An awful lot of rubbish ricocheted around the media-blogosphere echo chamber before and after the November 14 vote for chairman of the pro-life committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, in which the contestants were Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan. In the event, Archbishop Naumann won, by a vote of 96 to 82 (with 34 mysterious abstentions). Both before the vote and after, outlets from the Wall Street Journal to the online news service Crux to the online gossip column Whispers in the Loggia vied to lead the pack in portraying the Cupich–Naumann contest as a kind of referendum on Pope Francis among the American bishops: Have the bishops caught up yet with the “Francis effect” (said to be embodied by Cardinal Cupich)? And if not, why not? 
 
 Blah, blah, and blah. 
 
 The so-called Francis effect is a media concoction that is difficult to define. But if it means anything, it means a Catholic Church that embraces what Pope Francis calls “collegiality” and “synodality.” In choosing Naumann over Cupich — and in breaking 40 years of precedent by naming someone other than a cardinal to chair the conference’s pro-life committee — the bishops in fact embraced both of those principles, rather than rejecting them. It would be helpful if the herd of independent minds would recognize that, instead of repeating its mistakes ad infinitum (and ad nauseam). 
 
 For while it’s not entirely clear what the pope means by “synodality,” he at least means that he wants a Catholicism that trusts local churches to know their own ecclesial experience and to craft approaches to mission, evangelization, and public witness that reflect that knowledge. That is what the U.S. bishops did in choosing as their pro-life committee’s chairman Archbishop Naumann — who displayed great pastoral skill and courage in dealing with the pro-“choice” governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, prior to her becoming secretary of heath and human services in the Obama administration. Moreover, like his brother bishops, Archbishop Naumann knows that the pro-life cause embraces issues other than abortion, just as he knows that work for legal protection for the unborn must be complemented by effective action on behalf of women caught in the dilemma of unwanted pregnancy. 
 
 But Naumann also knows that the current American abortion regime has seriously eroded our national political culture and warped our national politics, and that these facts of public life cannot be ignored in deference to certain partisan sensibilities or other issues. That is something that the majority of the body of bishops also knows, and that helps explain Naumann’s victory. Far from being some sort of act of disrespect to the pope, a vote for Archbishop Naumann was a vote to affirm the bishops’ broad-gauged pro-life position, which has developed “synodally” over time, while privileging several of the life issues — abortion, to be sure, and, increasingly, euthanasia — rather than muting those issues for the sake of others. 
 
 As for “collegiality,” well, that has an affective dimension, and the November 14 vote was a vote of respect for a longtime pro-life veteran who did serious grassroots pro-life work before becoming a bishop — a man whose election would, the bishops knew, cheer pro-life activists throughout the Church and encourage them in their work, which is showing signs of bearing real fruit. Does the echo chamber imagine that Pope Francis wants to discourage those activists? Does the echo chamber believe that the pope is not pro-life, even after his many condemnations of the abortion culture and the damage it does to what he rightly calls “human ecology”? 
 
 Those who insisted that the Cupich–Naumann election was a referendum on the current pontificate were wrong, and they were wrong to spin the vote’s results in the same direction. 
 
 The pre- and post-vote commentary on the Cupich–Naumann vote also got sucked into the weird authoritarianism that is reasserting itself on the Catholic Left, according to which the pope is the equivalent of the old Russian czar: an autocrat responsible to no one or anything, whose every wish is to be taken as a command without question or discussion. But this is never how the Catholic Church has understood the papacy, as any careful reading of the debates at both Vatican I and Vatican II will attest. 
 
 There are few episcopates in the world more loyal to Rome or more deferential to legitimate papal prerogative than the American bishops. Yet over the past 20 years or so the U.S. bishops have gained a new confidence in their own understanding of the American way of being what Pope Francis calls a “church permanently in mission.” A good example of that can be found in Unleash the Gospel, the June pastoral letter of the newly elected secretary of the bishops’ conference, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit. Have any of the men whom the herd of independent minds frequently mention as “Francis effect” bishops in the United States (and elsewhere) produced such a striking pastoral letter, after such a thoroughly synodal and collegial process as what unfolded in Detroit under Archbishop Vigneron’s leadership? If so, please bring it to our attention. 
 
 Those who insisted that the Cupich–Naumann election was a referendum on the current pontificate were wrong to do so before the vote, and they were wrong to spin the vote’s results in the same direction. If they would bring themselves to recognize that, perhaps they’d see some real synodality and some real collegiality at work among the U.S. bishops. And that might help wean them from promoting simulacra of synodality and collegiality in the name of a very un-Catholic notion of papal autocracy. 
 
 READ MORE: 
 
 Catholic Scholars vs. The Pope 
 
 Judging While Catholic 
 
 Conservative Catholics Lose Another Voice in Rome 
 
 — George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. ||||| BALTIMORE – In a surprise result, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City beat Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago as head of the U.S. bishops’ committee on pro-life activities by a vote of 96-82 during the Tuesday morning elections of the USCCB fall assembly. 
 
 The results will likely be viewed by many that the “Francis effect” has yet to take hold fully of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and a rejection of the “consistent ethic of life” methodology, promoted by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who served as Archbishop of Chicago in the 1980s and ’90s. 
 
 Cupich, considered a protege of Francis and the current head of the Chicago archdiocese, is the current standard-bearer of the view, which combines pro-life activism on abortion with other issues such as access to health care and poverty reduction measures. 
 
 This is the first time in nearly 40 years the U.S. bishops have chosen not to elect a cardinal as head of the pro-life committee. 
 
 This closely watched election has been viewed by many as a referendum on both the conference’s approach to pro-life issues and how it aligns with Francis. Naumann will replace outgoing head of the committee, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. During his report on the pro-life committee on Monday, Dolan praised Nuamann’s work on the committee and as a board member of Human Life Action. 
 
 Naumann’s approach to life issues has long been marked by a specific focus on abortion. 
 
 In May of this year, Naumann made headlines when he announced that the parishes in his diocese would no longer host the Girl Scouts because of their affiliation with Planned Parenthood. 
 
 In an interview with Crux at the time, he said “the issues that pertain to family life, to marriage, to the dignity and sanctity of human life, do have a priority in our Catholic social teaching. Those are kind of foundational issues for us… I would say, however, in terms of the magnitude of things, abortion is a much more important issue, simply because of the sheer number of innocent lives that are taken every year in our culture.” 
 
 During the 2016 presidential election, Naumann took to the pages of his archdiocesan newspaper, The Leaven, to call out then-vice presidential candidate Senator Tim Kaine, a Catholic, for being personally opposed to abortion, yet failing to maintain those convictions in the political realm. 
 
 “If he knows these truths of biology, why would he believe that anyone has the right to authorize the killing of an unborn human being? This is where the reproductive choice euphemism breaks apart,” Naumann wrote. “Does anyone really have the choice to end another human being’s life? Our choices end where another individual’s more fundamental rights begin.” 
 
 Naumann has been archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas since 2005. 
 
 Also elected was Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit as conference secretary-elect for the conference. Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, was elected as head of the committee on religious liberty; Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, as head of the committee on communications; Bishop Nelson Pérez of Cleveland as head of the committee Cultural Diversity in the Church; Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend as head of the committee on doctrine; and Bishop Joseph Cistone of Diocese of Saginaw as head of the committee for national collections. 
 
 The U.S. bishops will continue in open session on Tuesday afternoon with discussion and a vote on the cause for canonization for Nicholas William Black Elk, a former Sioux medicine man turned Catholic teacher and reports and updates from the committees on Domestic Justice and Human Development and Cultural Diversity in the Church. On Wednesday, the assembly will conclude with a final day of executive session. 
 
 Stay tuned for Crux’s latest news and updates from the USCCB fall assembly, where Crux’s national correspondent Christopher White will be providing regular updates. Follow him on Twitter @CWWhite212 and visit Crux for daily updates and interviews from Baltimore.
– In a move seen as pushback against Pope Francis' agenda for the church, US Catholic bishops broke with tradition and elected a conservative archbishop to lead a top committee. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops voted 96 to 82 Tuesday to name Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann chief of anti-abortion activities, besting front-runner Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago. For 40 years, the job has been held by a cardinal, but Naumann's elevation suggests US church leaders are sending a message to Rome that they don't share Francis' liberal vision for the church, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cupich is seen as the "current standard-bearer" of Francis' more moderate vision, coupling anti-abortion measures with activism for poverty reduction and greater access to health care, per Crux. The surprise result was seen as a vote for Naumann's more focused position opposing abortion. Naumann appeared to reinforce that view when he promised to keep the committee primed to fight abortion and euthanasia. "I've been fortunate in my priesthood to work in the pro-life areas. I hope I can draw on that experience," Naumann said, per the Journal. A Villanova theologian tweeted that the vote demonstrates Francis' "message ... esp. on life and marriage" is "not adequate" for the US Catholic hierarchy. Other experts, however, see Naumann's slight margin of victory as signaling support for Francis. The National Review, meanwhile, says "the so-called Francis effect is a media concoction that is difficult to define." The vote, the magazine says, validates Francis' preference that local churches "know their own ecclesial experience" and tailor this mission according to those principles. (Francis ends cigarette sales in Vatican City.)