March 11, 2024

For years, I’ve known I couldn’t count on members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to give my fellow Catholics good advice on voting. Pledge to attack abortion rights, and you receive the bishops’ tacit seal of approval. That approach has worked for several Republican presidents, including former president Donald Trump.

But the insurrection stunned even these prelates. Then-USCCB president Archbishop Jose Gomez, who advocated denying communion to the pro-choice presidential candidate Joe Biden, issued a statement condemning the riot. “The peaceful transition of power is one of the hallmarks of this great nation. In this troubling moment, we must recommit ourselves to the values and principles of our democracy and come together as one nation under God,” Gomez wrote.

But it appears their memories were as short as the recollections of many members of Congress. Catholic bishops have not lifted a finger to change their advice to Catholic voters, even as Trump’s run for a second term imperils the very democracy they claim to value.

Consider how the bishops decided to retain their lengthy position paper, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” first published in 2007, but to augment it with six short fact-sheets on voting to be distributed to Catholics as inserts in their parish bulletins. (Bulletins are parish newsletters available at Mass and online).

While presumably addressing the reality of the 2024 election, the fact-sheets double-down on the bishops’ old refrain, claiming that abortion is the “pre-eminent priority” for Catholic voters, “because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone.” As almost an afterthought, the bishops also mention their opposition to “euthanasia, gun violence, terrorism, the death penalty, and human trafficking.” In a third grouping of issues to care about, the “suffering of migrants” and “racism” gets thrown in along with the “redefinition of marriage and gender.” You have to get to the second page of a two-page fact sheet to find this acknowledgement: “[W]e must consider not only candidates’ positions on these issues, but their character and integrity as well.”

That guidance hardly meets the reality of a second-term President Trump on steroids. His advisors would be much more equipped to wield the levers of power efficiently to go after his enemies, subvert the independent civil service, and subject federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, to his whims.

Candidate Trump has not concealed his plans, and as president-elect, he’s stood by most of them. He has argued that presidents who violate the law while in office are immune from all accountability, that immigrants “are poisoning the blood” of Americans. and that he’d tell Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to any country in Europe not up-to-date in its financial commitments to NATO.

Filling the moral void created by the bishops’ short-sightedness are Catholic MAGA conservatives. The new bizarrely named nonprofit, Catholics for Catholics is hosting a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago on March 19, the feast of St. Joseph, urging all Catholics to pray for Trump, whom they call the only viable Catholic choice in the upcoming election. Participants will include former Trump advisers Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, also major agitators in the drive to spread the “rigged election” myth in 2020.

Catholicvote.org has raised millions in contributions, its website full of negative Biden news. LifeSiteNews and Church Militant reportedly get millions of visitors. These two ultra-conservative Catholic news sites deemed the January 6 insurrectionists to be patriots.

Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), has earned its nickname, Catholic Fox News. EWTN reaches more than 400 million viewers across the globe. Raymond Arroyo, the host of EWTN’s weekly news program, has interviewed Donald Trump both as candidate and president. He also is a Fox News contributor.

An estimated 30 million Catholics are registered voters, or about 20 percent of the electorate. In eight crucial swing states, Catholics comprise between 18 and 28% of the population.

In 2016, 80,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, likely handed Trump his electoral victory. Since Catholics comprised about a quarter of the population in those states, their votes likely had an impact.

In 2020, nearly six in ten white Catholics voted for Trump. But young voters turned out for Biden. Fifty-nine percent of voters under 30 who hadn’t participated in the past two federal elections went for Biden.

This year, things are different. Many young voters disagree with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict, That feeling is shared by many Black voters, who voted overwhelmingly for Biden four years ago. These voters may stay home, or opt for a third-party candidate. The means that devout white Catholics may once again determine the next election.

The bishops could still make a difference. The USCCB doesn’t have to call out any candidate or party position. The group just needs to remind practicing Catholics that the church’s moral vision is not confined to pregnant people’s wombs. On July 4, they could issue a statement asking Catholics to pray for our democracy, our constitution, and the peaceful transfer of power. 

But it’s doubtful that many church leaders actually perceive the dangers we face.

By 2028, the bishops tell us, they will release an all-new “Faithful Citizenship” guide. What they don’t seem to realize is that four years in the future, free and fair elections may already be a thing of the past.