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Responding to the Dobbs decision today, the U.S. bishops’ conference (USCCB) released a seven-paragraph statement.
The USCCB statement released today refers to the court’s decision as “historic” and adds, “Today’s decision is also the fruit of the prayers, sacrifices and advocacy of countless ordinary Americans from every walk of life.”
The garden-variety statement comes on the heels of decades and decades of the bishops’ lukewarm fight to end the killing of children in this country.
At the USCCB’s General Assembly in 2019, San Diego bishop Robert McElroy, now cardinal-elect, wanted to remove the word “preeminent” from an episcopal document.
Cardinal-elect Robert McElroy: “It’s not Catholic teaching that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face as a world in Catholic social teaching. It is not.”
Only two bishops objected to McElroy’s diatribe ― Tyler’s bishop Joseph Strickland and Philadelphia’s archbishop emeritus Charles Chaput.
McElroy and many other American bishops peddle the “seamless garment” theory.
The theory comes from the original president and vice president of the bishops’ conference established in 1966 ― Cdl. John Dearden and Cdl. Joseph Bernardin, who were both dissidents.
The seamless garment theory treats everything from immigration to abortion as equal, claiming a consistent life ethic.
Dearden quickly jumped on Bernardin’s distortion of Catholic teaching, once claiming, “We cannot be selective in our love for life.”
Since then, many bishops have used the theory to downplay the fight against abortion.
For example, Chicago’s Cdl. Blase Cupich, a protégé of the late Cdl. Bernardin, was booed at a pro-life rally for his hypocrisy.
A search of key terms on the archdiocese of Chicago’s website shows this obfuscation of Catholic teaching.
The term “climate change” yields 537 results, the term “immigration” yields 1,550 results, and “abortion” yields a measly 39.
And while the bishops have a national fundraising campaign for just about everything, the USCCB has never had even one to end abortion.
The bishops’ input on the overruling of legal abortion in this country is “too little, too late.”
For this monumental ruling, it’s fitting the bishops in their statement congratulate ordinary Americans and Catholics, and not themselves.