BALTIMORE — Excitement about the impacts of the National Eucharistic Revival in local dioceses, support for the nomination of St. John Henry Newman as a doctor of the Church and the approval of supplements to the bishops' teaching document on "Faithful Citizenship" featured strongly on the second day of the U.S. bishops' annual fall plenary assembly Nov. 14 in Baltimore.
The bishops typically engaged in little to no discussion on agenda items they were set to vote on, which all passed with overwhelming majorities. However, the bishops more vigorously engaged in discussion toward the end of the day with updates on the National Eucharistic Revival and the bishops' National Catholic Mental Health Campaign.
Liturgy of the hours
The U.S. bishops began the day with the Latin Church bishops approving U.S. adaptations to the Liturgy of the Hours, the public prayer of the Church proper to all the baptized, along with drafts for the blessing of an abbot or abbess; the consecration of virgins and the order of religious profession. Those texts now go to the Vatican's Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for confirmation and recognition.
Mother Teresa
The bishops also approved a request to ask Rome to include "St. Teresa of Calcutta" as an optional memorial on the Roman Calendar for Sept. 5, and also heard that a request to include Salvadoran martyr St. Oscar Romero would have to be sent to the Vatican "accompanied by a robust letter of support from the president of the conference."
Faithful citizenship
The bishops voted to approve supplements to the bishops' teaching document "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," which consists of a new introductory note, bulletin inserts, a template video script and social media kit. A majority of 225 bishops voted yes, 11 voted no and seven abstained.
Quoting Pope Francis' 2020 encyclical letter, "Fratelli Tutti" ("Brothers All"), the new supplements encourage Catholics to follow the example of the Good Samaritan and serve as neighbors to all, while underscoring the threat of abortion as "our pre-eminent 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."
St. John Henry Newman
The U.S. bishops also voted nearly unanimously to support the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales in their request for Pope Francis to name St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the Church. Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, said the doctrine committee he chairs had studied St. John Henry Newman's writings and recommended the saint as "worthy of this high honor."
Bishop Strickland
Outside the hotel where the bishops' assembly was held, the Baltimore-based Defend Life organization held a rosary rally led by Bishop Joseph E. Strickland. The event, however, was planned in advance of the bishop learning Nov. 11, just days before the assembly, that Pope Francis had removed him from pastoral governance of his Diocese of Tyler, Texas.
About 125 participants, including some clergy and religious, participated.
Bishop Strickland told reporters, including OSV News, that he was told by "the nuncio" — indicating Cardinal Christophe Pierre — not to attend the fall plenary meeting. He said he "respected" the decision," as well as his "commitment to be here for this prayer."
In an interview with OSV News, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio said Bishop Strickland is considered "retired," meaning he can participate in the conference but cannot vote. He said any instruction for the bishop not to participate in the assembly "didn't come from us."
Eucharistic Revival
During a presentation on the National Eucharistic Revival, many bishops spoke about exciting developments taking place in their diocese.
Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minn., gave an upbeat presentation, noting the bishops are "halfway through this National Eucharistic Revival." He shared that attendees of the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21 in Indianapolis now have the option of purchasing single-day and weekend passes, among other provisions to make participation more affordable and flexible, including scholarship from the bishops' Solidarity Fund. He also mentioned the Apostolic Penitentiary is going to grant a plenary indulgence to anyone who participates in one of the four legs of the pilgrimage to the National Eucharistic Congress.
His figures also indicated the Church was also halfway there. Among the Catholic Church's 17,000 parishes in the U.S., the National Eucharistic Revival has "8,000 parish point persons" and over 10,000 downloads of its parish playbook, while the latest statistics on in-person weekly Mass attendance was hovering at 17 percent, below pre-pandemic levels.
Mental health
The bishops also heard about the USCCB's mental health campaign from Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chairman of the USCCB's Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop Barron, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.
The campaign — announced Oct. 10 to coincide with World Mental Health Day — is a response to the "dire mental health crisis" the nation now faces, said Archbishop Gudziak in his Nov. 15 address to the bishops' assembly, during which he cited data from the Centers for Disease Control indicating that more than one in five adults in the U.S. live with a mental illness.
