Bishop Flores asks confrères, faithful to exercise verbal self-restraint before election
September 16, 2026
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CWN Editor's Note: The vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops encouraged fellow bishops—and all the faithful—to exercise verbal self-restraint as the election approaches.
“The general demeanor of the bishops in the country, I think, should be one that exemplifies before it preaches to,” Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, said in an interview. “So we need to exemplify a certain generosity of spirit that is not necessarily immediately jumping to the condemnatory or the immediately critical, but as I would ask bishops to do that I think I would ask every Catholic.”
Asked a tendentious question that was critical of Bishop Robert Barron, Bishop Flores replied, “I don’t think we need to be so quick to presume a bad motive or a desire to undermine. I don’t think we should be so quick to do that, and if you don’t agree with what one bishop or another bishop says about this or that, that’s perfectly all right.”
“I don’t search my internet feed to figure out which bishop is doing that and which one isn’t,” he added. “I think we’re spending a little bit too much time trying to decide which bishop is on the right side of things and which one is not. I presume good will. I just think we’re overly focused on catching people at odds with other people.”
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