U.S. bishops: “The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself.... At the same time, we cannot dismiss or ignore other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism, the environmental crisis, poverty and the death penalty.”

Archbishop Gomez leads the largest U.S. diocese, Los Angeles, home to more than four million Catholics, and has been a vocal proponent of rights for immigrants.

Proposed changes to a bishops’ letter introducing “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” reveal concerns that segments of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are not fully on board with Francis’ now six-year-old papacy.

The bishops will elect new leaders, consider new language about Catholics engaging in politics and hear an update about sex abuse accountability procedures adopted earlier this year.

While saying the priest who denied Joseph R. Biden communion "had a good point," Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he would not have done so himself.

The questions focused on how candidates would handle issues affecting L.G.B.T. Americans should they be elected president.

How faith-based employers could be affected by a ruling in favor of L.G.B.T. employees remains to be seen. More than 20 states and Washington, D.C., have passed job protections for L.G.B.T. people.

“How do we treat those things which are sacred? We treat them with care, dignity and respect. The church calls us to do that with our mortal remains as well.”

In an email sent Monday to the Brebeuf school community, William Verbryke, S.J., the school’s president, wrote, “We have just learned that the Congregation for Catholic Education has decided to suspend the Archbishop’s decree on an interim basis, pending its final resolution of our appeal.”

Among the dozens of priests named in new lawsuits is at least one bishop, the Most Rev. Howard Hubbard, who led the Diocese of Albany from 1977 to 2014. He is accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a 16-year-old in the 1990s.