archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

From the outside, much of the drama of a bishops’ meeting pivots on what the conference will or won’t say about a given issue – what sort of texts it adopts, statements it issues, and so on. For those with eyes to see, however, sometimes how the bishops vote with their feet is just as telling as anything they may eventually put on paper.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

On the Road to Peace by John Dear S.J.	Tuesday, November 11, 2008
	Vol. 3, No. 10

This weekend, Barack Obama just freshly elected, I joined 2,500 Catholics at the annual Call to Action conference in Milwaukee. A spirit of hope hovered in the air. And in the air, too, was a general agreement that, the election notwithstanding, our work must continue. We need to keep pushing for an end to the U.S. wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. We still need to work to eradicate poverty, hunger, disease, corporate greed and environmental destruction. We still need to work for a more just society. Shortly put, we too have to be hopemakers, and carry on the hard work of making our hope -- a world of peace -- come true.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

In the day’s first important vote, the U.S. bishops this morning elected Bishop George Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, as the secretary of the conference. He is the first African-American bishop to hold a senior leadership post since Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta, then the bishop of Belleville, Illinois, served as president from 2001 to 2004.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

In a gesture with clear implications for debates over abortion, the U.S. bishops this morning voted on a new “Order for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb,” in both English and Spanish.

On behalf of the full body of U.S. bishops, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the conference, this morning released the following message on the current economic crisis.

Solidarity at a Time of Economic Crisis

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

“No retreat, no surrender” is perhaps the best way to sum up the spirit of the U.S. bishops’ discussion of abortion and politics this afternoon, though the bishops stopped short of adopting any new policy on the denial of communion to pro-choice Catholic politicians.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Baltimore

Though the U.S. bishops took a tough line this afternoon on the abortion policies of the incoming Obama administration, two of the bishops most associated with public challenges to Obama during the campaign were defeated in races for committee chairmanships.

Brothers and sisters it is time. The NCR reports that a Maryknoll priest, Fr. Bourgeois is under threat of excommunication unless he desists and repents of his personal and public support for the ordination of women. So what!