3 Vatican cardinals urged USCCB official to be tougher on Trump

August 23, 2023

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CWN Editor's Note: Jayd Hendricks, former Executive Director of Government Relations for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in an interview that “three unnamed cardinals in Rome” thought he “was being too soft on President Trump.”

“They wanted the USCCB to take a position during the congressional budget process regarding an important but very small program,” he continued. “What they failed to understand was that it’s in the appropriations process, not the budget process, that these sorts of details were worked out, which it was. If I’d done what they wanted, it would have made the bishops look incompetent.”

“But for the first time I was being told by Rome how to do my job for what seemed like ideological reasons,” he added. “That’s a significant reason why I left the Conference.”

Hendricks, now president of Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal, said that divisions among the US bishops “come largely from the small liberal wing of the bishops. They’re few in number, maybe 20–25 out of roughly 270 bishops, so less than 10%, but they are aggressive and seem to have the backing of the Holy See ... It’s the smaller, contentious group that are out of step with the body and yet try to force their will on the Conference.”

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• Posted by: grateful1 - Aug. 25, 2023 9:32 PM ET USA

  Thanks for alerting us to that interview. It's an important one.

• Posted by: Randal Mandock - Aug. 23, 2023 11:22 PM ET USA

  A really great interview with an extremely faithful Catholic. He is so honest that he found he had to leave his position with the USCCB in order to maintain his integrity. He would not buckle to ideological pressure exerted by the Vatican.