Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City says he is ‘humbled’ by his election as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), asking for prayers that he may be ‘a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother Bishops and priests.’
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“I’m humbled by the trust which my brother Bishops have placed in me by choosing me to serve as president of our episcopal conference.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City expressed this in a post on X following his election by the U.S. Bishops as the new president-elect of the USCCB during their Plenary Assembly, 10-13 Nov. 2025, in Baltimore on Tuesday.
Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, was also elected vice president.
The pair succeed Archbishop Timothy Broglio and Archbishop William Lori, whose three-year terms are concluding.
Archbishop Coakley already held a leadership role in the USCCB, serving as secretary. He was ordained a priest in 1983 for the Diocese of Wichita before being appointed Bishop of Salina in 2004, and later Archbishop of Oklahoma City in 2010. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology.
Bishop Flores is the former president of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine. He has been a Bishop since 2006. He was one of the 12 Bishops to serve on the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod on Synodality, holds a doctorate in sacred theology and is a former theology professor.
Archbishop Coakley: ‘Pray I may be a faithful steward’
Archbishop Coakley recalled that when he became a Bishop, he chose as his episcopal motto, “Duc in altum,” or “Put Out into the Deep”, saying that “once again, the Lord is inviting me to put out into deep waters in calling me to accept this service and burden of leadership today.”
The USCCB President-elect said he accepted the nomination “in faith and with great hope, ” and asked for the prayers of all of the clergy, religious women and men and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
“I have great confidence in the staff of both the USCCB and our own Archdiocese,” he said, adding that “they will help me shoulder these responsibilities.”
Finally, the new leader of the US Bishops asked, “Please pray that I may be a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother Bishops and priests.”
Cardinal Pierre reaffirms Church’s continued missionary mandate
Meanwhile, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, addressed the US Bishops, expressing his conviction that “Vatican II remains the key to understanding what kind of Church we are called to be today and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”
Cardinal Pierre said that Pope Leo has upheld the importance of the Second Vatican Council, as he did two days after his election when he told the cardinals, that “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.”
The nuncio also recalled Pope Leo’s statement that “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,” and highlighted “several fundamental points“.
Those points, the Holy Father had said, included the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the sensus fidei, especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.
Recalling this missionary impulse the late Pope Francis emphasized for the Church, Cardinal Pierre suggested that Pope Leo “wants us to continue in that direction.”
