Daniel R. DiLeo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and director of Creighton's University's Justice and Peace Studies Program. He has served as a consultant for the Catholic Climate Covenant since 2009.
In more than 12,000 columns by U.S. bishops between 2014 and 2019 — the period directly before and after the publication of Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" — only 93 mentioned climate change, global warming or their equivalent at all.
Commentary: Our research about the disparities in how the bishops' conference publicly discussed Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama leads us to anticipate that church leaders may be more overtly critical and less overtly praising of Biden moving forward.