Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, encouraged prelates meeting via Zoom for the U.S. bishops’ virtual spring assembly to find ways to welcome what may be a growing number of immigrants to their dioceses and to serve them the way they would serve Christ.
Proclaiming “the future is anti-abortion,” members of a national pro-life group rallied here Wednesday to thank champions in the fight against abortion and urge Catholic Church leaders to stand up for the rights of the unborn.
The U.S. bishops approved by a wide margin a plan to draft a document to examine the “meaning of the Eucharist in the life of the church” following a lengthy debate during their spring general assembly.
In a spirited two-hour debate Thursday, both critics and champions of a U.S. bishops’ doctrinal committee proposal to draft a document on the Eucharist cited timing and potential disunity as reasons why they were for, or against, the project.
A motion to give individual bishops unlimited time to speak on a U.S. Bishops Conference doctrinal committee proposal to draft a document on the Eucharist was ultimately denied on Day One of their spring meeting, but not before a spirited, near hour-long, debate on the timing of the proposal.
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ migration committee marked the ninth anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program June 15 by urging Congress to act on creating a pathway to citizenship for its beneficiaries.
Two members of the U.S. bishops’ conference migration committee called on Congress to “stop kicking the can down the road” on immigration reform after a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that immigrants who receive Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after entering the country illegally are ineligible to apply for “green cards” to stay in the country permanently.
Earlier this year, the bishops voted to approve convening this June meeting in a virtual format given the challenges of meeting in person with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
At an emergency immigration meeting this week, a prominent moment for Bishop Mario Dorsonville was a conversation with an El Salvadorian bishop who described the growing emptiness of some of his diocesan towns.
Religious Freedom Week will be observed this year from June 22 to June 29 and the theme chosen is Solidarity in Freedom.
