U.S. bishops to discuss health care, eucharistic revival, and more at spring meeting

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 13, 2023 / 12:10 pm

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is gathering in Orlando for its spring meeting with a full agenda, including updates on the national eucharistic revival efforts, a vote on revising the Ethical and Religious Directives for Health Care Services, and a vote on the drafting of a new pastoral statement on persons with disabilities in the life of the Church. 

The bishops’ public meetings will take place on June 15 and 16 after the bishops meet privately on June 14 for prayer and fraternal dialogue. The public portion will open with addresses from the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, and USCCB President Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, who was elected to the role at the bishops’ fall gathering. 

One item that could provoke discussion is the bishops’ vote on moving forward with a revision of a portion of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which covers the relationship between the Catholic medical professional and the patient.

Some reports indicate that the revision would update the directives to align with a March doctrinal note from the bishops, which states that “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.” 

The vote to green-light a revision would also come on the heels of a report from the Lepanto Institute, released Monday, alleging that the largest Catholic health care system in the U.S., CommonSpirit Health, is performing transgender surgeries and providing hormone-based transgender therapies. 

Another prominent agenda item is an update from Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, on the National Eucharistic Revival initiative and National Eucharistic Congress. The three-year initiative that began in June 2022 aims to “renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist.”

With eucharistic processions held across the country on the feast of Corpus Christi, the revival entered its second year aimed at fostering eucharistic devotion at the parish level. The bishops are also planning a two-month National Eucharistic Pilgrimage starting in May 2024 with four major pilgrimage routes ending at the National Eucharistic Congress on July 16, 2024, in Indianapolis. 

Another event that the bishops will receive an update on at their spring gathering is the upcoming World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, in August.  

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, chairman of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life, and Youth, will lead a vote Friday requesting approval for the drafting of a new pastoral statement from the bishops addressing persons with disabilities in the life of the Church. The new statement will likely take into account developments in technology, a rise in autism diagnoses, and changes in the way issues involving persons with disabilities are discussed since the bishops’ first pastoral statement on the issue in 1978. 

The bishops will also consider advancing the cause on the local level of the beatification and canonization of the Shreveport Martyrs, five French Roman Catholic priests who died ministering to the sick in Shreveport, Louisiana, amid the 1873 yellow fever epidemic. 

The five priests — Fathers Jean Pierre, Isidore A. Quémerais, Jean-Marie Biler, Louis Gergaud, and François Le Vézouët — were named Servants of God in December 2020. Pierre, Quémerais, and Biler stayed in Shreveport as many fled the illness that wiped out a fourth of the city’s population in three months. Gergaud and Vézouët traveled to the city to care for the sick before both priests also succumbed to the illness.

Other agenda items for the bishops’ spring meeting include consideration of a new national pastoral plan for Hispanic/Latino ministry and a presentation on the Catholic Project’s National Study of Catholic Priests from Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing, Michigan, chair of the Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations. The study found in October that burnout and trust issues with their bishops were among significant concerns for diocesan priests. 

The bishops will also receive an update on the 2021 to 2024 Synod of Bishops from Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas.