Posted on 12/03/2024 1:12:54 PM PST by ebb tide
In the month or so since former President Donald Trump was elected to occupy the White House for a second term, the majority of American bishops have either not commented on the election publicly, or issued a generic statement about the importance of civility, unity, and democracy.
That extends to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where – outside of responses to Trump’s stated plan for mass deportations – not much has been said. Bishop John Stowe, in a recent conversation with Crux, said that reality isn’t surprising considering how American Church leaders have handled the presidency of Joe Biden over the last four years.
“It was not surprising coming from the USCCB. What was surprising was the attitude when Joe Biden was elected, a Catholic president four years ago, and there was such an uproar in the conference about that election, and because of that, I really had no expectation that there would be much said about the Trump election,” said Stowe, the bishop of Lexington in Kentucky.
“Nonetheless, in President Broglio’s address to the assembly he did talk about the change of leadership in the United States, and talking about how we all have to play our parts as if we’re an orchestra and work together in harmony. There was no such harmonious recommendation during the Biden administration,” he continued. “There is a silent dissent or support for (Trump), opposed to outright resistance to (Biden).”
After Biden’s election Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, then-USCCB president, gave an unscheduled address at the end of the bishops’ 2020 fall assembly where he cited the “difficult and complex” created by the combination of Biden’s Catholicism and pro-choice stance, and the unprecedented creation of a working group of bishops to navigate it. A couple months later, an inauguration day statement from Gomez warned the Biden administration would advance “moral evils.”
The opportunity for something akin to the former has already passed, and the content of an inauguration day statement from the USCCB (if there is one) remains to be seen, though Stowe said he “doubts that it would be as strongly worded” as the one on Biden four-years-ago. The USCCB did not respond to a Crux request for comment on a potential inauguration day statement.
“We could at least make a statement clarifying those issues about which we disagree so vehemently, and the concern about (vice president-elect JD Vance) who supports Trump and is in some ways even more extreme than Trump, and who is a member of the Church,” Stowe said.
Unlike most of his peers, Stowe, who is viewed as one of the more liberal American bishops, has not been shy with his stance on Trump’s election. He said he was “very disappointed” by the 2024 presidential election outcome, and noted that he is “rather dismayed” at the decision of voters.
From a Catholic perspective, Stowe put some of the onus on the American bishops’ voter guide.
“I find it disappointing that our Church did not speak out more forcefully about the danger of this election, or that we failed to even issue as a conference of bishops an appropriately updated guide for voting, our Faithful Citizenship document, which merely had a new introduction and continued to assert that abortion is the pre-eminent issue, thereby practically endorsing somebody whose own position on abortion has actually fluctuated,” he said.
Asked about a concern that his statements against Trump make the Church seem partisan, Stowe noted that up until Trump he agreed with the Church’s approach to speak about issues not candidates, and not be partisan. Trump, he said, is an exception.
“There is also the issue of character, and when somebody has such a flawed character that has been manifestly obvious throughout his previous presidency and the time in between, even denying the reality of the previous election, I think we have a responsibility to name the issue, and the issue is the person in this case,” Stowe said.
Going forward, he said the American Church needs to return to looking at the gospel principles and the importance of character in those who govern, and invite the nation “to a real examination of conscience even about our own understanding of democratic ideals,” and how that aligns with the faith.
“I don’t have much hope of that happening,” Stowe noted.
“But I do hope a number of bishops will call their people. I’m sure all of them want to see a country continue to flourish, and don’t want to see immigrants deported, or human rights violations of democracy downplayed. So I think we have to look carefully at this,” he said.
From a Catholic perspective, Stowe put some of the onus on the American bishops’ voter guide.
Ping
I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. Stowe is Amerca’s faggiest bishop
He’s a heretic.
I don’t need a statement from him or the fake pope. Sick of these homos in the church.
Stowe is the bishop who trashed Nicholas Sandmann when he was falsely accused of disrespecting an American Indian activist when he was in Washington, DC, for a Right-to-Life march.
Oh. Wait. The "American bishops’ voter guide" pretty much spells out that a Catholic MUST NOT vote for the pro-abortion, pro-fag, pro-mutilation candidate.
Stowe it, your excellency.
Talk about gaslighting.
Stowe claims (paraphrase) the Church should not be partisan but speak to policy and not individuals - but then makes an exception with his attach on Trump. The man has TDS, pure and simple. Speaking of policy contrary to the Church and scripture, where was he when the democrats and Biden administration policies advanced abortion, homosexuality, transsexuality, gender confusion, genital mutilation of minors, child and human trafficking, disregard for American national sovereignty and borders and a President who repeatedly lies ? What we heard from this heretic was crickets!
Sodomite monster.
Who's to say that didn't happen this time around?
He’s a lefty fruitloop.
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