Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Kevin ClarkeNovember 17, 2015

While a vote of approval on the U.S.C.C.B. strategic plan, hashed out over months by committee and previously reviewed by the conference, may seem a foregone conclusion, at least one voice was raised this morning against accepting the document in its current form. 

The plan includes familiar priorities:

I. Evangelization: open wide the doors to christ through missionary discipleship and personal encounter.

II. Family and marriage: encourage and heal families; inspire Catholics to embrace the sacrament of matrimony

III. Human life and dignity: uphold the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death with special concern for poor and vulnerable

IV. Vocations and ongoing formation: encourage vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and provide meaningful ongoing formation to clergy, religious, and lay ministers

V. Religious freedom: promote and defend the freedom to serve, witness and worship, in the U.S. and abroad

Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich asked why the conference’s long-standing support of comprehensive immigration reform was not specifically mentioned in the 2017-20 strategic plan. He also mentioned that the emphasis by Pope Francis on a global abolition of the death penalty, also long supported by the conference, likewise was lacking as a specific priority. That concern was also expressed by Helena Bishop George Thomas, who otherwise was encouraged that the document included two mentions of the U.S. bishop’s concern for the poor.

Archbishop Cupich said that he was concerned “that these priorities are too self-referential” and that the plan “does not include an address to the world on these other issues.”

 
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

A leading figure in academic Catholic feminism after the Second Vatican Council, Anne E. Carr was also a renowned scholar and an inspiration to generations of theologians.
James T. KeaneJuly 01, 2025
At the time of his appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost described in an interview one change he would like to see in the bishop selection process: greater involvement of lay people.
Colleen DulleJuly 01, 2025
Bishops from the conferences of Africa, Asia, and Latin America produced a joint document calling for climate justice ahead of the U.N. climate conference in November.
“One of the things I find most appealing about the award-winning writer and poet Mary Karr is her forthright, almost brutal, honesty.”
James Martin, S.J.July 01, 2025