Bishop Robert J. Banks

Bishops study issues of life, church

There was no column here last week because I was in Washington for the annual fall meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is the one meeting of the year when just about all the bishops show up and when most of the serious business is done.

For three and a half days, the sessions for all the bishops run from 9 to 5, with time out for lunch. Those plenary meetings are surrounded by committee meetings that are held at breakfast, lunch and dinner, so it is possible to begin the day with Mass at 6:30 a.m. and then be in meetings until after dinner. Fortunately, most of us bishops do not have that full a schedule, but there are some heroes who do.

My schedule began a couple of days before the full meetings because I am on a committee that reviews religious education materials to see if they are in conformity with The Catechism of the Catholic Church. In my opinion, this committee does some of the most important work carried on by the bishops' conference. The result has been that bishops, publishers and writers are working together to see that our people have available the best possible religious education texts.

Those in prison

Once the full meeting began, major attention was given to the statement on criminal justice: Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: a Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice. The statement was motivated, I believe, by the increasingly large number of men, usually poor and from a minority population, who are sent to prison early in life. The bishops are "convinced that our tradition and our faith offer better alternatives that can hold offenders accountable and challenge them to change lives; reach out to victims and reject vengeance; restore a sense of community and resist the violence that has engulfed so much of our culture."

The strangers

A second major piece of business concerned immigration reform. Three of the immigration laws passed by Congress in 1996 have had a serious impact on immigrants, legal and illegal. The proposed resolution on immigration asks Congress to reexamine our immigration laws and enact reforms that would uphold the basic dignity and human rights of immigrants and preserve the unity of immigrant families. There is also a statement that asks all of us to welcome our immigrant brothers and sisters: Unity in Diversity: Welcoming the Immigrant Church in the U.S.

I see these documents as ways in which the Church provides a voice for those in our society who have no voice or a voice to which few pay any attention. Even among the members of our Church, it can often be difficult to find much sympathy for the prisoner or the immigrant. But Jesus said we can find and serve him by serving the prisoner and those who need help.

The voiceless

The bishops also want to provide a voice for our brothers and sisters who are suffering the persecution and oppression that come mainly from the government in Sudan. Torture, slavery, executions, religious persecution, the indiscriminate bombing of churches and schools have all resulted in the deaths of more than two million people in the past 16 years. More than twice that many have been driven from their homes. But the international community seems to pay little attention. We pray that our voice will be heard and will result in some action to restore peace.

There was another group for whom the bishops supplied a voice - the unborn. Our statement was in reaction to the incredible decision of the Supreme Court by which a majority of five justices ruled that even the killing of a child mostly born alive is protected by what the Court called "the woman's right to choose." The decision means that we all must rededicate ourselves to the task of reversing the Court's abortion decisions and to the larger challenge of building a culture of life here in our United States.

The Holy Land

It was impossible for the bishops to meet without saying something about the situation in the Middle East. So we asked that those involved would make every effort to end the violence, respect the human rights of all, and return to the path of peace. We asked our own people here in the United States to pray from the beginning of Advent to Epiphany for a genuine peace in the Holy Land, and we recommended voluntary fasting and abstinence on Fridays during that same period for the same cause.

Why politics?

As I read over what I just wrote, I can hear readers saying to themselves, "Why don't the bishops stick to religion and keep out of politics?" We try to stay out of politics, but when things go horribly wrong and large numbers of people are trapped in violent or unjust situations, it is necessary for the Church to lend a voice to those who suffer. We don't pretend to have the solution, but it usually helps to encourage the leaders and the people to follow the way of peace, mutual respect and even love.

However, the bishops did take up a couple of serious issues that everyone would agree are religious. They also happen to be controversial.

Tabernacle's place

The first one concerned the art and architecture of our church buildings. The new document approved by the bishops, Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture and Worship, replaces an earlier document on the same subject. It is a lengthy document, but the one point on which the bishops had the most to say in their discussion was the placement of the tabernacle in our churches. Many bishops want the tabernacle in a place where it can be seen by the majority of people in the church, while others prefer that it be placed in a separate chapel where individuals can come to pray. The solution adopted in the document is to leave the decision up to the local bishop.

College professors

The second document was only up for discussion, not decision. It concerns part of the way in which the U.S. bishops ask our Catholic colleges to implement Pope John Paul II's letter on Catholic higher education. The specific issue is the requirement that Catholic theologians who teach Catholic theology in a Catholic college should request a mandatum from the local bishop. The mandatum is an acknowledgement by the bishop that the theologian is teaching in communion with the Church. The document up for discussion sets forth a process for handling the mandatum. The only decision reached was that we should continue the discussion over the next several months.

And that leaves me just enough room to wish all of you a very Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving.