Immigration took center stage once more at the U.S. bishops’ fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.
On Nov. 12, during the half day that was the second public session of the gathering, the prelates approved a “special pastoral message on immigration,” voicing “our concern here for immigrants” at their annual fall plenary assembly in Baltimore.
The statement came as a growing number of bishops have acknowledged that some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies risk presenting the Church with both practical challenges in administering pastoral support and charitable endeavors, as well as religious liberty challenges.
In another action, the bishops elected a new secretary for their conference: Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana. They also elected a successor for Bishop Rhoades as chair of the Committee for Religious Liberty, and selected chairmen-elect for five standing committees.
The bishops overwhelmingly approved an updated version of their guiding document on Catholic health care, with substantial revisions that include explicit prohibitions against so-called “gender-affirming” care. They also gave the green light to hold the 11th National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2029.
The bishops also heard a report from the conference’s budget chair, Archbishop James F. Checchio, outgoing chairman of the Committee on Budget and Finance. He said the USCCB is on solid financial footing for now, having restructured some operations while weathering the end of key federal refugee resettlement contracts, but he added that changes in resource allocations may be on the horizon.
Regarding the special statement on immigration, Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston told OSV News in an interview that the feeling “we have to say something” on the subject of showing solidarity with immigrants has been “kind of bubbling up from the bishops.”
“We’re pastors,” he said. “We care about the people we serve, and what we’re hearing from them is fear and suffering. So, it’s hard not to want to respond to that.”
In releasing the text of the statement late in the afternoon, a USCCB press release said it was “the first time” in 12 years the bishops’ conference “invoked this particularly urgent way of speaking as a body of bishops. The last one issued in 2013 was in response to the federal government’s contraceptive mandate.”
“As pastors, we the bishops of the United States are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ,” said the statement, which was approved by the vast majority of voting bishops and was met with a standing ovation.
Ahead of the afternoon public session, Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia and Montse Alvarado, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, spearheaded a press conference about Pope Leo XIV and the upcoming National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. The pope is going to enter into a unique digital encounter Nov. 21 with young people attending the conference. EWTN News is the event’s exclusive multicast provider.
Archbishop Pérez told reporters that the encounter “reflects the Holy Father’s desire to connect with young people” and it “represents a virtual visit of the Holy Father to them.” During the gathering, the pope will address an expected crowd of about 15,000 young people ages 14-18. He will engage in a 45-minute dialogue with the attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium, marking the first time in history a pope has been a part of a digital encounter with American young people.
Alvarado emphasized the importance of “an authentic experience” for Pope Leo and the young people, “so that the Holy Father can see the young person asking him the question, and the young people can see the Holy Father in this kind of a reaction.”
During the afternoon public session, the bishops’ approval of holding the 11th National Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 2029 came after a presentation by Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., which will organize the event.
The location for the congress has not yet been made public. However, the possible cities have been narrowed down to three, according to Bishop Cozzens. The 2029 congress follows the successful 10th National Eucharistic Congress that took place in July 2024 in Indianapolis, as part of the larger three-year National Eucharistic Revival.
The bishops’ vote to approve updates to the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services,” or ERDs, came a day after a preliminary presentation on the changes by Auxiliary Bishop James Massa of Brooklyn, New York, chair of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine.
The ERDs – developed in consultation with medical professionals and theologians, and regularly reviewed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops – articulate ethical standards for health care in light of Church teaching, and provide authoritative guidance on moral issues encountered by Catholic health care.
Now, the seventh edition of the ERDs – endorsed by 206 bishops, with eight abstaining and seven opposing – incorporates guidance issued in 2023 by the USCCB’s Committee on Doctrine, which prohibited surgical or chemical interventions seeking to exchange or simulate the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex.
The faithful can expect a new edition of the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, by Easter 2027, according to Bishop Steven J. Lopes, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, who made the announcement Nov. 11, during the bishops’ fall meeting.
Bishop Lopes, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, expressed his gratitude to the body of bishops for their patience and their work over “what has been a 13-year process” from when the bishops first agreed to begin work on revising the Liturgy of the Hours in November 2012 with the aim of retranslation to “more accurately reflect the original Latin texts.”
Outgoing USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services signed the decree of publication, moving the process to the publishers.
