Pope Leo XIV meets USCCB leadership and other prominent American bishops
Pope Leo XIV held private audiences with five U.S. bishops from Oct. 1–5, including USCCB President Archbishop Paul Coakley and Vice President Bishop Daniel Flores. Coakley and Flores will represent the USCCB at a Vatican conference marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ Amoris Laetitia, scheduled for Oct. 7–14. U.S. cardinals Blase Cupich, Robert McElroy, and Joseph Tobin are also expected to attend the conference. Leo met separately with Bishop Robert Barron, Bishop Louis Tylka, and Archbishop Thomas Wenski during the period.
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Pope Leo XIV held a series of private meetings with American bishops in Rome from Oct. 1–5, including leaders of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Several of them are due to take part in an Oct. 7–14 Vatican conference marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Amoris Laetitia. 1 2
On Oct. 5, Leo met separately with four U.S. bishops, including USCCB President Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City and Vice President Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas. Coakley and Flores are set to represent the conference at the gathering, titled “Ten Years After Amoris Lætitia: Proclaiming the Gospel with Families Today.” 1 2
Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester met with the pope on Oct. 1. Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, had spoken at a U.S. Embassy to the Holy See conference in Rome on Sept. 30 and ordained 18 deacons at St. Peter’s Basilica the following day. 1 2
The article also reports meetings with Bishop Louis Tylka of Peoria and Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami. Tylka’s audience came 11 days after he participated in the beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen; he had announced on Sept. 26 that Peoria would establish the first parish named after Sheen. Wenski submitted his resignation to the pope after turning 75 in October 2025, as required by canon law. 1 2
Three U.S. cardinals are expected to join Coakley and Flores at the Amoris Laetitia conference: Blase Cupich of Chicago, Robert McElroy of Washington, D.C., and Joseph Tobin of Newark. The report identifies them as the only U.S. cardinals who are diocesan bishops. 1 2
The article says Leo held private audiences with five U.S. bishops from Oct. 1–5, but it also separately names Barron, Tylka, and Wenski in addition to the four bishops reported as meeting with the pope on Oct. 5. It does not reconcile that count with the named meetings. 1 2
Papal primacy and episcopal collegiality in Church governance
Papal primacy and episcopal collegiality are not competing systems of Church government. Catholic teaching holds them together: the pope has supreme authority as successor of Peter and head of the episcopal college, while bishops share responsibility for the whole Church and exercise their authority in communion with him.
The pope’s primacy is a personal office of service to the unity and mission of the universal Church. Vatican II teaches that, as Vicar of Christ and pastor of the whole Church, the Roman Pontiff possesses “full, supreme and universal power” and is free to exercise it.
This authority does not make the bishops mere papal delegates. The Second Vatican Council reaffirmed their proper episcopal ministry and their responsibility for the Church beyond their own dioceses. The bishops’ office and the pope’s primacy are understood as harmonizing within the Church’s communion, not as opposing sources of authority.
“Collegiality” means that bishops, as successors of the apostles, are united with one another and with the pope in a body—the college of bishops. A bishop becomes a member of that college through episcopal consecration and hierarchical communion with its head and members. The college does not act as an authority separate from or independent of the pope.
The college exercises supreme authority over the universal Church in an ecumenical council, with the pope. Bishops also show collegial concern through common teaching, pastoral cooperation, and their responsibility for the Church as a whole. This responsibility complements their direct governance of their own local Churches.
The governing principle is communion, not a division of power into rival branches. The pope may exercise his authority personally; the bishops exercise their collegial authority together with him and never apart from him. Collegiality therefore does not restrict or relativize the primacy, and primacy should be understood in relation to the bishops’ shared pastoral responsibility.
The Synod of Bishops illustrates one way this relationship is expressed: it assists the pope and gives bishops a forum to deliberate together, but its establishment as a consultative body did not make it an independent governing authority.
In short, Catholic governance is both primatial and collegial: the pope serves as the visible principle of unity and has universal authority, while bishops are genuine shepherds with their own authority and a shared care for the whole Church. Neither dimension is properly understood in isolation from the other.