Given that just days before the bishops met, the United States wrapped up a bizarre election season, there were some sparks in Baltimore about what to expect under President-elect Donald J. Trump.

"The problem that we have today, not only in society but also in the church, is that we've become too polarized," Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-born prelate who was bishop of Dallas before taking over a Vatican department on family life earlier this year, told America.

“We’ve become too polarized...We’ve believed that we’ve become gods on both sides, on the left and on the right, and neither one of them are correct.”

Cardinal-designate Joseph Tobin does not hold back when expressing his admiration for Pope Francis.

Using too broad a brush to paint any group of people is rarely a good idea, including a hierarchy composed of hundreds of individuals.

Catholic bishops on Tuesday chose for their top leadership posts two prelates from states touching Mexico.

National correspondent Michael O'Loughlin is covering the USCCB gathering for America.

“In our country, we need to start building bridges and bringing people together.”

Helping drive up Mr. Trump's numbers, some Catholics say, were clergy and parish leaders.

Despite months of pre-election polls showing Catholics backing Hillary Clinton, exit polls show Donald Trump won a majority of Catholic votes on Tuesday.