Thank you. Fortunately, it doesn’t really sound as if these national conferences have much power on their own. Of course, I guess they have the power of simply existing and babbling to the press to make it sound as if they have a lot of other powers.
I suppose the purpose of bishop conferences is to dilute the Holy Ghost. A lonely bishop staring at the carnage in his diocese and, maybe thinking with compunction about his role in all that, might just succumb to the crazy idea in his head that now is the time to fight for the Faith.
No, no, no. The community, the community, the committee.
They have what you might call a “bully” pulpit. And, while national conferences are cannonical creatures, their unique institutional natures are, I believe (and with defference to a view of a cannonical scholar) formed without cannonical regulation. The USCCB is an ideological cesspool and, again looking at these stupid movie reviews as only a symptom, largely a wing of the democratic party. That is why you see at best a muted USCCB cry and hue over the conduct of politicians from any party who flout their so called catholicism in defiance of natural law and church teaching regarding abortion, euthanasia and family v homosexual agendas. You will also see that the USCCB incrementally undermines the Church’s theological teachings on such things as subsidiarity and immigration. Thus, what happens is that the USCCB is a safe harbor for the socialists and democrats seeking backing for leftist policies such as federalizing all aspects of our lives and open borders. In that sense, the USCCB has entered the political fray and unfortunately it does tend to confuse many catholics and it does abuse the power of its often used institutionalized prudential “guidance” on a host of issues.