When the U.S. bishops gather in Baltimore Nov. 11-14, there will be something of an elephant in the room. 

That’s because the annual U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall assembly will be taking place one week after Republican contender Donald Trump secured a return to the White House by soundly defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

And as a result, some of the bishops’ more politically adjacent discussions and committee elections, including those involving immigration and abortion, are likely to unfold with the unique challenges and opportunities of a Trump presidency squarely in mind.

The USCCB has already addressed Trump’s victory, with conference president Archbishop Timothy Broglio congratulating the Republican in a Nov. 6 statement that also emphasizes the Church’s nonpartisan commitment to advancing the common good and the need for unity and prayer.

But if past is prelude, the election results are almost guaranteed to be further addressed at the fall assembly, especially given the likelihood of a new U.S. president emboldened by a popular-vote mandate and a Congress at least partially controlled by his fellow Republicans.

For instance, Archbishop Broglio or another leadership figure could make additional comments on the challenges to Catholic commitments posed by Trump, who campaigned on a controversial promise of mass deportation of immigrants illegally in the country. 

Then-USCCB president Archbishop José Gomez did something in this vein during the November 2020 virtual assembly, when he raised concerns about having a Catholic president in Joe Biden who nonetheless deviated from fundamental Church teaching on abortion, marriage and gender. 

And in 2016, Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, then the head of the bishops’ immigration committee, emphasized the conference’s commitment to migrants and refugees in the wake of Trump’s election to his first presidential term.

In both years, the USCCB also created “working groups” connected to their concerns with the respective presidential victors, something that could be repeated again this year.

 

‘Human Dignity’ Discussion

Additionally, some of the anticipated agenda items for the 2024 assembly will likely take on a different shape with the conservative populist Trump, and not the progressive globalist Harris, in the Oval Office.

Kenneth Craycraft, a moral theologian at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, notes that the bishops’ planned implementation of Dignitas Infinita, a declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on human dignity, could be applied in ways that are responsive to the current political moment. 

“Nothing is more important, especially in the wake of the election, than to reaffirm the ontological dignity of every person, as made in the image and likeness of God,” Craycraft told the Register.

In particular, with the Catholic populist JD Vance set to become Trump’s vice president, Craycraft says “the time is ripe” for the American bishops to call for “more robust pro-natalist, pro-child policy,” such as making birth free, in their application of Dignitas Infinita. The moral theologian sees this approach as consistent with a more positive pro-life vision than simply restricting abortion.

At the same time, with Trump (and Vance) in office, Craycraft sees a need for the bishops to reassert their commitment to prudent, charitable immigration reform.

“This is an opportunity for the bishops to balance compassion for the immigrant with the care for the common good of the U.S. as a receiving nation,” he said. 

He also added that although Vance’s rhetoric on immigration, including repeating unproven claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets, “has been poor,” the Catholic convert’s presence in Trump’s administration may give the USCCB the opportunity to “emerge as a leading voice” on the issue.

The USCCB will also have to contend with the novelty of a Republican administration that is effectively pro-choice. In the run-up to this year’s election, Trump indicated that he would not support any attempt to limit abortion on a federal level, while also throwing his full weight behind IVF. 

Vance has also faltered in this area, saying he supports legal access to the abortion pill, which has prompted some to ask whether the bishops would make “Eucharistic coherence” a focal point again, as they did when the pro-abortion Biden took office. 

On the issue of “gender theory,” Charles Camosy, a bioethicist at Creighton University’s medical school, anticipates that bishops concerned about its application by Catholic hospitals and other institutions “may be even more confident in bringing it up,” given that Trump’s focused opposition on so-called “gender-affirming surgeries” appears to have aided his election victory.

 

Committee Election Impact?

Another area where Trump’s victory could have an impact is on the election of USCCB committee chairmen, particularly of those committees that deal with political and social issues.

For instance, the qualities the bishops may be looking for when they elect a new head of the immigration committee may look different with Trump set to soon be inaugurated.

That election features Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, and Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington. Bishop Tyson is a current member of the immigration committee and has promoted ministry to migrant farmworkers in his diocese, while Bishop Cahill visited the U.S.-Mexican border and is a member of the state bishops’ conference that has pushed back against the Texas government’s crackdown on aid to migrants.

Other committee chair selections that may be similarly affected by an impending Trump presidency include the election for the head of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, which features Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, and Bishop Kevin Sweeney of Paterson, New Jersey, as well as the election for the next chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, a choice between Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The USCCB also verified that, according to its bylaws, alternative candidates for chairmanships could also be nominated prior to or during the meeting, if they receive a nomination and are seconded by five additional participating bishops.

Shifting Priorities

Michael Heinlein, the biographer of Chicago’s late Cardinal Francis George, noted that while the election of Trump may “shift focus or priorities” for the USCCB, such a response to an incoming president isn’t out of the ordinary.

“The bishops will find points of convergence and divergence with a second Trump administration, as they have with Biden’s or any other — because the faith isn’t defined by either side of the political divide, but by what’s true,” he said.

Political issues won’t be the only order of business in Baltimore next week. The USCCB will also elect a new treasurer and approve their 2025 budget; discuss the implementation of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for creation and a newly instituted ministry for catechists; and consider the canonization causes of two American women.

Stephen White, the executive director of The Catholic Project, an initiative at The Catholic University of America that fosters clergy-laity collaboration, described the fall assembly’s overall agenda as less “flashy” from a news-making perspective and more focused on the ordinary business of the USCCB.

But he’ll also be paying close attention to any hints of what direction the bishops’ political engagement will take in the aftermath of the first U.S. general election since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

White said, “It will be interesting to see what, if anything, they decide to say, individually or collectively, about the state of our politics.”