Most Junes, the U.S. bishops convene for what is commonly called their spring plenary – a mid-year assembly to tend to affairs concerning their episcopal conference, and a way to move forward policies, plans and committee work ahead of the more robust November plenary assembly.
This June, however, the ordinary work of a plenary assembly is set aside, leaving behind a business agenda for a triennial, weeklong retreat in California.
While some conference committees meet ahead of the gathering, the bishops are not scheduled to be dealing with ordinary business as a body. Still, there will be no shortage of items to talk about when the bishops are together. Since the bishops last met in Baltimore last November, the United States has sworn in a new president and the College of Cardinals has elected a new pope.
The early days of President Donald Trump’s second term brought many changes to operations of the federal government’s USAID program, which in turn led to significant cuts to the federal dollars funding the conference’s migrant resettlement services. Widespread layoffs followed, significantly decreasing the USCCB workforce as well as the Church’s ability to assist the federal government in resettling migrants in the U.S.
Despite these tensions with the Trump administration, some U.S. bishops have accepted the president’s invitation to serve as members of and advisers to a new commission on religious liberty Trump established in May.
While New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, serve on the commission, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco and Bishops Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, and Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, have agreed to serve the commission on an advisory board of religious leaders.
Who can effectively serve as a liaison with the Trump administration on behalf of the body of U.S. bishops at this critical juncture is likely to top consideration for who will be put forward to take the reins of the bishops’ conference, as conference membership will itself be electing a new president and vice president in Baltimore this fall.
With Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese of Military Services wrapping up his three-year term as conference president at the end of the upcoming November assembly, longtime tradition dictates that the incumbent vice president would be on the ballot as presumed successor. But the tradition of electing vice presidents as presidents has been broken in recent years, as the age of such bishops has made them ineligible to stand for the presidency.
Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, whose term as vice president ends at the conclusion of the November plenary, recently turned 74 and is therefore ineligible to stand for presidency since he could not complete a three-year term as president before he turns 75, the age at which canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope.
Not only will the bishops’ relationship with the White House be a significant factor in choosing new conference leadership later this year, but also the emerging priorities and vision of the new successor of Peter.
Pope Francis’s death on April 21 and Pope Leo XIV’s election on May 8 have brought about a change in the status quo. Pope Leo’s first month has indicated a shift to a calmer, less frenetic pontificate. While bishops often turn to the pope as a model for priorities and plans, it remains to be seen how Pope Leo’s emerging and fresh approach to Petrine ministry will be interpreted and implemented among the U.S. episcopate.
In the first month of his pontificate, Leo has named two men for the episcopate – an auxiliary for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and a bishop to head the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, Louisiana – and elevated two auxiliary bishops to serve as diocesan bishops: San Diego and Pittsburgh. At least two of these appointments, if not all four, were in progress before Pope Leo’s election.
Although Leo is the first U.S.-born pope, much of his priestly ministry was spent outside of the States, notably in Rome for a dozen years where he served as prior general of the Augustinian order, and in Peru, where he served both as a priest and later as a diocesan bishop for just under a decade.
During these challenging times, and considering their jam-packed schedules of daily ministry, the rare occasion for the U.S. bishops to spend time in each other’s company to foster greater unity in spirit and purpose and together navigate the changing landscape in which they now minister is no doubt welcome. The faithful should pray that a week of retreat affords the bishops the opportunity to build up fraternity and bolster the spiritual growth needed to strengthen their ministry.
