While some bishops have expressed reluctance to work with a Biden administration, Gregory has already signaled a different approach.

Just days before receiving his cardinal red hat in Rome, Gregory said he intends to dialogue with the Catholic president, “working with him in those areas where we can collaborate because we are pursuing issues that are important both to the church as well as to his own administration.” He has also made clear he will not deny Biden Communion….

John Carr, who worked for 25 years as the top policy adviser for U.S. bishops and has worked with both Gregory and Biden, said he believes their historical trajectories have positioned both the president-elect and his pastor to be uniquely suited to find ways to work together….

Now, in their new assignments, both men will find themselves confronting strikingly similar situations: a church and country fractured by racial wounds, tremendous infighting and a loss of trust in institutions and their leaders.

“In difficult times, you need grown-ups,” Carr said. “In different ways and in different fields, Biden and Gregory are grown-ups. They know how to have real, complicated relationships, and they can treat each other with respect without abandoning principle.”

In Carr’s view, the relationship between church leaders and the White House needs to navigate between three different kinds of issues: areas of agreement, such as immigration and combating poverty and climate change; areas where there is some common ground and differences, such as health care and religious freedom; and areas of principled disagreement, such as abortion….

“When he goes to the White House, he will bring the unborn and the undocumented, the poor and the vulnerable with him,” Carr said.