2024-11-29-eEdition

NOVEMBER 29, 2024 THE CATHOLIC WEEK PAGE 15 By PETER JESSERER SMITH OSV News BALTIMORE —The U.S. bishops' annual fall assembly in Baltimore saw the shepherds of the Catholic Church in this country make intentional steps toward integrating their work with the synodal missionary style called for by the global church's recently concluded Synod on Synodality. At the outset of the Nov. 11-14 plenary assembly, Arch- bishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catho- lic Bishops, delivered a homily in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary — "the mother church of the synodal activity of the hierar- chy in this country" -- where he called upon the bishops to beg for wisdom "because we recognize that we are servants of the truth and charged to find ways to help those entrusted to our care." At the opening public session, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal ambassador to the U.S., told the bishops that Pope Francis' recent encyclical "Dilexit Nos," on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a call to "return to the heart" of Jesus — and key to understanding the church's call to synodal evange- lization, Eucharistic revival and the upcoming Jubilee 2025. "The deeper we go into his heart, the more strengthened we will be to proclaim the Good News together," he said Nov. 12. Over the course of the as- sembly's Nov. 12 and 13 public sessions, the bishops voted to approve a new "mission direc- tive" for 2025-2028, which commits USCCB committees and staff to prioritize in their work "evangelizing those who are religiously unaffiliated or disaffiliated from the Church, with special focus on young adults and the youth." Regarding the global synod that concluded in October, a majority of the U.S. bishops in a voice vote Nov. 12 called for the USCCB's Committee on Priorities and Plans to discern developing a task force to help the conference and dioceses implement the final synod document approved by Pope Francis. Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville,Texas, who has led the USCCB's involvement in the synod process, briefed the bishops on the synod's October meeting. He said that more theo- logical work needs to be done alongside efforts to develop a synodal missionary culture among Catholics. "If it doesn't reach the parishes, it hardly reaches the people of God," he noted. The bishops also decided to go ahead with drafting a new document on lay eccle- sial ministry in the U.S., that would take into account what Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chair of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, called "the experi- ence of co-responsibility in the church, the evolving nature of parish and diocesan workplaces, and above all the call to greater synodality." They also approved a final draft of "The Order of Crown- ing an Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary," Spanish texts for the Liturgy of the Hours, and the revised New American Bible for use in liturgy. The conference also saw exemplars of American holiness promoted.The bishops affirmed two new causes brought to them for consultation: Bene- dictine Sister Annella Zervas of Moorhead, Minnesota, and Gertrude Agnes Barber, a lay- woman from Erie, Pa. Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell of Washington, president of the National Black Catholic Congress, who presented on the NBCC's 2023 congress and resulting pastoral action plan, called on the bishops to promote the canonization causes of Black Catholics known collectively as the "Holy Six" -- Venerable Mother Mary Lange; Venerable Father Augustus Tolton; Vener- able Mother Henriette DeLille; Venerable Pierre Toussaint; Servant of God Julia Greeley; and Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman. Bishop Stepan Sus, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church's Pastoral and Migra- tion Department, received a standing ovation from the bishops after sharing with them Ukraine's plight under Russian occupation and thanking the U.S. church for its continued solidarity. "As a church we can- not change all realities of the world," he said. "But we can be next to those people who suffer and wipe their tears." Bishop Andrew H. Coz- zens of Crookston, Min- nesota, and board chair of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., discussed the NEC's next steps after the overwhelmingly positive feed- back from the 2024 national Eucharistic pilgrimages and congress, saying the organiza- tion would support dioceses in their own events, "especially helping to form and send Eucharistic missionaries." USCCB With synod in mind, U.S. bishops focus on advancing core mission