Bishops approve proposals on marriage, Christian unity, abuse data

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

Moving quickly through a crowded agenda, the U.S. bishops agreed Nov. 17 to begin a National Pastoral Initiative on Marriage, to join a new national ecumenical forum and to gather annual information about new sex abuse accusations against Catholic clergy and other church workers.

On a busy third and final day of their Nov. 15-17 fall general meeting in Washington, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also approved three Spanish-language liturgical changes, adopted a national catechism for U.S. adult Catholics and accepted a proposal to streamline the 2005 diocesan audits on sex abuse matters.

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But a three-page report from the bishops' Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians -- originally scheduled for public discussion by the conference -- was presented in written form without comment or discussion, at the suggestion of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, who heads the task force.

The report said the bishops would develop a "Reader on Catholics in Public Life" and that their doctrine and pastoral practices committees have agreed to take up the matter of church teaching on when it is proper for Catholic politicians, and all Catholics, to receive Communion.

The marriage initiative, approved on a 195-20 vote, will begin with a survey of bishops about the issues they want addressed, followed by a symposium of theologians and social scientists, focus groups of lay people and sessions with pastoral leaders and bishops' conference committees, and lead to a pastoral letter on marriage in 2007.

More stories from the bishops' conference Bishops approve proposals on marriage, Christian unity, abuse data Internal matters behind them, bishops still face substantial agenda Head of bishops' child protection office plans to resign in February Bishops approve $129.4 million budget for 2005 Bishop Skylstad elected president of U.S. bishops' conference Foster communion and mission, nuncio tells U.S. bishops Bishop Gregory reflects on three turbulent years and changes to come

"We can help to create a positive climate that places healthy marriages at the heart of strong families, a strong nation and a strong and holy church," said Bishop J. Kevin Boland of Savannah, Ga., chairman of the Committee on Marriage and Family Life. "This is a pastoral moment we should seize upon."

The proposal to join Christian Churches Together in the USA, which passed 151-73, marks the first time that the U.S. Catholic Church is a partner church in such a national ecumenical body, although Catholic churches in about 70 other countries belong to national councils of churches or similar bodies.

Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, called the new organization "a forum for participation" through which Christian churches can "pray together, grow in understanding together and witness together."

The bishops also took up two proposals related to their "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People." The gathering of annual data from dioceses was approved by a 137-85 vote, while a related proposal allowing for fewer on-site inspections and more self-reporting in diocesan audits passed by a vote of 189-35.

The Spanish-language liturgical texts approved Nov. 17 were designed to formally incorporate important Latin American rituals into U.S. church services.

These include a blessing ceremony for the "quinceanera," a popular celebration among Hispanics that takes place when a girl is 15 to mark her passage from childhood to adolescence. The blessing can take place within a Mass or as a separate ceremony.

Other Spanish-language liturgical texts approved Nov. 17 were for an infant baptismal rite and for additions to the marriage liturgy that incorporate traditions popular mostly in Mexico, Central America and Puerto Rico.

The Nov. 17 votes on the "quinceanera" and the additions to the marriage liturgy were unanimous, while the baptismal rite passed by a 208-1 vote.

The 456-page "U.S. Catholic Catechism for Adults," approved on a 218-10 vote, was written in response to a Vatican request that bishops or bishops' conferences develop such catechisms to complement the universal "Catechism of the Catholic Church" issued in 1992 by Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican's 1997 General Directory for Catechesis said that "local catechisms, prepared or approved by diocesan bishops or by episcopal conferences, are invaluable instruments for catechesis" because they bring the Gospel into the local culture.

The adult catechism must receive "recognitio," or confirmation, from the Holy See before it becomes official.

It follows the four-part general structure of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," starting with the creed and then treating the sacraments, moral life and finally prayer.

The proposed U.S. text is adapted in many ways, however, to address specific issues, concerns and questions arising from the social and cultural context in which U.S. Catholics are working to understand and practice their faith.

Much of the first day and a half of the meeting was devoted to the election of new USCCB leadership and approval of plans and priorities guiding the conference's budgetary decisions.

The bishops overwhelmingly approved a series of recommendations aimed at limiting the conference's projects to those mandated by the Vatican or the bishops themselves.

The conference "has taken on too many projects. We try to do too much," said Bishop Donald W. Wuerl of Pittsburgh, chairman of the bishops' Task Force on Activities and Resources, which drafted the recommendations.

On Nov. 15, the bishops approved a $129.4 million budget for 2005 -- 1.8 percent higher than the previous year's budget -- and agreed to create an ad hoc committee to aid the church in Africa, which would collect and distribute contributions for the church in Africa, using staff and resources from a handful of offices to manage the effort.

Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., was elected to a three-year term as the new USCCB president, and Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago was elected vice president.

Bishop Skylstad, who had served as USCCB vice president under Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., was to take up his new post at the close of the meeting.

Bishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Duluth, Minn., a former USCCB general secretary, was chosen as treasurer-elect, a post he will take up at the close of the November 2005 meeting.

Also elected were two new committee chairmen and 12 chairmen-elect.

Opening the meeting with the traditional president's address, Bishop Gregory called the clergy sex abuse crisis "the greatest scandal that the church in the United States perhaps has ever confronted," but he cited several "very healthy forces" that have resulted from the bishops' handling of the scandal.

Those forces include an evaluation of how the bishops' meetings themselves work, and a study of how their conference operates and how its expenses might be held down, he said.

"As I look at these three forces at work, I am drawn to conclude that the conference as we know it today is likely to be a much different conference five or 10 years from now," Bishop Gregory added.

Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis, head of an ad hoc committee formed in 2002 to guide the bishops through a proposal by a group of bishops to convene a national plenary council, reported that there was little support among the bishops for the idea of such a plenary council or another suggested alternative, a U.S. regional synod of bishops.

But in a series of votes Nov. 15, the bishops made clear that they need to spend more time in dialogue and debate among themselves about what they need to do to respond to major issues facing the church across the nation.

The big issues they are concerned about are two generations of disarray in evangelization and catechesis in the U.S. church, declining Catholic participation in the Eucharist and other sacraments during that period, and the dramatic decline in vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the past three decades.

The bishops closed the first day of their fall meeting with a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception marking the 25th anniversary of their pastoral letter on racism, "Brothers and Sisters to Us."

Bishop Gregory, principal celebrant and homilist at the evening Mass, focused his homily on the Gospel reading from Luke about Jesus' healing of the blind man near Jericho.

"What is racism if not fundamentally a blindness?" he asked. "It is a blinding shadow so dark and damaging that it keeps us from seeing Jesus in others."

National Catholic Reporter, November 17, 2004