As U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their annual fall meeting this week in Baltimore, the specter of President-elect Donald Trump’s resounding victory will hang over the proceedings.

The new Trump administration offers promise and peril on the top policy concerns of American Catholic leaders, which include abortion and immigration.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, congratulated Trump on his victory in a statement, while stressing that the Catholic Church “is not aligned with any political party.”

Catholic teaching prioritizes both the end of abortion and the humane care of migrants. In Trump, as for many Christians in the US, Catholics find an imperfect standard bearer.

His anti-abortion rhetoric was mixed: While Trump took credit for ending federal abortion rights, he took issue with the concept of a national abortion ban and said abortion policies should be left up to the states.

On immigration, he paints a less optimistic picture for Catholic prelates. Trump campaigned three times tough immigration policies and vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history.”

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who chairs the US bishops’ committee on migration, said: “We are very, very concerned about the impact of all of this,” referring to Trump’s anticipated immigration measures.

Catholic and faith-based organizations most of them have long shoulders the care of migrants on both sides of the US-Mexico border. For those migrants in his border diocese who are fleeing violence or facing deportation, Seitz said, “We hear the fear they live with every day.”

Seitz said the church is calling for an orderly, legal immigration system where migrants are vetted and “those fleeing dire situations can enter and those who need to work in our country receive visas.”

Seitz will present to his fellow bishops this week a plan to educate people in parishes about the migrant situation.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who also sits on the bishops’ migration committee, sounded a note of “cautiously optimistic” about a second Trump term, saying the reality of migrants’ contributions to the U.S. economy will matter more than ” hyperbole’ about mass deportations.

“If he wants to achieve the ‘biggest economy ever,’ he’s going to have to work on some kind of immigration accommodation,” said Wenski, who has also worked closely with migrant and refugee communities.

On abortion and other issues, Wenski said the Biden administration has sometimes given people of faith “heartburn over policy decisions that seem to intrude on religious freedom.”

Wenski was waived by Florida changing the right to abortion failed – getting 57% support when it needed 60% to prevail. But he predicted “a long way ahead of us in promoting a culture of life”.

The bishops stress in their voting guide that the fight against abortion is “our pre-eminent priority”.

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Va., who chairs the USCCB’s pro-life committee, told Catholic Radio EWTN Last week, his committee will discuss election results, particularly state ballot initiatives where the anti-abortion movement has a losing the record.

“We will not always win, but I congratulate and thank the bishops and the faithful in all those states who have faced this challenge,” Burbidge said. “Even when we lose, we are not defeated.”

For anti-abortion Catholics like Charles Camosy, professor of bioethics at Creighton University School of Medicine, no political party in the US feels like home. While Vice President Kamala Harris has strongly defended abortion rights, in her view, Trump is no anti-abortion warrior.

Camosy cited Trump’s statement about being “great for women and their reproductive rights” as well as his support for IVF and state autonomy over abortion. “In my opinion, this is a pro-choice position,” Camosy said.

Camosy is cautiously optimistic that incoming vice president JD Vance could better represent “the fullness of Catholic teaching.” Vance, a Catholic convert, is part of the growth the traditionalist wing of the church.

In this election, Trump has solidified his support among Catholics compared to 2020, according to AP VoteCast, a broad survey of more than 120,000 voters.

Overall, Catholics tore it for Trump — 54 percent supported him and 44 percent supported Harris — but there was a racial divide. About 6 in 10 white Catholics supported Trump, and about 4 in 10 supported Harris. By contrast, about 6 in 10 Latino Catholics supported Harris, and about 4 in 10 supported Trump.

In Baltimore, the bishops’ meeting will go beyond electoral politics to include more dry bureaucratic fare, such as approval of the annual budget and “three action items concerning liturgical texts.” The meeting will discuss the latest the synodal meeting in Rome, part of a church reform process launched by Pope Francis, whose leadership has sometimes clashed with the right-wing American Catholic hierarchy.

From his post along the U.S.-Mexico border, Bishop Seitz said the church will continue to work under U.S. laws while advocating for changes to those laws it considers unjust.

Two days after the election, Seitz attended a prayer service for migrants. The next morning, he helped drop water in the desert for migrants crossing dangerous terrain.

Regardless of who is in office, he said, “We as a church will continue to do what the church does.”

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AP reporter Giovanna Dell’Orto contributed to this report.

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