Pope Francis meets with the leadership of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the library of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican April 17. The USCCB is set to meet in its spring plenary June 14-16 in Orlando. From the left are: Fr. Michael Fuller, USCCB general secretary; Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, vice president; Archbishop Timothy Broglio of head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, president; and Fr. Paul Hartmann, associate general secretary. (CNS/Vatican Media)
BY BRIAN FRAGA
June 8 2023
When the U.S. Catholic bishops gather for their spring plenary assembly in Orlando, Florida, June 14-16, the prelates will hear updates on their three-year initiative to revive Americans’ interest in attending Mass each week. They will also discuss possible updates to the ethical guidelines for Catholic health care institutions.
What the bishops apparently will not hear are any briefings about recent developments or upcoming milestones related to Pope Francis’ ongoing process for the 2021-2024 Synod, the three-year global effort at listening and dialogue that the pontiff has said is what “God expects of the church of the third millennium.”
The synod’s absence from a preliminary agenda the bishops’ conference released for the June 14-16 meeting is the latest stark example of how the U.S. episcopate has sometimes resisted or dismissed Francis’ priorities for the universal church.
“It’s astonishing that is absent from the agenda, but it reflects a more general problem in the Catholic Church as a whole in the U.S., where interest for the synod has been weak or, in some cases, it’s been resisted,” said Massimo Faggioli, a church historian and theologian at Villanova University.
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