Tell the Twelve Bishops: Apologize to Pope Leo XIV

To the bishops who joined the Oct. 22 Oval Office prayer:

Archbishop James R. Golka, Archdiocese of Denver
Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob, Archdiocese of Milwaukee
Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Archbishop Emeritus of Kansas City in Kansas
Bishop Edward J. Burns, Diocese of Dallas
Bishop Michael C. Barber, S.J., Diocese of Oakland
Bishop Thomas J. Hennen, Diocese of Baker
Bishop William M. Joensen, Diocese of Des Moines
Bishop Francis Y. Kalabat, Chaldean Catholic Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle
Bishop Steven J. Raica, Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
Bishop Scott E. Bullock, Diocese of Rapid City
Bishop James S. Wall, Diocese of Gallup
Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, M.L.M., Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon

Attendees as identified by the White House to the National Catholic Reporter.

Catholics pray for those who govern at every Sunday Mass, and none of us objects to that. What you did on Thursday was something else. You let a political operation stage your prayer for a campaign camera as Americans were already casting early ballots.

Your own conference warns against exactly this. In Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. bishops write that “the Church cannot champion any candidate or party.” The conference has said the meeting was “not organized with or by the USCCB,” and its president, Archbishop Paul Coakley, was reportedly “deeply frustrated” by it. In Rome, a senior official at the Dicastery for Bishops called it “a highly inappropriate meeting and an insult to Pope Leo.”

We ask each of you to apologize publicly to the people of God and to Pope Leo XIV. Your appearance put the Holy Father in an awful position in the final days before an election in his own country, and the faithful deserve to hear you say so.

— The undersigned Catholics and people of goodwill

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Tell the Bishops: Apologize to Pope Leo XIV

To the bishops who joined the Oct. 22 Oval Office prayer:

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Thank you for standing with the Holy Father.

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