Are the United States Catholic bishops declaring war on Pope Francis? 

I don’t know anything about the internal politics of the American bishops. I am confused about the meaning of this week’s winner in the bishop big guy election. Based on the headlines, the pointy-hat crowd chose an anti-Pope Francis right winger to be their new leader. 

I read the headline, and then I read it again. I’ve been thinking of it off and on since. Is that true? Is that really true?

I don’t know for sure if the headlines I’ve read are a true representation of this most recent bishop hoe-down. I know a few of these bishops, and I’m having a difficult time believing that they’ve taken such a deep dive into evil as that. Maybe they really didn’t decide to stick their collective thumb in the pope’s eye. Maybe they are still in line with Peter. 

From National Catholic Reporter:

Bishops elect anti-Francis archbishop as new president

The U.S. bishops have sent a clear message of rejection to Pope Francis by selecting Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, as president of the bishops’ conference.

The bishops’ choice of new leadership revealed the deeper ecclesiological orientation of the body. They had to decide if they wanted to be a part of the ongoing reception of the Second Vatican Council in the context of the magisterium of Pope Francis, or not, a choice made all the more obvious by the success of the synodal process so far. As papal nuncio Archbishop Christophe Pierre reminded them in his opening address, the bishops govern the church “cum Petro and sub Petro,” with Peter and under Peter. They forgot that law, or ignored it, 30 minutes later.

In my many years of coming to these meetings of the U.S. bishops’ conference, I have learned that relationships are usually, but not always, more important than ideology in the selection of conference officers and committee chairs. This year, however, the bishops faced clear ideological choices.

In the person of Broglio, the bishops had a candidate who rejects Pope Francis’ call for a more outward focused, accompanying church, a throwback to the pre-conciliar vision of his mentor and patron, the late Cardinal Angelo Sodano.