The coronavirus pandemic, combined with inflation and a reorganization of the U.S. bishops’ communication arm, have altered the budget picture for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the 2020s.

The U.S. bishops gave their consent for the advancement of the sainthood causes of three U.S. Catholics at the local diocesan level.

The U.S. bishops’ three-year eucharistic revival, which will culminate in a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in 2024, is in full swing, according to Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn.

U.S. Bishops

From his diocese near the border with Mexico, Bishop Mark J. Seitz has aimed to highlight the work he sees as a path toward the Gospel: serving the poor, the stranger, who cross over into the U.S. regardless of how they entered.

A Ukrainian Catholic archbishop asked his fellow U.S. bishops Nov. 16 to pray for Ukraine, and, if possible, to go to Ukraine and pray there for its people, inviting them on a trip he is embarking on in February.

The U.S. bishops took on the task during their fall general meeting in Baltimore of considering proposed Mass texts for the feasts of Our Lady of Loreto and the recently canonized St. Paul VI.

The incoming president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he is willing to meet with public officials, including President Joe Biden, to discuss public policy issues of concern to the church.

The day after a Russian-made missile landed in Poland, close to Ukraine’s border, killing two people, and after Russia fired close to 100 missiles on Ukrainian targets, causing at least one death and leaving many people without electricity, Pope Francis made another appeal for peace Nov. 16.

Continuing his series of audience talks on spiritual discernment, the pope reflected on desolation and why the feeling occurs.