with his presidential campaign. After being convicted of 34 felony counts in the hush money trial on May 31, 2024, Trump and his Maga followers, including Republican Senators and members of congress, began to escalate this lie to the point of insanity. In order to enhance his following among right-wing Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, Trump has recently fabricated the lie that President Biden and the Democrats are trying to destroy Christianity in the United States. This, of course, is followed by another lie in which his Maga Christian followers portray Trump as the savior who has been chosen by God at creation and anointed by God to be elected president in 2024 in order to save Christianity in the United States. (As an aside, I would like to point out that there is a similarity in many of Trump’s lies. When he is faced with accepting responsibility for his actions, or faced with a loss, a failure, or a misdeed, he often responds by creating a new lie or false claim.)
The U.S. Bishops’ Response
The sad thing is that the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Bishops has not said one word in criticism or condemnation of the violations of Catholic belief and the social and moral teachings of the Catholic Church that are embedded in the views of the right-wing Maga Catholics. The Trump Maga Republican lies are not just harmless lies, nor can they be dismissed as politics as usual; they are egregious lies that spread hate, divisions, and the justification of violence. A consistent preaching of the Catholic understanding of Jesus’ commandment to love and his call to pursuit the truth demands that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as a body, speak out against the hate-filled rhetoric and lies of the right-wing Maga Catholics. Surely, in this case, silence is not an adequate Christian response.
John R. Connolly
June 1-3, 2024