Archbishop Lori says new meeting format fostered bishops’ dialogue

During the U.S. bishops’ 2023 fall general assembly in Baltimore Nov. 13-16, they heard reports on the recent World Synod on Synodality in Rome and the National Eucharistic Revival and 2024 National Eucharistic Congress.

They extended the mandate of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee Against Racism, a move praised by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, who has served as a consultant to the committee, which he expects will be made a permanent part of the USCCB structure within the next two years.

One of the key changes for this year was that instead of sitting at long rows of tables in the large meeting room of the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, the bishops were grouped at round tables to foster small-group discussion.

“Sometimes to stand up in front of 300 of your closest bishop friends, you have to really, sometimes, take a deep breath. In a smaller setting, you’re more likely to speak your mind,” the archbishop said of the new format. “You’re more likely to open up and share. You’re more likely certainly to share the deeper level.”

He said regional meetings and fraternal dialogues have fed into the bishops’ decision making. 

The meeting opened with a day of prayer and Mass, as well as small-group discussions in executive session on Monday. The public portion of the agenda ran Tuesday and Wednesday before going back to executive session for the final day. 

Perhaps because of the off-the-record small group sessions, there was little discussion from the floor on many issues that were brought up, including an updated introductory letter, bulletin announcements and video script template to accompany “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which lays out guiding principles for decisions about public life. 

Archbishop Lori, who, by tradition as current vice president of the USCCB chaired the task force on the topic, said the quadrennial document aims to help those who are part of the Catholic family “shift our gaze away from the angry political rhetoric, often ideologically driven, to the social teaching of the church and to begin to see the urgent needs – the tragedies in our world, the vulnerabilities in our world – to see these through that lens rather than through angry, partisan talking points. So, we’re inviting people to take a step back and to be prayerful and discerning. And secondly, we’re providing them a resource to help guide their prayer and discernment,” the archbishop said.

“We feel that it would be good for Catholics and other people of goodwill to find a way to have constructive conversations” about Catholic social teaching and how it relates to political life, something we don’t see often in our culture, he told the Catholic Review.

Faithful Citizenship resources will be made available to dioceses, parishes and others for distribution not only via parish bulletins – one of the most widely read avenues of communication for the church – but also via social media and other electronic platforms.

In a midday news conference Nov. 15, Archbishop Lori said the bishops intend for the introductory note, bulletin notices and video script to supplement, rather than replace, the full “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” which saw its last major revision in 2015. The bishops have committed to updating the main document in 2027 for the next presidential election cycle.

This year’s introductory letter again states that abortion is the preeminent priority for the bishops and the church, while acknowledging other threats to the dignity of humanity.

“The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks our most vulnerable and voiceless brothers and sisters and destroys more than a million lives per year in our country alone,” the introductory letter says. “Other grave threats to the life and dignity of the human person include euthanasia, gun violence, terrorism, the death penalty and human trafficking. There is also the redefinition of marriage and gender, threats to religious freedom at home and abroad, lack of justice for the poor, the suffering of migrants and refugees, wars and famines around the world, racism, the need for greater access to healthcare and education, care for our common home, and more. All threaten the dignity of the human person.”

Asked why climate change did not receive the emphasis some bishops thought it should have – in light of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’ – On the Care for Our Common Home” and this year’s apostolic exhortation “Laudate Deum” – the archbishop noted that the bishops seemed to agree on the direction of the Faithful Citizenship materials this year, with a vote of 225-11 (with seven abstentions) to adopt the new materials.

“The earth is our common home … and certainly in our midst, there are people who are vulnerable for many, many different reasons,” the archbishop said. “The reason we focus on the unborn, as we do, is because they are utterly voiceless and defenseless, and abortion is a direct taking of human life. 

“Ecological concerns are hugely important and must be addressed and we take utterly seriously both encyclicals from Pope Francis on the subject and strive to implement these in our dioceses.”

Recognizing that the effects of climate change are indirect rather than direct does not make them less serious, he said, but it does affect how the bishops weighted them in the final document. Additionally, if one looks at what Francis has said about abortion, “it is said in far more stark terms than we have said it, and he would identify abortion as the primary instance of the throwaway culture,” Archbishop Lori said, adding that the bishops have done their “level best to reflect fully, fairly and lovingly the magisterium of Pope Francis, to whom we are most grateful.”

Email Christopher Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org.

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