Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, November 16, 2000
Bishops meet
(Continued from page I)
In all, the bishops were to deal
with 18 main action items during the
meeting. A special message on the
Middle East, added to the agenda at
the last minute, included explicit
support for an independent Pales
tinian state, something the bishops
have never done before.
Their concern about immigrants
came up in two separate items, both
submitted by the Committee on
Migration.
One is a resolution urging several
reforms in U.S. immigration law and
policy to “uphold the basic dignity
and human rights of immigrants
among us and preserve the unity of
the immigrant family.”
The other is a 52-page pastoral
statement, “Unity in Diversity:
Welcoming the Immigrant Church in
the U.S.”
“The new immigrants call us back
to our ancestral heritage as descen
dants of immigrants and to our bap
tismal heritage as members of the
body of Christ,” the statement says.
It challenges church leaders and
all Catholics to welcome immigrants
and celebrate cultural diversity as a
gift. It calls on them to work against
prejudice and distrust and for the
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advancement of new immigrants to
full integration in the life of the
church and society.
The 42-page statement, “Respon
sibility, Rehabilitation and Res
toration: A Catholic Perspective on
Crime and Criminal Justice,”
sharply challenges the trend toward
more prisons, stiffer sentences and
more executions as the U.S. re
sponse to crime. It was drafted by
the bishops’ Domestic Policy
Committee.
“We are convinced that our tradi
tion and our faith offer better alter
natives that can hold offenders
accountable and challenge them to
change their lives, reach out to vic
tims and reject vengeance,” it says.
It especially questions the growing
use of incarceration as American
society’s main response to drug
offenders, in light of studies indicat
ing that programs of education and
community-based treatment are
more productive and cost-effective.
Last November the bishops dis
cussed a draft of a new statement on
art and environment for worship,
titled Domus Dei (“The House of
God”). The final draft, which
received preliminary discussion
November 13, has been significantly
restructured and rewritten in light of
consultations with the bishops and
other experts and has a new name,
“Built of Living Stones.”
The 108-page text, subtitled “Art,
Architecture and Worship,” discuss
es spatial requirements for various
liturgical rites and the role of art and
architecture in assisting the church
at prayer.
It addresses the role of bishop,
pastor, parish committees, architect,
liturgical consultant and others in
the design of a church and its sur
roundings, as well as special issues
that must be faced in renovating an
existing church.
Among shorter statements the
bishops were to vote on is one draft
ed by the Committee for Pro-Life
Activities titled “The U.S. Supreme
Court and the Culture of Death.” It
decries the high court’s persistent
denial of rights to the unborn since
its Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973.
It says the Supreme Court’s rejec
tion this summer of a Nebraska law
banning partial-birth abortion has
shattered any hope of “legal sanity
on abortion” and “has brought our
legal system to the brink of endors
ing infanticide.”
Scheduled for debate and vote
later in the meeting were:
—Final modifications in the
statutes that will guide the new U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops.
—A proposal to form a new stand
ing Committee on Catechesis.
The bishops also have been asked
to approve the concept and timeline
for revising the Lectionary for
Masses With Children, adoption of
the Mexican Lectionary for
Scripture readings in U.S. Spanish-
language liturgies, and a proposal on
diocesan audits.
Votes for a new secretary, who
becomes one of the conference’s
executive officers, and for new
chairmen of about one-third of the
bishops’ standing committees were
set for November 14.
Sixteen current ad hoc committees
must have their mandate renewed,
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The Southern Cross, Page 11
or they will die in accord with the
bishops’ three-year sunset policy for
ad hoc committees.
Acting unanimously, the U.S.
bishops approved by a voice vote a
statement on “Sudan's Cry for
Peace.” The statement lamented
“slavery, torture, executions, reli
gious persecution” and “discrimina
tory laws” by the Sudanese govern
ment. “The violence and repression
in Sudan cannot be allowed to con
tinue,” the statement said. “Sudan’s
political and military leaders must
abandon their current path, which
has led only to endless death and
destruction” during a 16-year civil
war between the Islamic government
and Christian and animist popula
tions in southern Sudan, it said.
Responding to repeated pleas of
Sudan’s bishops for peace and an
end to the government’s campaign
of terror against Christians, the U.S.
bishops’ statement seeks to arouse
greater attention by the U.S. govern
ment and the international commu
nity to the war that has caused the
death of an estimated 2 million
Sudanese and displaced twice that
number.
About 150 members of Soulforce,
a Christian gay rights group, lined
Michigan Avenue in front of the
Basilica of the National Shrine of
the Immaculate Conception
November 13 in a protest against the
Catholic Church’s stands on homo
sexual and lesbian relationships as
the bishops arrived for Mass.
The group has held similar
protests during the past year at
national Methodist, Episcopal and
Presbyterian and Southern Baptist
meetings, bringing together hun
dreds of demonstrators to engage in
nonviolent civil disobedience.
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