Playing God

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is one of the most powerful religious organizations supporting nationalist-populist conservatism in America today. They do it in partnership with some of the wealthiest lay Catholics in America, who have their own reasons for promoting an ultra-conservative, nationalist state. Many of the bishops and their billionaire partners are staunch opponents of Pope Francis, to the point that some U.S. Catholics fear schism with Rome. The U.S. bishops recently decided their priests could deny the Eucharist to pro-abortion politicians like President Biden. With their lay partners, the bishops help shepherd cases into the Supreme Court that change the law of the land. Mary Jo McConahay, a leading Catholic journalist in the United States, has written a definitive account of how the Catholic bishops are attempting to remake America in their own image, campaigning to alter democratic institutions under the guise of religious liberty, allying with major right-wing contributors, such as the Kochs and the Mercers, as well as ultra-right evangelicals whom they increasingly resemble politically. It tells the story of how these bishops - two-hundred and twenty-nine men, almost all beyond middle age and white - fuelled by Catholic ''dark money'' - have become one of the most formidable and reactionary forces in American society.