WASHINGTON (RNS) — As the so-called One Big, Beautiful Bill — the Republicans’ mammoth budget proposal designed to fund much of President Donald Trump’s agenda — made its way toward congressional approval last month, U.S. Catholic bishops signed their names to not one but two letters to senators on the same day, both airing misgivings.
The first, sent by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, found some things to like, particularly the BBB’s attempts to limit abortion, but railed against provisions that will hurt the poor and the climate. The other, signed by a smaller group of bishops and leaders from other religious traditions, blasted its massive increase in funding for immigration enforcement and called on Congress to vote against the legislation.
The USCCB ultimately condemned the final bill passed by the House after its abortion-related provisions were mostly changed or removed. But the existence of dueling letters, church observers say, offered a rare public glimpse of a rift that’s been years in the making. Fueled by debates over the late Pope Francis’ papacy and how to respond to Trump’s immigration policies, the multiple statements broke with the bishops’ tendency to speak uniformly on major policy issues, at least in public.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a theology professor at Fordham University, noted that the Catholics who signed the interfaith letter were largely “Francis-aligned.” The group follows the late pope’s attention to the plight of migrants and the poor, she said, and learned under …