The Oklahoman, Carla Hinton, November 16, 2025

A secular news outlet described an Oklahoma City archbishop as a “conservative culture warrior,” while a religious magazine said he is “far from an extremist.”

Reactions to the Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley’s election to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ presidency have come as onlookers seek to define what his rise to the top of the nation’s primary arm of the Roman Catholic Church says about the American Catholic hierarchy’s relationship with Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S-born pope.

Coakley, 70, is the first bishops’ conference president to be elected during Pope Leo’s papacy. And the hyper focus on the bishops’ choice of leadership is also undoubtedly tied to the fact that he is taking the organization’s helm as its first president elected during President Donald Trump’s second term.

On the political front, pundits and commentators have questioned whether Coakley, widely known as a staunch conservative, will, during his three-year term as its president, steer the bishops’ conference on the right-leaning path it has appeared to follow in the last several years.

The Associated Press called Coakley a “conservative culture warrior” chosen as the USCCB doubles down on its “conservative bent.” He is connected to the Napa Institute, a conservative Catholic organization, as its ecclesiastical adviser.

By contrast, The Catholic Herald said he was “far from an extremist,” and has dutifully fulfilled his duties as a Catholic bishop.

“In short, if one treats pro-life and pro-family teaching as ‘conservative,’ then one would hope all US bishops are conservatives,” the London-based Catholic monthly magazine said.

On another front, organizations that advocate for people sexually abused by religious clergy, and survivors of such abuse, said that choosing Coakley as their leader means that the nation’s Catholic bishops have no sense of justice or urgency about holding faith leaders who prey on others accountable.

Peter Isely, a longtime spokesperson and activist for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said Coakley’s election as president of the bishops’ group “only reinforces what we already know: survivors waiting for justice should not look to the USCCB.”

“Only public exposure and action on the part of civil society will force the U.S. bishops to remove offenders and disclose the vast amount of criminal evidence of rape and sexual assault in their possession,” Isely said in a statement.

Coakley called for an independent investigation on the archdiocese’s response to sexual abuse claims over a period of about 20 years. Under his leadership, the archdiocese hired the law firm McAfee & Taft to conduct an investigation and compile the report, which was released in 2019.

Steady advancement

Coakley, a Norfolk, Virginia, native, was ordained to the priesthood in 1983. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II to serve as bishop of the Diocese of Salina, Kansas, in 2004. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him archbishop of Oklahoma City in 2010, and he was installed in 2011, succeeding the Most Rev. Eusebius J. Beltran, who retired.

How did Coakley ascend to the apex of America’s Roman Catholic hierarchy?

He was in a key position to be considered for the role of USCCB president, and his style of leadership has become widely known among his fellow bishops due to his membership on several of the organization’s committees.

Most notably, Coakley was serving as the USCCB’s secretary, considered the bishop conference’s third most senior post, behind the president and vice president, when he was tapped to become the group’s president on Nov. 11.

And, he has served on 12 USCCB committees, three of which he served as chair. Coakley served on the USCCB’s Domestic Justice and Human Development Committee from 2019 to 2022. The archbishop has also served on the USCCB’s Committee on Priorities and Plans from 2022 to the present.

He served on Catholic Relief Services’ ‘board of directors from 2012 to 2019, serving as chair from 2014 to 2016. Catholic Relief Services is the USCCCB’s official international relief and development agency.

Leadership in Oklahoma

As others share their opinions on what Coakley will bring to his role as USCCB president, there’s no question that he has risen to prominence both in and outside Oklahoma due to his high profile stance on several issues. These include immigration, abortion and the death penalty.

Oklahomans, including those who have worked alongside Coakley and those who fall under his leadership, discussed how he has made the position of Oklahoma City archbishop his own since being appointed to the role. They said he has been willing to publicly weigh in on hot-button issues.

The Rev. Don Heath, co-pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Edmond, said the archbishop has spoken out numerous times over the years in opposition to the death penalty. Heath served as chairman of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty for eight years.

“Every time I gave a statement, Coakley gave one, too,” Heath said. “He’s been faithful to that. He’s also a fierce advocate for the immigrants, and I hope he will continue.”

The Rev. Tim Luschen, an Archdiocese of Oklahoma City priest serving as senior pastor of Little Flower Catholic Church in south Oklahoma City, offered similar comments. Luschen is also a member of Voices Organized in Civic Engagement, or VOICE, a coalition of congregations, nonprofits, worker associations and schools on a mission to help Oklahoma City metro-area families face a wide range of challenges.

Luschen said Coakley has been given an opportunity to weigh in on issues of vital importance from a national platform, and he thinks the role suits the archbishop.

“This election has really given him an opportunity to speak for all the bishops in the U.S. on issues like sanctity of life — from the womb to natural death,” Luschen said. “He’s going to be speaking out on different things that affect our families like immigration, but also also how people are going to afford health care and how they are going to put food on their table.”

Like Heath, Monsignor Don Wolf, pastor of Sacred Heart Church and rector of the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine, said Coakley’s opposition to the death penalty has been well known in Oklahoma.

Wolf said he thinks Coakley will continue to weigh in about the need for the humane treatment of undocumented migrants, even as he voices his agreement with nations having sovereign borders.

“Everyone wants a good and well-ordered society, and you can do that in a way that’s more humane, in a way that respects human dignity, and I think that’s what the archbishop has talked about,” the priest said.

“He’s trying to thread the needle when it comes to that. I think the archbishop has been pretty careful about that. He makes an attempt to speak clearly and carefully, and I know he’ll bring that to the national stage. His desire to communicate is on point.”

The Rev. Shannon Fleck, executive director of Faithful America, a national nonprofit organization that mobilizes Christians to take action for social justice, racial equality and democracy, worked with Coakley in her former role as executive director of the Oklahoma Faith Network, an ecumenical coalition of more than 16 Christian denominations and individual churches that partner with other organizations, including those affiliated with other faith traditions.

In 2018, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City had been a longtime member of the network, then called the Oklahoma Conference of Churches, when Coakley withdrew the faith organization from the statewide coalition, which continues to include the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference and several Black faith denominations, among others. In his statement regarding the matter, Coakley cited what he deemed as coalition leadership’s shift from ecumenism to secular politics as the reason for his decision.

Fleck, who continues to reside in Oklahoma, said she had only been on the job a few months, and she felt that Coakley had pre-judged her and her work when he withdrew the archdiocese from the faith coalition. She said she is hoping in his new role at the helm of the USSCB, Coakley will see the importance of working with people with who he disagrees, for the sake of the common good.

“It was disappointing that he walked away from a table that sought to bring diverse voices together in dialogue, and I would hope that as he chooses to lead in this capacity, he is intentional about being in spaces with people that do not agree with him because that makes us better leaders,” Fleck said.

Read story at The Oklahoman