Bishops must grapple with abortion and synodality at fall meeting

(RNS) — When the U.S. Catholic bishops meet in Baltimore next week (Nov. 11-14) — their first chance to talk and plan after the October synod of bishops and the November elections — two issues will overshadow everything else on their agenda: abortion and synodality.

Abortion will be on their agenda because of the failure of their anti-abortion strategy, and synodality will be on the agenda because they must decide whether to embrace Pope Francis’ program of spiritual and structural reform.

Although the bishops celebrated the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago, their anti-abortion strategy has been hammered with repeated defeats ever since. Almost every time abortion has been on a state ballot, abortion-rights forces have won. Only in three states have anti-abortion forces won, and in Florida they won only because of the state requirement that referenda pass with 60 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has run away from its anti-abortion agenda. Trump and other Republican politicians read the polls and decided it was no longer politically expedient to oppose abortion. The anti-abortion plank was essentially dropped from the Republican platform. Republican politicians became abortion supporters or just avoided the topic.

True, the Republican candidate defeated the most pro-abortion candidate in history, but the victory had little to do with abortion. “It was the economy stupid.”

The Democrats tried to make abortion central to the election in an attempt to run up the women’s vote, but they failed miserably. Too many women came out to vote for abortion rights on abortion referenda and then turned around and voted for Trump.

The abortion-rights forces significantly outspent anti-abortion forces, but the rout cannot be explained by money alone. Polls show that the public, including Catholics, favor legalized abortion. In addition, minimal exceptions in many anti-abortion laws forced voters to go to the extreme in the other direction.

Except in a few red states, anti-abortion activists cannot rely on Republicans to buck public opinion and support their views. The focus on political power rather than on changing the minds of the public on abortion was the fatal flaw in the anti-abortion strategy. You can only buck public opinion so long before it bites you.

Where do the bishops go now? What should be their strategy on abortion into the future?

With Republicans in control of Washington, there will be a few anti-abortion victories but nothing significant. The Hyde Amendment, forbidding the use of federal money for abortion, will be enforced. Foreign aid will not be used for abortions. Hospitals and medical personnel will not be forced to perform abortions.

But the chances for national legislation on abortion are almost nil. Trump won’t support it, and he gives other Republicans cover for abandoning the issue. In any case, Democrats would filibuster it in the Senate.

But the bishops have another anti-abortion arrow in their quiver. The most common reason for an abortion is financial. Free health care for mothers and children, generous food assistance (SNAP), paid family leave, affordable housing, affordable daycare, job training and a living wage are all programs that will help women keep their children.

The bishops laid out such a program in an Oct. 26, 2022, letter to Congress calling for “radical solidarity” with moms, children and families in the post-Dobbs environment.

The nation, they wrote, must ensure:

that no children grow up in poverty, that parents have time away from work to care for them, that families are formed and remain intact, that the healthcare necessary for healthy moms and children is affordable, that workplace policies respect pregnant and nursing mothers, that childcare is affordable and high quality but also not forced on families by financial pressures, that no children are hungry or homeless, that toxic chemicals do not cause babies to have birth defects or cancer, that immigrant families be treated in accord with their inviolable dignity — all of these goals require the cooperation of all and the exclusion of none.

Lastly, the bishops need to drop their opposition to birth control. They don’t need to change church teaching; they can simply stop talking about it in a political setting. Even if they consider it wrong, it is the lesser of two evils.

The bishops can and have supported government programs that give women a real choice. To do so, they will have to cross the aisle and join with feminists and Democrats who have not been their natural allies in the past. The bishops need to recognize that the Republicans will no longer support legislation against abortion. The bishops need to find other ways and other allies to reduce the number of abortions.

The other major item that bishops must deal with is the result of the Synod on Synodality, which completed its second session in Rome in October. The synod, under the inspiration of Pope Francis, laid out a new way of being and doing church. It is a rejection of clericalism and calls for a more inclusive, transparent and accountable church.

This new vision applies to every level of the church, parishes, dioceses and episcopal conferences. The bishops need to discuss their role in implementing synodality in the United States.

For example, the synod has specific recommendations on parish and diocesan pastoral councils. After the Second Vatican Council, the bishops’ conference had an office for laity under the leadership of Dolores Lecky that helped develop and train facilitators for these councils. That office was later gutted, but it provides a model for what the conference could do to promote synodality by providing training material and facilitators.

I worry, however, that many bishops and priests are not committed to synodality. They fear it will threaten their power or simply be a waste of time and effort. They will give it lip service but not put any real effort into it. As a result, few bishops will implement the synod report until we get a new crop of bishops committed to the vision of Pope Francis.

I hope I am wrong, but I doubt it.