U.S. bishops strive to ally with Vatican

Participants pray at the start of the morning general session at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 11, 2014. The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are holding their mid-year meeting as they wrestle with the new agenda set by Pope Francis to make compassion a priority over hot-button issues such as abortion.
Participants pray at the start of the morning general session at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 11, 2014. The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops are holding their mid-year meeting as they wrestle with the new agenda set by Pope Francis to make compassion a priority over hot-button issues such as abortion.

NEW ORLEANS -- They are rethinking what kinds of houses they live in, and what kinds of cars they drive. They are wondering whether, in anticipation of the 2016 presidential election, they need to rewrite their advice to parishioners to make sure that poverty, and not just abortion, is discussed as a high-priority issue. And they are trying to get better about returning phone calls, reaching out to the disenchanted and the disenfranchised, and showing up at events.

Fifteen months into the pontificate of Pope Francis, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States find themselves unsettled in ways large and small, revisiting how they live and what they talk about in light of the new pope's emphasis on personal humility and economic justice.

Last week as the bishops gathered here for their semiannual meeting, they grappled with the substantive and stylistic implications of a still-new papacy.

After several colleagues faced recent criticism for lavish houses, several bishops said in interviews that they were paying new attention to their own spending, mindful of the pope's decision to eschew the apostolic palace for a small suite in a Vatican guesthouse, and aware that their parishioners are concerned about how the church uses its money.

"They have a justifiable demand that we not spend extravagantly on ourselves, but that we share those goods with others, and he's really forced that issue," said Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Wash. Cupich noted that he owns no furniture and lives in a room at a seminary, and he said he is re-evaluating his diocesan budget to make sure it emphasizes assisting the poor.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., said he, too, thinks about Francis as he shapes his agenda, which, he said, now focuses on poverty, homelessness, addiction, violence and immigration. And, he said, he is mindful of his own spending.

"We have to have a home, have to have a car that's not going to fall apart in the middle of the desert, but within reason we have to live simply," he said. "The Holy Father is such a model of trying to live with simplicity, and that is working its way into the lives of bishops."

The shift in tone at the Vatican has been disquieting for some bishops. The archbishop of Indianapolis, Joseph W. Tobin, recently told a group of theologians, "What I've seen is how disruptive Pope Francis has been within the hierarchy of the United States," according to The National Catholic Reporter. "I was talking to a couple of brother bishops a while back and they were saying that bishops and priests were very discouraged by Pope Francis because he was challenging them."

But the bishops are clearly watching with interest. "Priests and bishops are paying close attention to what he's saying, and reading it," John Garvey, the president of the Catholic University of America, said.

Garvey said he was struck by how often church officials mentioned to him something the pope had only just said. "I don't remember hearing that in the past about Benedict and John Paul."

The business of the bishops' meeting -- presentations about clergy sexual abuse and assistance to survivors of flooding in the Philippines, as well as about the church's battles against same-sex marriage and in favor of religious freedom -- was planned months ago.

But the bishops also spent several hours discussing poverty and the relationship between marriage and economic well-being, topics chosen to reflect the pope's priorities. Helen M. Alvare, a law professor at George Mason University, told the bishops that the Francis papacy was "an inflection point in the life of the church."

The bishops' willingness to adapt their agenda to reflect that of Francis will most likely be tested next year, when they must decide how to update their quadrennial guide for Catholic voters. The U.S. bishops, almost all of them appointed by John Paul II or Benedict, are a conservative group who have heavily emphasized opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion in recent years and have recently been unable to reach a consensus on economic issues.

Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Ky., the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told the gathering that, if the voters' guide is not revised, "it will not include anything of the teachings of Pope Francis." And Bishop Robert W. McElroy, an auxiliary bishop in San Francisco, suggested that the document's discussion of evil, now focused on abortion and racism, should be revisited in light of the pope's description of economic inequality as a social evil.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Houston, who has been leading the bishops' effort to consider reworking "Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship," said the document would not shy away from the abortion issue, which he called "very important, crucial, significant, one of the chief issues" and "non-negotiable." But, he said, to reflect Francis' agenda, the bishops would also "want to make sure we speak very insistently about the role of poverty, about the role of the economy."

Religion on 06/21/2014

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