REGIONAL OBSERVER’S REPORT
REGION XII
PLENARY MEETING OF THE USCCB
ORLANDO, FLORIDA
JUNE 12-14, 2008
The Experience
I found it an interesting experience to observe the working of the Conference. In my years in Diocesan Administration, I have often read the minutes and followed the processes of the Conference, but the on site experience was very informative and somewhat formational. It reminds one both of the human work of the Church and the presence of the Spirit. I am grateful to the presbyteral council of the Diocese of Spokane for sending me on this adventure in fulfillment of our regional “turn” at nominating the observer for Region XII. I am grateful to the Bishops of the Region for their kind welcome to the meeting. I recommend the continuing rotation of the experience. It is, in my opinion, worthwhile for the priests and presbyterates of the Northwest.
The Pro-forma Actions of the Conference
The Bishops agreed to maintain the current yearly assessment 141-0. This is one of the impacts of the reorganization of the Conference .
The Conference agreed to a review of #58 in the Ethical Directives regarding Nutrition and Hydration by voice vote. This work will update the Directives in view of papal and Congregation of the Doctrine of the faith pronouncements. The committee intends to seek much ethical and institutional responses from the Catholic hospital network.
The “Vosotros”- “Ustedes” vocabulary adjustments were approved by a vote of 187-3. An effort to broaden the discussion to other inter-translation issues was not accepted by a huge majority.
The body approved a 100th anniversary celebration Sunday for Catholic Charities on September 25, 2010.
The Bishops with no discussion approved a statement on Stem-Cell research. The final vote was 191-1.
Approval of the ICEL Roman Missal text (Second part)
This was a watershed moment in this process. But the result was inconclusive. The texts takes a 2/3 approval 166 votes to accept, or 83 votes to reject. The vote had neither. If the mail vote approves this section, the process and product are a given and the new Roman Missal will move forward without much more discussion. The will of those who find the results problematic will just not have the necessary votes to do anything.
But the discussion after the vote was indicative of the dilemma. There is some general frustration with ICEL. The text as one Bishop called it is anglicanized. There is a small movement toward using the ICEL text as a template for an “American version” of the Roman Missal. I would guess that will be problematic for Rome. But some of the Bishops are frustrated. Others want to move ahead and get it over with. The discussion is about an imperfect text for an imperfect church etc etc. That is a very sad. One Bishop said that the text is “more better” than what we have. I wonder about the judge and the judgement.
The discussion was on two themes. The first theme is the question of vocabulary and literalism. It is about the issues of translation and taste. The second theme is about proclaim-ability, length of sentences and language format. The real issue is that the directions of Liturgicam Authenticam, the guiding document, were imposed by Roman authority without input from the Bishops. Some are still smarting from that and don’t buy the directives. One bishop said they were voting to go into a “linguistic swamp”
The final discussion was about the “if” of rejection. If the text was rejected, what do you do? The final vote will tell. The discussion at lunch after the vote gave me the feeling that rejection was really a possibility. The Conference did not announce the tally at the moment, and will not until the vote is completed. It will be a watershed moment if it is rejected and the process starts toward an American translation. I personally would hope that could happen.
One Bishop said he presented the first part (last June) to his presbyteral council and the response of that council was for disapproval 2-24. I would guess that such an unfavorable response would be common in some places among some priests. The Spokane presbytate would know that I am a critic of the guiding document and the text so you can take my report with this bias in view. The process and personnel decisions early in the history of the present text have brought it to this point because of the ideological points of view of the decision makers. This present outcome could have been predicted. The voices to steer the ship in a different direction have a very difficult task in front of them. Besides, Vox Clara, the Roman oversight group, may in fact make all the decisions in the end. This is really contrary Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, but the Council was 40 years ago. This was the most interesting part of the action of this meeting for me.
Informational Presentations
The two other interesting issues to me were the presentations by the John Jay Study group on the Causes and Context of the sexual abuse crisis and a summary of both the PEW and CARA studies relative to sociological trends relative to Religion and Sacramental practice.
The John Jay study on Causes and Contexts was mostly methodological . The study has not been completed yet. The presentation noted the effort to focus on four things: Historical and Demographic Differences, Priestly Formation over the forty year period, Leadership Responses and Clinical Treatment. Efforts to study the victim population and prevention were not addressed methodologically, but are included in the study. In an effort to look at the social context of the time, the study has “found some correlations between the frequency of child sex abuse by priests and the increase or decline in societal patterns of divorce, premarital sex and illegal drug use.”
The study interlinks the four areas of concern in a time-series analysis in an attempt to find more understanding about the sources of the deviant behavior. The hope is to find some of the “risk-markers” that can be used in screening candidates for ministry.
The Bishops’ inquires were interesting. One voice was still trying to define the issues in terms of spirituality and another voice was interested in focusing blame on the “professionals”. There was a dialogue with some of the Regional Observers, but it was odd number regions, and as a result I did not participate. Here is the report from the CNS:
The priests at the meeting represented half of the regions into which the USCCB is divided. Representatives of the rest of the regions were to meet with the committee in November.
"The priests were very open and candid," Bishop Aymond said. "There was a genuine appreciation that we want to hear from them."
Although "a gulf between priests and their bishop" was reported in some places, "that was not the dominant reality," he said. "Many said they felt sadness for their brother priests" who were accused of sexual misconduct, he added.
"It was not about finances or rights under church law, but how to reach out to them," while still also protecting children from harm, he said.
The Presentation on the PEW and CARA sociological studies were very interesting. They have been widely publicized and are available on the web.
The PEW study notes that change is the name of the game religiously in America, for all denominations. But the other side of the coin is immigration. Immigration is reinforcing the Christian identity of America, unlike Europe, but the mix tilts that reinforcement toward Catholicism. America is not being de-Christianized by immigration, but religion is being de-Europeanized.
That revelation is not new. The Catholic Church is 30% Latino. The Church will be more White in the East and North and Latino in the South and West. The two Church syndrome is the challenge for the leadership. We are on the leading edge of an American society in change, but the two Catholic communities when divided are significantly different in terms of education and economics. What a surprise! But this is about America and the Church is on the cutting edge of what is happening to America.
The CARA study is about Sacramental practice. It is available on the web. What needs help? Confirmation and Reconciliation preparation, Mass attendance, parents with young children and Catholic schools. The correlations about sacramental practice revolve around these factors.
Why do people not attend Mass? Regular church going people are pulled away from Mass by “children activities”. Infrequent Mass attenders still identify themselves as Catholic and are foundationally committed to the Church. Less than 30 percent of Catholic attend Mass weekly. Sounds like my parish!
And the CARA study asked questions about Catholic Schools and the only really significant issues are the Financial cost and the lack of Tuition assistance. It is all about money! Maybe it says the leadership should use much more energy in terms of seeking governmental support of education.
Bishop Kicanas reported on the Conference restructure and planning process. The Bishops have set five priorities: Faith Formation and Sacramental Practice, Strengthening Marriage, the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, Cultural Diversity in the Church, and Priestly and Religious Vocations. The committee restructuring is completed, and now they must implement the whole new way of functioning. There are five task forces for the five priorities to develop a focused action agenda for approval in 2009 and implementation through 2011 at which time the processes would be repeated. The standing committees name members to the task forces to work on these priorities. Hopefully the dream is a focus on creating a few clear creative pastoral initiatives, rather than a boat load of programs. One of my impressions is that there are so many variant agendas that must be taken into account, it will be difficult. So now there are both standing committees and task forces. It is a process persons heaven..... or hell!
Executive Session
The observers, staff and media are excluded from the executive session. In these sessions the Bishops conduct their retreat and reflection time. And my mouse in the room said that the major parts of the executive business section was about legal issues of the Church and legal issues in the moral life of the Catholic community. Enough said!
The Prayer of the Bishops
I attended the Thursday Morning Mass and the special celebration at the local monument Basilica, Our Lady of the Universe, which was just across the freeway from the hotel location. Cardinal George’s words to the body of Bishop at the opening Mass we short, direct and on point. The Basilica celebration takes place this afternoon.
The Bishops pray Morning Prayer at the beginning of each day and Mid Afternoon prayer as the beginning of each afternoon session. Magnificat publishes the prayer texts for them, quite nice!
Friday afternoon was set aside as a prayer time by the Bishops.
Through Bishop Skylstad, I have shared this report with the local ordinaries and with a request to make it available to the eleven presbyterates of Region XII.
The role of the next observer will be especially significant with their participation in the dialogue with the Committee on the Protection of Children.
Monsignor John M. Steiner
Diocese of Spokane
