Condemnation Over Proposed Census Change Adds to Political Strife Among Catholic Faithful Ahead of Midterm

Already heightened tensions over a visit by Catholic clergy to the White House reached a new high this week after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemned the Trump administration’s plans to exclude illegal immigrants in the 2030 census count. The scathing retort filed one week before America’s midterm election likened the proposal to the Constitution’s now repealed Three-Fifths Compromise for counting enslaved people. The Census Bureau proposed a rule in September to exclude illegal immigrants from the next decennial census, which determines geographical distribution of congressional seats and the ensuing allocation of government resources. The proposal would also omit immigrants who are in the country legally but do not have lawful permanent resident status. Democrats have pushed back, arguing that the Constitution requires that everyone in the country’s borders be counted to ensure equal representation. Republicans argue that political representation should be reserved for American citizens. The Three-Fifths Compromise was repealed by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 after the Civil War. “Excluding from the census noncitizens without [legal permanent resident] status, including but not limited to members of the undocumented population, is effectively to deny they are ‘persons’” the bishops wrote Tuesday in a public comment on the proposed rule.“This denial of personhood recalls the ‘overtly sinful and gravely unjust’ Three-Fifths Compromise,” the comment reads. The change would “conflict with our fundamental belief in the equal dignity of every person, the obligations of a just society, and legal precedent.”The conference’s opposition to the census change comes as several bishops have issued public apologies over a visit to the White House last week. A dozen bishops traveled to the White House and met with Mr. Trump on Thursday, but the meeting was mired in controversy after a picture surfaced showing the bishops standing around Mr. Trump in the Oval Office in prayer — similar to images that have come out of other meetings between the president and faith leaders who support him. The image rubbed many the wrong way two weeks before the midterm, especially as the Catholic Church has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and war in Iran. The Milwaukee Archbishop, Jeffrey Grob, issued a public apology after the meeting. He said that the bishops went to the White House in “good faith” to “try to work for the betterment of our fellow human beings, to ease their suffering, to build up the common good, and to pray with a president” and not to “pose for a political photo opportunity to benefit the few.”A Des Moines bishop, William Joensen, said in a statement that bishops went into the meeting well aware that the midterm elections are coming up and did not intend to “endorse any political party or any individual candidate.”The White House defended the meeting and the photo. A White House spokeswoman, Taylor Rogers, told Fox News Digital that there has “never been a greater president for Catholic Americans than President Trump.”One of the bishops who attended, James Golka, also defended the gathering, telling the Denver Catholic that he knew the meeting could be used for political purposes, but said, “This is what Catholics do. We pray for people. No matter whether we agree or disagree on anything, we always pray for our country and leaders.” The Church’s teachings do not align perfectly with Republicans or Democrats, a Catholic commentator, Mark Lambert wrote on X after the dispute. He urged parishioners to give Catholic clergy the ability to “speak to those in power” and “challenge them when necessary” without their actions being seen as an endorsement one way or the other. The latest controversy underscores the divisions within the Church over how its leaders and parishioners should engage with politics and the two major parties in America. Trump administration policies have cut both ways with Church doctrine. He cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood, pushed to restrict access to gender affirming care, and set up a Religious Liberty Commission. At the same time, his administration cancelled federal contracts with Catholic Charities to help shelter migrant children who enter America without their parents. The Church is also divided over the war in Iran, favored by many Republican lawmakers and abhorred by as many Democrats. Vice President Vance sparred with Pope Leo XIV in April over his statement that God is “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.” The comment was amplified by the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese for Military Services, Timothy Broglio, who told CBS News that it would be “hard” to view the war in Iran as “something that would be sponsored by the Lord.” He noted that the church teaches that a war is only justified when it is waged “as a necessity and in order that peace may be obtained.”Mr. Vance, a Catholic convert, challenged the pope by comparing the goal of preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons to World War II. “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis? I think certainly the answer is yes,” Mr. Vance said. He also warned that if the pontiff is going to “opine on matters of theology,” his thoughts should be “anchored in the truth.”Amid the political differences, a Pew survey released earlier this month ahead of next week’s midterm election found that 50 percent of White Catholics said they will support the Republican House candidate in their district, while 32 percent said they will support the Democratic candidate. The numbers reversed among Hispanic Catholics, with 59 percent saying they would support the Democrat and just 19 percent saying they would support the Republican. One Catholic opinion writer, Joseph Fosco, said political debate is healthy and “consistent with everything Catholicism teaches about discernment.” He noted that the Church “has survived emperors, inquisitions, and scandals that make today’s headlines look like a schoolyard scuffle,” and he urged Catholics to stick with the Church and the promise of America.“What unites us isn’t a hierarchy or a catechism. It’s the Gospel, the sanctity of life, and the conviction that this country was built on something worth keeping,” he wrote. “So stand with us. Pray with us. Vote with us. Not because we agree on every doctrine, but because we agree on what happens if we don’t.”While the American bishops dispute American politics, Italians bishops are facing outrage over religion. A recent rollout of a new educational program for an optional class on Islam sparked outrage among some Catholics for its description of the Koran as the “revealed word of God.”The 11-module curriculum was developed collaboratively by Catholic and Muslim scholars. The president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, said in a statement that the content represents the “exact opposite of the clash of civilizations” and will help students to learn about Islam and provide an “antidote to violence and ignorance.”One conservative Catholic journalist, Richard Cascioli, denounced the curriculum by asking if it will lead to the “surrender of Italian bishops to Islam.” He accused the program of promoting Islam to students while minimizing its “most problematic aspects.”

Condemnation Over Proposed Census Change Adds to Political Strife Among Catholic Faithful Ahead of Midterm

Condemnation Over Proposed Census Change Adds to Political Strife Among Catholic Faithful Ahead of Midterm

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