Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaks at the USCCB fall plenary assembly in this video screenshot from November 14, 2023.The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference criticized some of President Donald Trump’s initial executive orders on key issues including immigration and capital punishment, warning that harm could be done to “the most vulnerable among us.”
President Trump upon taking office January 20 signed a series of executive orders that included tough restrictions on immigration, a directive in favor of the death penalty, a withdrawal from a key global climate pact, and an order affirming the reality of biological sex.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) president Archbishop Timothy Broglio said in a statement January 22 that he took issue with some of the orders, calling them “deeply troubling.”
“Some provisions contained in the executive orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us,” Archbishop Broglio wrote.
Regarding the executive order on biological sex, Archbishop Broglio expressed agreement with President Trump.
“Other provisions in the executive orders can be seen in a more positive light, such as recognizing the truth about each human person as male or female,” Archbishop Broglio said.
The archbishop stressed that neither the Catholic Church nor the USCCB is aligned with “any political party.” The Church’s teachings “remain unchanged” regardless of political leadership, he said.
The prelate pointed to the 2025 Jubilee Year and said the U.S. bishops prayed that “as a nation blessed with many gifts, our actions demonstrate a genuine care for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, including the unborn, the poor, the elderly and infirm, and migrants and refugees.”
“It is our hope that the leadership of our country will reconsider those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of us all,” the archbishop said.
The USCCB said it would publish further information on the executive orders on its website.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord represented the second time the president has pulled the country from the global environmental pact; he first withdrew from the agreement in 2020. Then-President Joe Biden rejoined the agreement in 2021.
President Trump’s pro-death penalty order was largely seen as a rebuke of President Biden’s earlier policies on the death penalty, including a 2021 moratorium on federal executions as well as President Biden’s December 2024 commutation of 37 prisoners on federal death row.
President Trump’s immigration orders, meanwhile, were the culmination of several years’ worth of political promises to crack down on illegal crossings at the southern U.S. border. The president has vowed to enact major deportations of illegal immigrants living in the U.S.
Earlier this month Pope Francis strongly condemned President Trump’s mass deportation plans in the United States, saying “if this is true it is a disgrace.”
(Photo from USCCB video.)
By Daniel Payne, Catholic News Agency
