Before Thursday’s executive session to close the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) fall plenary a group of prelates gathered in the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel lobby, pinned on a blue ribbon, and walked in solidarity with child sexual abuse survivors.
Catholic immigration advocates sent a positive message to U.S. prelates at end of the Nov. 17 public session of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ fall general assembly, saying 3 million to 11 million people in the U.S. could soon benefit from some type of immigration reform.
The in-person gathering for the bishops’ fall general assembly in Baltimore has allowed to the prelates to reflect on the Eucharist and what it means to them and consider the many thoughts offered about a statement on the Eucharist that has been under development for five months, the archbishop told reporters at the close of the first of two days of public sessions.
As the nation’s bishops convene this week for their first in-person general assembly in two years, the in-person conversations on a controversial document on the Eucharist have taken a different tone, according to one committee chairman.
When the U.S. bishops highlighted Communion in their spring meeting, announcing their plans for both a document on the Eucharist and a three-year eucharistic revival, they emphasized that they were responding to a lack of understanding among many Catholics about something that is central to the faith.
Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said that Church institutions and businesses with Christian owners are increasingly being challenged and harassed.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas submitted a lengthy document Oct. 29 that he hopes will lead to the eventual end of a policy designed to keep asylum-seekers to the U.S. on the Mexico side of the southern border until their cases are heard.
The U.S. bishops’ conference point person for the preparatory period of the Synod on Synodality has welcomed the Vatican’s extension of the diocesan phase after what in many places was considered a rushed start to the opening on Oct. 17.
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued their statement in response to the Senate committee’s action.
The Oct. 10 vandalization of Denver’s cathedral basilica that resulted in satanic and other “hateful graffiti” being scrawled on its doors and at least one statue brought to 100 the number of incidents of arson, vandalism and other destruction that have taken place at Catholic sites across the United States since May 2020.
