Since 2017, the Lepanto Institute has been monitoring the Association of United States Catholic Priests (AUSCP) for promoting theses contrary to the magisterium on sexual morality, sacraments, and holy orders. In 2022, it documented the connection of an official from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) with AUSCP activities during its annual assembly, and in 2025, it published leaked audios from the San Antonio assembly (June 23–26). On September 15, 2025, it released a report denouncing a virtual consultation on the USCCB’s Laypeople document hosted by the AUSCP, which the Institute presents as formal collaboration.
This Tuesday they published a new report with audios and video material that, according to the organization, evidences how the AUSCP and some bishops and priests would have promoted LGBT ideologies and practices contrary to Catholic moral doctrine. According to the Lepanto Institute, the case warrants that the bishops formally condemn the AUSCP and prohibit their priests from having any contact with the group, in addition to asking the faithful to urge the president of the USCCB, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, to break all institutional ties.
Leaked AUSCP Audios and Denunciations on Sexual Morality
The institute claims that in sessions of the AUSCP 2025 Assembly, held in San Antonio (Texas) from June 23 to 26, testimonies and presentations can be heard that normalize gender ideologies and approaches contrary to Christian anthropology. According to the organization, the attendees—priests and speakers—would have expressed applause and approval for narratives and theses incompatible with the magisterium.
They also maintain that the report identifies “pathways” through which bishops and Catholic organizations would have funded or promoted “sex change” procedures and related agendas. Likewise, the publication assures that there are additional audios from the assembly with discussions on sexual morality that the organization qualifies as gravely inappropriate for clergy.
Todd Salzman and the USCCB Doctrinal Note
Among the passages highlighted by Lepanto is a presentation by theologian Todd Salzman, whose work The Sexual Person was the subject of formal criticism by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine in 2010 for conclusions “in contradiction” with Church teaching. Despite that background, the report assures that at the assembly, his approach was proposed to be extended to priests ordained in recent decades.
According to the Lepanto Institute, Salzman would have questioned recent Holy See documents—such as “Male and Female He Created Them”—and defended the possibility of equating child-rearing by same-sex couples to that of marriages according to the natural order, a thesis that the organization considers contrary to the constant magisterium on sexual complementarity, marriage, and chastity.
Allegations of Collaboration Between the USCCB and the AUSCP
On the institutional level, they refer to previous publications in which they document ties between USCCB bodies and the AUSCP. Among them, it mentions a virtual consultation on a laypeople document that would have been hosted by the AUSCP, as well as the presence of personnel from episcopal conference offices at the group’s assemblies. Based on this, the Institute calls for cutting any cooperation for reasons of pastoral prudence and doctrinal fidelity.
Lepanto’s Requests to the Bishops and the Faithful
In light of the audios and the doctrinal background, the Lepanto Institute urges the bishops of the United States to publicly condemn the AUSCP and prohibit any participation by their priests in its activities. In parallel, it calls on Catholics to write and call Archbishop Timothy Broglio to ask the USCCB to sever any relationship with the AUSCP. The organization emphasizes that the Church’s teachings on sexual morality are binding and do not “evolve” due to cultural pressure.