BY MARISA GERBER
Los Angeles Times
AUG. 9, 2021
“Brothers,” Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gómez addressed his colleagues,
“before we come to the end of our meeting, I have an announcement to make.”
It was the middle of November, two weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected
president, marking only the second time that a Roman Catholic was headed to the
White House. And the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops had gathered virtually
for a meeting amid a growing push by conservative bishops to withhold one of
Christianity’s holiest rites from the man about to occupy the Oval Office.