WASHINGTON — The U.S.
bishops have a full agenda to tackle at their upcoming spring assembly June
14-15 in Indianapolis.
They will discuss issues ranging from immigration to religious
freedom, as well as the Synod of Bishops on youth and the Fifth National
Encuentro gathering, both coming up in 2018.
"We're certainly going to talk about the upcoming
convocation in Orlando, some of the specific plans," said Bishop Oscar
Cantu of Las Cruces, N.M., referring to the "Convocation of Catholic
Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America" July 1-4 in Orlando, Florida.
"Other topics of interest for all of the bishops have been the fifth
Encuentro, coming up in 2018, how things are developing in that."
Bishop Cantu, chairman of the Committee on International Justice
and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, will address the
persecution of Christians abroad.
"With regard to our bishops' meeting, there is the concern
of the plight of Christians in parts of the world where they've been
persecuted, whether it's in Africa or Syria or in any other part of the
world," he said.
Bishop Cantu said he will give updates about the work of his
committee, which has taken him to see some of the hardships Christians face in
places like Asia and the Middle East. After making his annual trip to the Holy
Land in January, Bishop Cantu said he traveled to Iraq and Kurdistan. He
witnessed some of the work by church members, which included the building of
schools, churches and universities for displaced communities of Christians
forced to leave their homelands.
"The archbishops have done heroic work," he said.
For example, Archbishop Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Archeparchy
of Irbil, Iraq, built a university so that young people who were displaced from
Mosul could continue to study, said Bishop Cantu.
"He did that in very short order. He talked to me about that
two years ago, that he wanted to create a university and so when I was there in
January, I asked him how those plans were going. He said, 'Oh, we've been up
and running for a year and half.' I was just absolutely astounded. He's got
this, a vision, this 'do it' mentality. They've just been working constantly to
give Christians every opportunity and every reason to stay in Iraq."
Another archbishop had access to a small plot of land, and there,
he built a church, he built an elementary school and a university.
"It's amazing, just absolutely amazing, what they've done in
such short time and to keep their people together and to give them a sense of
identity and of support," he said.
Bishop Cantu also met with church members in dangerous zones to
talk about what Americans have been advocating, particularly for establishing
safe zones for Christians in Syria and Iraq, on their behalf.
"They said they don't like that idea, they don't think it's
a good idea to have a specifically Christian zone because that would make them
a target for their enemies," he said. "They want to live in an
integrated society with proper security and full citizenship … that's what they
believe will give them the greatest security, so we wanted to clarify that, as
a point for safety for them, a clarification for their voice."
The bishops also will discuss the 2018 Synod of Bishops, in which
the pope wants discussion about "young people, faith and vocational
discernment," as the theme of the gathering.
The bishops also will discuss and vote on whether to establish
the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty as a permanent USCCB committee. They
will consider for discussion and votes revised Guidelines for the Celebration
of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities; a collection of blessings in
Spanish; and a new translation of the Order of Blessing the Oil of Catechumens
and of the Sick and of Consecrating the Chrism.
The public sessions of the bishops' assembly will be all day June
14 and half a day June 15. An executive session may include "the inroads
we have made into having a relationship with the new administration" in
the White House, as well as the challenges, said Bishop Cantu, who also may
give an update on his March meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.