Inside the U. S. Conference of (Catholic) Bishops


I came across a good primer on internal Catholic politics, i.e., the U.S. Conference of Bishops versus the Pope in Rome.

The Pope as we know comes from the tradition of Brothers that sees the Church as salvation for the poor. The majority of U. S. Catholic Bishops comes from obsession with social issues, abortion and gay marriage. The previous couple of Popes were in tune with U.S. evangelistic passions. They appointed Bishops to carry on the fight against liberalization on social issues inside the church. These Bishops still hold the majority. The current pope has been in his position for several year and appointed a lot of Bishops. None of his Bishops have been elected to positions of leadership. 

Its a little complicated to see where the U.S. fits into Catholic Church politics worldwide. There are a lot of Catholics in the U. S. but the potential for growth is not here. If anything, the Catholic Church in the U.S. will decline in numbers the way it has done in Europe. 

The potential for growth is seen as Africa. China also has billions of people but how agreeable the Chinese government is for religious groups is what were are waiting to learn.  

A curious circumstance has come about where Biden and the Pope see eye to eye but the leadership of  U.S. Bishops are not close to either of them. Thus, Biden and the Pope can do some business with the Bishops sitting on the sidelines. The Bishop's majority does not want to offend Trump by saying good things about Biden. 

Watching the political theater of the Catholic clergy is as much fun as that of the entire U.S. There is a direction the majority of Catholics are taking, voting for Biden and Obama, and the backwards facing clergy. It seems like some correction needs to take place. But that is up to unpredictable events and may not happen.

Comments

  1. tsmFebruary 10, 2021 at 2:18 PM

    I am gratified to know that you are now an expert on the internal workings at the highest levels of the Catholic church. good that someone has figured it out: just to complicated for most of us poor slacks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. tsmFebruary 10, 2021 at 2:47 PM

    meant slackers. but maybe schulks (sp?) would be a better term.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. tsmFebruary 11, 2021 at 8:33 AM

      allow me to add that I am able to know only what the bishops say (assuming that they really believe what they say). I can't know much, if anything, regarding the internal "politics" of the conference. that is to say who is aligned with whom, how various appointments are made, how much staff influences decision making, etc. etc. nor, I am sure, your "primer" aside that you, also, know little, if anything about such matters.

      Delete

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