WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump met with Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Jan. 12, a spokesperson for the USCCB confirmed.
The private meeting, which was listed on the official White House schedule for Trump, was closed to journalists. The White House did not specify the topic of the meeting.
In a statement, a USCCB spokesperson said, “Archbishop Coakley had the opportunity for introductory meetings with President Trump, Vice President Vance, and other Administration officials, in which they discussed areas of mutual concern, as well as areas for further dialogue.”
“Archbishop Coakley is grateful for the engagement and looks forward to ongoing discussions,” the statement said.
U.S. bishops have alternately praised and criticized some Trump administration policies, objecting to some of his actions on topics including immigration and the death penalty and commending others, such as those on gender policy.
Archbishop Coakley was elected president of the USCCB in November at the bishops’ fall plenary assembly. At the same meeting, the bishops approved a “special pastoral message” on Nov. 12 — their first since 2013 when they objected to the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate — voicing “our concern here for immigrants.” The bishops’ special message opposed “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and also prayed “for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
The message, which did not name Trump, came as a growing number of bishops have acknowledged that some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies could pose practical challenges in administering pastoral support and charitable endeavors, as well as religious liberty challenges.
The week before Trump met with Archbishop Coakley, he told House Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies. That policy has long been supported by the U.S. bishops, who defended it after Trump’s comments.
Private meetings between a sitting president of the USCCB and the president of the United States are not without precedent, but do not always happen.
The previous president of the USCCB, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, said in November, “I was never able to meet with the president of the United States. Neither with President (Joe) Biden nor with President Trump.”
Trump had a brief meeting in 2017 that included Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, then president of the conference.
Former USCCB presidents, including then-Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, had several meetings with former President Barack Obama during his presidency.
