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.”