Not so much about Jesus or souls
St. Louis Public Radio has a report on the recent U.S. Bishops’ Meeting entitled, “Earthly and heavenly concerns dominate meeting of U.S. Catholic bishops in St. Louis.”
My only question is, What’s so heavenly about it?
The formal 2015 spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops begins its hard work in committees, much like Congress does. On Monday at the Hyatt Regency downtown, some three dozen committees and sub-committees began candid discussions after hearing the views and research of experts and theologians. No sessions are open to the public; the Wednesday day-long and Thursday morning sessions will be open to news reporters.
Why candid discussions? Why not just hedge and obfuscate? Gleaning through the report I found the following agenda topics:
- Plans for Pope Francis’ visit to his city in September for the long-planned World Meeting of Families
- The Synod on the Family
- How botanical research gardens can work with development agencies
- Partnerships that would educate people in the Third World about heating alternatives to the traditional, disastrous cutting and burning of their forests
- Awakening nations to the devastating toll poverty-powered immigration has on children and family life
- Plans to make the infamous “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” voter guide much more liberal and FrancisChurch-like
- Sex abuse reporting
- New translation of the Liturgy of the Hours
- Chinese lanterns
Only two of these bulleted items touch upon prayer, faith or sacraments. These are the two that are in the most peril. Wait ’till we see what happens to that voter guide!
