c. 1996 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON _ Reaching out to young Catholics _ and perhaps even interesting them in the religious life _ tops the agenda of the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops when they gather in Washington next week for their annual fall meeting.
The Nov. 11-14 meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and its social policy arm, the U.S. Catholic Conference, is also expected to address moral issues in the contemporary economy and the thorny question of balancing academic freedom _ especially that of dissident theologians _ and Catholic identity.
The four-day meeting, expected to attract 285 of the approximately 300 bishops, comes at a moment of transition _ and poignancy _ in the life of the hierarchy.
High on the agenda of the prelates is a vote on proposed changes in the structure and mission of the bishops’ conference, a plan shepherded through the conference by Chicago’s Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin.
But Bernardin, the most influential prelate in the 30-year history of the NCCB, won’t attend the meeting, according to conference officials. Bernardin, 68, is suffering from cancer. He has stopped receiving chemotherapy treatments and his life expectancy is now thought to be six or seven months. Bernardin, who has served as both general secretary and president of the NCCB, recently handed over the day-to-day operations of the Chicago archdiocese to one of his auxiliary bishops.
In the proposed pastoral plan on young adults,”Sons and Daughters of the Light: A Pastoral Plan for Ministry with Young Adults,”the bishops say the church must use every available means _ from the Internet and health clubs to mentoring and peer groups _ to reach men and women in their late teens, twenties and thirties.
The so-called Generation X group make up 30 percent of the U.S. population.”All ages are welcome in our church and all ages need the church,”said Bishop Tod Brown of Boise, Idaho.”This plan urges church leaders to do more for young adults, and young adults to do more for their church. It spans a broad spectrum and makes clear that young adults of every state in life are included.” The proposed plan urges the church, through parishes, pastors and active members to reach out to young people via”personal invitations, telephone calls, bulletin notices, letter, the Internet and e-mail”and to provide written material for the young”in several languages.” It calls on the young to evangelize their peers and says the church should identify places”where young adults gather, such as the workplace, shopping areas, health clubs, campuses, athletic fields, and civic associations, and making time to be present at these places of gathering.” Marriage preparation, it says, may be a key moment for connecting young people to the church.”Young adults approach the church to be married for a number of reasons, including parental pressure, the desire to have a church wedding, or to reunite themselves with the church,”the proposed plan said.”Regardless of why they come, the church and its ministers need to welcome them as Christ welcomes them, with understanding, love and acceptance, challenging them with the Gospel message, and giving them hope that a lifelong commitment is possible.” On the issue of academic freedom and the religious identity of Catholic colleges and universities, the bishops will vote on the final draft of a document,”Ex Corde Ecclesiae: An Application to the United States.” The document takes its names from a statement issued by Pope John Paul II in 1990 in which he said that”every Catholic university, without ceasing to be a university, has a relationship to the church that is essential to its institutional identity.” U.S. bishops have been struggling with rules that would apply the pope’s strictures to the approximately 235 American Catholic schools without abandoning academic freedom. Earlier efforts were met with dismay and resistance by leaders of Catholic schools and some theologians.
In particular, the statement reaffirms that due process procedures adopted in 1989 by the bishops should be used by a local bishop”in circumstances where he questions whether or not an individual theologian is presenting authentic Catholic teaching.” It says Catholic schools should offer courses in Catholic theology”taught in accord with the best scholarship and the authentic teaching authority of the church.” On the public policy front, the bishops will vote on adopting a 10-point guide for making moral judgments about economic policy issues. The brief statement is a follow-up in the bishops’ 1986 statement, Economic Justice for All,”which was developed by a committee led by Chicago’s Bernardin.”As followers of Jesus Christ and participants in a powerful economy, American Catholics are called to work for greater economic justice in the face of persistent poverty, growing income gaps and increasing discussion of economic issues,”the statement says.
In the 10-point guide, the bishops say, among other things, that”all economic life should be shaped by moral principles”and that a”fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.””All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages, to decent working conditions, as well as to organize and join unions or other associations,”the statement says.
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