I don’t say that the three top religious leaders who conferred last Friday with Governor Carcieri and joined him in meeting reporters lost their nerve. But if you’d like to say it, be my guest.

I’m talking about Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin, Rabbi Alan Flam, president of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis, and the Rev. Donald Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches.

At an April 2 session near Bishop Tobin’s office, the three men pointedly decried Carcieri’s executive order to crack down on illegal immigration. But now, after huddling with him at the State House, the clergy praised his sensitivity to objections that have been raised, his determination to allay fears and his enlisting them on an advisory commission to monitor implementation of the order.

The bishop said he didn’t know if the order’s details necessarily should change: “The governor has every right to enforce the law and we’ve encouraged him.” But he said the clergy could assist with communication.

Rabbi Flam and Mr. Anderson wanted Carcieri to reconsider his order, but, seeing that he won’t, said they’re determined to help things go smoothly.

Perhaps I’d be dreaming to expect the clergy to stand next to Carcieri and denounce him as politically motivated and tone-deaf to the unrest he has stirred among immigrants, even those here legally.

Sure, it was nice that he invited the clergy, and nice they’ll serve on a new advisory panel to convene every three months or so.

But did they have to be so docile, so optimistic?

All I needed to know about Carcieri’s commitment to defusing this situation came when I asked what he’s prepared to do to reach out to Latinos. He said he’s met with his Hispanic commission and will continue to do so.

I said, “How about going out into the community, having town meetings, things like that?”

He said, “You have your ideas. I’m going to do it in my fashion and my manner.”

Later, I told Bishop Tobin that some people would say that, because of Carcieri’s warm personality or the grandeur of the State House, the clergy had sold out.

“I would hope, first of all, the governor’s been influenced by my warm personality, too,” he said. “But I never thought of myself as being especially militant on this … We’ve said from the beginning that we have great respect for the governor, we wanted to work with him on this.”

The Catholic Church includes many Latinos. Did Carcieri ask Bishop Tobin to help arrange meetings with them?

The bishop said, “One of the things that might come out of our ongoing consultations and the advisory commission perhaps would be a suggestion like that.”

That could be months from now. Rhode Island is red-hot today, after Carcieri acted without hard data or sufficient preparation of the public — or of himself.

I asked the bishop, “Do you ever say to him, when he says something like, “Oh, maybe we ought to set up an advisory commission,’ do you ever just say, ‘Governor, why didn’t you do that before you got into this?’ ”

The bishop had had that on his mind. Talking with a TV reporter the day before, he recalled, “The consultation and the communication that’s taking place now — I did ask the question, what would have happened if all that had happened before the fact?”

Bishop Tobin said he did not chastise the governor at Friday’s meeting. He said his role is to “challenge gently.”

I like it better when he challenges with all the volume and moral outrage he can command.

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com