Over the years, I’ve had a few situations in my work where it would have helped if a Catholic bishop had weighed in on the issue at hand. One, I recall, involved the LGBTQ lobby, which was waging a campaign against the Irish-Catholic community in America by trying to hijack their St. Patrick’s Day parades for its own agenda.
What the LGBTQ people were doing, quite intentionally, was to try to push the boundaries of what would be acceptable in a parade that was dedicated to honoring the Irish-American heritage and the Irish-Catholic community’s patron saint. Their goal very clearly was to denigrate the honoring of a Christian saint, and to dilute the whole message of the event, by inserting their own variously sordid expressions of gay pride, sometimes on a par with what they were doing at the time with their own Pride parades.
The challenge for parade organizers was that it truly was an inclusive parade, and they wanted to keep it that way, welcoming anyone from the community – Irish or not – to join in the celebration of the contributions made to America by the Irish. But until this, no one had ever tried this sort of unfriendly takeover of the parade’s message, to hijack the event the way the LGBTQ people were trying.
As a result, organizers had to make the parade’s rules more specific, and they were already very clear for all participants. This meant restricting all visual messaging and verbal messaging only to the celebration of the Irish, the Christian faith, and Saint Patrick. While this was focused, it was not exclusionary. In essence, the new rules clearly stated that it was a requirement that no matter who you are, you are welcome to participate in the parade, but leave your own flags and slogans and adult-themed displays at home. Paraphrasing, “Today is a day for the Irish, for families, for Christians, not any other cause.”
The one thing the parade organizers needed from their local Catholic bishop was an endorsement of this stance. They knew it would solidify the local Catholic community, which has many leftist factions, under one stance. It would quietly show a more united front and let the LGBTQ agitators that they weren’t going to succeed in disrupting the event to create controversy and advance their own agenda. The bishop refused. Like most Catholic bishops, he consistently avoided making public statements on anything that truly required contemporary leadership.
Instead, his public statements on most issues were vanilla and predictable. The Catholic faithful tend to be quite comfortable with this. Don’t make waves. Don’t say anything that makes news. Be soft, be gentle, be milquetoast. This is the default public position on most issues for most Catholic clergy. It seems to be unsaid but understood that if you’re a local bishop, the Vatican doesn’t want to have to deal with some situation you’ve created.
It’s important to understand this when you see news reports this week about the American Catholic bishops deciding, at their annual meeting, to take such a strong position against the Trump administration on his enforcement of American immigration law.
They never do this. Not even when the issue is the killing of babies in the womb, they don’t come out this strong. Not even when the issue is how violent predators who happen to be illegal immigrants are victimizing innocent Americans. In a specially produced video for the occasion, the bishops noticeably did not talk about the American citizens whom illegal immigrants have killed, or about others who have paid a high price as a result of letting millions cross into America illegally.
So what did happen this week?
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), reportedly at the urging of Pope Leo XIV, on Wednesday in Baltimore made a rare and almost unanimous statement in objection to ICE’s enforcement of American immigration law. Again, in the Church, this is unprecedented.
The bishops voted 216-5 to approve what they termed as a “Special Message” on immigration. Out of the five who didn’t vote in support of the message, in typical Catholic clergy fashion, three abstained. This left only two out of 221 Catholic bishops to hang out on a limb and show their support for the current administration’s law enforcement policies.
Reports are that after the vote, the bishops then stood up and applauded themselves.
“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement,” the bishops said in their statement. Notice how “law enforcement” was thrown in to provide cover, and as an afterthought. They saved their venom for Trump.
The bishops listed a large number of issues they have with President Trump’s actions, framing the whole issue not as law enforcement, but instead, as creating a “climate of fear” among those who are knowingly in the country illegally. This sparked a visceral response.
In case you were wondering, the current Pope is a globalist traitor – just like the last nine. And I’m Catholic. So spare me. https://t.co/0ziFy8884T
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) November 14, 2025
Yes, the bishops’ stance on abortion is known and understood, but when did they create a video to attack the Biden administration for its horrific track record on the murder of babies in the womb? The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh, who is Catholic, pointed out that the bishops haven’t been this vociferous on that issue.
I don’t recall the bishops making any sort of video like this to condemn the Biden White House for supporting, funding, and facilitating the mass slaughter of children in the womb. I also can’t remember seeing any video with solemn condemnations of the Biden White House and its… https://t.co/0OfetWdGNs
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 14, 2025
Mark Hemingway of The Federalist brought it closer to home, raising the question of how the bishops can reconcile speaking out on the treatment of illegals without mention of so many of the American citizens who are victims of the open-border policies.
I understand why the Bishops felt compelled to make this video; what I don’t understand is why there was no similar action from bishops when our border policy created human trafficking at an industrial scale and was a massive humanitarian crisis much bigger than ICE abuses. https://t.co/OZ6gD9HYC2
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) November 14, 2025
The X account Catholics for Catholics pointed out a remark Trump’s border chief Tom Homan has made about the need for a secure border. It actually saves lives.
“I wish the Catholic Church would understand that secure borders saves lives.” – @RealTomHoman @USAYep John Yep, president of Catholics for Catholics, supports Border Czar in this important mission and respectfully reminds @USCCB that we must address what’s really behind… pic.twitter.com/3ZWvmB3Ov8
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) November 15, 2025
Homan went on the Catholic cable TV network EWTN to oppose the bishops’ outspokenness on the issue this week. He said by taking the position they took and making such a public statement, the bishops are in effect encouraging people from other countries to take life-threatening risks to travel to America and to illegally cross the border.
He said the Church is wrong: “I’m sorry. I’m a lifelong Catholic. I’m saying it as not only a border czar. I’ll say it as a Catholic. I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church, in my opinion.”
To say the American Catholic bishops made a mistake this week would be a mistake in itself. The bishops would not so knowingly break character and take such a bold stance and bold action if they weren’t pushed. I’m not saying the bishops don’t believe what they say. I’m sure they do. But the real questions are, is this sort of geopolitical meddling coming from the Vatican? If so, why, and why now?
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