The Dictatorship
Why this U.S. Catholic leader is not the right fit for this moment
Catholic insiders know about the conservatism of Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, who was elected president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. Michael Sean Winters, a columnist for National Catholic Reporter, called the election of Coakley “deeply disappointing.” I agree. The election of Coakley is yet another sign that the American Catholic Church has decided to keep on its rightward political move, in the service of what Winters terms “accommodation.”
Coakley, who replaces Archbishop Timothy Broglio as president of the USCCB, is not the change candidate needed to mount a full-throated response to the Trump administration’s mass-deportation goals. While Coakley has been vocal about immigration issues, he said on the day of his election that it’s better to “cast more light than heat.” He spoke after his election of the need to figure out “how to work with our administration to advance the interests of the church” on immigration policies. He represents the desire of most of the conference to take a consistent, middle-of-the-road approach to immigration issues.
The election of Coakley is yet another sign that the American Catholic church has decided to keep on its rightward political move.
But as disappointing as the election of Coakley is, there are yet signs that the UCCSB appreciates the awfulness of what Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security are doing on our streets. Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, only lost the USCCB presidency by a few votes, which means that the vocal advocate for immigrants and their plight will be the vice president of the conference. That he was a close second to Coakley is proof that there are bishops who hope their conference is louder in its support of immigrants. You can count on Flores to be vocal, and you can count on him to do more than just write statements. He has — and likely will continue — to stand with immigrants and support them.
Coakley, a particularly staunch pro-lifer, serves as adviser to the Napa Institutethe mission of which, in its own words, is to “empower Catholic leaders to renew the church and transform the culture.” Theologian Massimo Faggioli wrote this year that the “Napa Institute is one of those places where the new American political-religious order is taking shape” and that “the voices of the bishops there hold a particular authority.”
Coakley’s authority was compromised, though, when he expressed support for Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former apostolic nuncio to the U.S. Viganò invited Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to sign same-sex marriage certificates, to meet Pope Francis in 2015, which resulted in Francis replacing him as nuncio. Viganò was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 2024 for the offense of schism and public acts of defiance against the pope.
In 2018, Viganò had, as Commonweal reported at the timemade “sweeping charges against U.S. and Vatican church officials, including Pope Francis,” for mishandling claims that former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick had sexually abused minors and adults, and he called on Francis to “set a good example” and resign the papacy. Responding to the news of Viganò’s 11-page testimony, Coakley wrote a letter to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, saying, “While I lack any personal knowledge or experience of the details contained in his ‘testimony,’ I have the deepest respect for Archbishop Viganò and his personal integrity.”
Francis said he did not know about McCarrick’s abuseand he defrocked McCarrick in 2019. A Vatican investigation the pope launched found many in the Catholic Church’s hierarchy had downplayed the abuse but did not name Francis as one of them.
Speaking to OSV News after his electionCoakely said of Viganò, “The harm that was done through that scandal has been deep and mistrust that followed is real.” Coakley said he “didn’t know Archbishop (Carlo Maria) Viganò other than what I knew of him from walking these halls here at bishops’ meetings. …. And I just didn’t want to jump to conclusions before all of the information was available.”
A Special Pastoral Message on Immigration is an indication that the bishops are pulling together to echo Pope Leo XIV on immigration.
Regarding Viganò, Coakley said he didn’t know “what his views were, when I made those comments, which have been thrown back in my face numerous times subsequently and used against me,” but he agreed with the reporter interviewing him that the claims against him were warranted.
In addition to Flores’ election, a Special Pastoral Message on Immigration, approved on the second day of the bishops’ conference, is an indication that the bishops are pulling together to echo Pope Leo XIV on the issue of immigration. The statement said, in part:
“We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools.”
That message will be given to each parish across the U.S. by local bishops.
The document, which a group of bishops worked on, was strengthened with language suggested by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago: “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”
While this simple sentence should be clear from Catholic Church doctrine, it took Cupich to remind the conference of the need to speak with plain moral clarity. That sentence — “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” — should be the talking point of every Catholic clergyperson in the United States.
Will Coakley, who doesn’t want “heat” with the White House, be the one to communicate that message as ICE continues to chase down people on our streets to deport them? Given his desire to bring “light” to the situation, one can only hope. But until then, the pews of many parishes in the United States will remain emptier as Catholic immigrants hide in their homes because ICE has made them too afraid to come out and worship.
As awards season progresses, celebrities continue to speak out against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — especially in Minneapolis. Though some stars have opted for a slight nod of resistance with pins that say “ICE out,” others have been more vocal in their stances.
Upon accepting the Grammy Award for Best Música Urbana Album on Sunday night, Bad Bunny got straight to the point.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” the Puerto Rican performer said as soon as he approached the podium with award in hand.
After a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd, he continued.
“We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
This is not the first time the artist has spoken out against the Trump administration’s rhetoric against immigrants in the United States. Last year, he announced he would no longer tour in the U.S., which drew criticism from some right-wing commentators.
Despite that pushback, Bad Bunny scored the headlining spot at this year’s Super Bowl and said he decided to “do just one date in the United States.”
The album Bad Bunny accepted the award for, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” also won Album of the Year, becoming the first primarily Spanish-language album to win the distinction in the ceremony’s 68-year history.
Kathleen Creedon is a platforms editor for MS NOW. She previously worked as a web producer for Vanity Fair.
Despite a brutal critical reception“Melania,” the documentary about the first lady released on January 30, outperformed expectations in its opening weekend.
“Melania” earned more than $7 million at the domestic U.S. box office, the highest opening for a non-concert documentary in decades. Most recently, the best-performing film in the same genre was Stephen Gray and Chris Radtke’s “After Death,” which opened at around $5 million domestically in 2023. With an opening box office of almost $24 million, Michael Moore’s 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11” remains the highest-grossing political documentary.
Critics, however, have been less kind to “Melania.” The documentary has received an aggregate rating of 10% among professional critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (which is owned by Versant, MS NOW’s parent company), and negative reviews from major news outlets abound. Writing for MS NOW, media critic Jen Cheney said the film is “so devoid of substance that it feels wrong to call it a documentary” and suggested “This thing is basically ‘Let Them Eat Cake: The Movie,’” invoking Marie Antoinette, the French queen beheaded during the revolution.
Still, the film about the model-turned-political figure found its audience. Media analytics company Comscore reported that roughly 72% of Melania’s audience during opening weekend were women, and 72% were over the age of 55. The majority of the movie-goers were also white.
Directed by Brett Ratner in his first film since he faced accusations of sexual abuse (allegations he has denied), “Melania” outperformed expectations out of the gate but has far to go before it becomes profitable: Amazon’s MGM Studios paid $40 million to license the film and another $35 million to promote it.
“We’re very encouraged by the strong start and positive audience response, with early box office for ‘Melania’ exceeding our expectation,” said Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of domestic theatrical distribution.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
The Dictatorship
British prime minister says Prince Andrew should testify to Congress over Epstein ties
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the disgraced British royal formerly known as Prince Andrew, to testify before the U.S. Congress over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Firstly, I have always approached this question with the victims of Epstein in mind. Epstein’s victims have to be the first priority. As for whether there should be an apology, that’s a matter for Andrew,” Starmer told press on Saturday during an official visit to Tokyo, Japan.
“But yes, in terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information in whatever form they are asked to do that. You can’t be victim-centered if you’re not prepared to do that.”
The statement comes after the Justice Department on Friday released more than 3 million pages of documents related to its investigation into Epstein as part of its mandate to fulfill the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Among the documents are photographs that show a barefoot Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling over and touching the stomach and waist of an unidentified female figure whose face has been redacted.
Also among the newly released documents, the Guardian identified email exchanges between him and Epstein dated 2010. In them, Epstein tells Mountbatten-Windsor, “I have a friend who I think you might enjoy having dinner with” and refers to a 26-year-old Russian woman. Andrew replied that he would be “delighted to see her” and told Epstein to give her his contact information.
Mountbatten-Windsor has been unable to distance himself from the scandal over his friendship with Epstein, the American financier who ran a sex-trafficking ring.
Amid ongoing revelations about his history with Epstein, Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles last year by his older brother, King Charles III. Andrew was also evicted from his home at Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion located on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Virginia Giuffreone of Epstein’s victims, sued Mountbatten-Windsor in 2021, claiming she was forced to have sex with him. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount in 2022with no admission of wrongdoing. Giuffre died by suicide last April. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. In a now-famous BBC Newsnight interviewhe claimed he was at a PizzaExpress in Woking with his daughter, Princess Beatrice, at the time of the alleged assault.
MS NOW is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from NBC, AP, CNBC and CBS. Journalists from each newsroom worked together to examine the documents and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter and producer for MS NOW. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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