US bishops convene for annual fall meeting

Washington - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops convened November 10-12, at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, DC for their annual fall meeting with a challenge from their President, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Il. He asked that the bishops direct "the energy of the whole church" to the eradication of sexual abuse and the healing of its victims. They also heard from the review board that was established to respond to the abuse crisis.

A general run down of the meeting includes:

- Approved by a 234-3 vote a short teaching document on why same-sex unions should not be given the social or legal status of marriage.

- Unanimously approved For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food: Catholic Reflections on Food, Farmers and Farmworkers, the bishops’ first new document on agriculture in 14 years.

- Issued a new call to stewardship for young adult Catholics, in a document approved 212-0.

- Approved, 236-6, a pastoral statement encouraging popular devotions but cautioning that they should never supplant the liturgy.

- Approved, by a 221-2 vote, a revised edition of Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest.

- Authorized preparation of a simple brochure to explain church teaching on artificial contraception and the alternatives it considers acceptable.

- Got updates on major national studies on the crisis of clergy sexual abuse of minors and the U.S. bishops’ response to it, to be released early next year.

- Began a review of procedures

for getting assurances that a foreign priest proposed for working in ministry in the United States has not engaged in sexual improprieties.

- Started work on guidelines for relationships with Catholics whose actions in public life are not in accord with church teaching.

- Adopted by unanimous voice vote revised guidelines for concelebration of the Mass.

Shaved $4.5 million off 2003 expenditures to create a balanced USCCB budget for 2004 of $126.8 million.

- Began to consider formalizing for Africa the kind of economic support for pastoral programs that they now provide to the Catholic Church in Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.

- Heard from the USCCB general counsel about regulatory and legislative pressures that he said are becoming "a complex and multifaceted affront to the integrity and identity" of religious institutions operating in the public arena.

- Adopted a policy to prevent conflict of interest in conducting business and approved an updated version of their socially responsible investing.

- Expressed support, through a statement of their president, for legislation that would grant legal status to some undocumented farmworkers.

- Explored ways to make their general meetings more productive, in discussions at regional gatherings.

- Heard a former Vatican diplomat’s call for international cooperation and accurate intelligence gathering, instead of war, to combat terrorism.

- Agreed to devote their entire special assembly next June to discussion of the pros and cons of convening the first plenary council of the U.S. church since 1884.

- Elected Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., as USCCB secretary and Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore as chairman of the pro-life committee, and selected eight new chairmen-elect.

- Hosted a delegation of bishops from Vietnam, who thanked the USCCB for their close ties with the Vietnamese church.

- Extended 14 ad hoc committees for another three years but let the Ad Hoc Committee on Agriculture Issues expire.

- Got a report from the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism criticizing the quality of many high school catechetical textbooks currently in wide use throughout the United States.

- Discussed issues of war and peace at a pre-meeting seminar.

- Heard reports on recent advances and obstacles to Christian unity.