US bishops gather in Florida for plenary meeting

By Joseph Tulloch

The plenary meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is underway in Florida. 

The two-day assembly, which began on Thursday 15 June, will conclude today, Friday, 16 June.

On Thursday, the bishops heard a series of welcome addresses, before breaking up into committees focusing on particular topics: liturgy, doctrine, cultural diversity, and others.

On Friday, they will vote on a number of action items proposed by the various committees and subcommittees.

The full list of action items can be found on the USCCB website, and is downloadable here.

The Nuncio’s address

One of the speakers to address the US bishops on Thursday morning was Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States. 

In his speech, he encouraged the bishops to engage with the ongoing synodal journey initiated by Pope Francis, offering three “guidelines” for the process.

The first of these, he said, is “encountering in order to discover”: the Church must “go on mission into the world,” Archbishop Pierre urged, “with an openness to discovering what is actually there – not merely imposing what we already know.”

Next, he stressed the importance of “listening with the goal of uniting”, saying that “to overcome polarization, we must learn to listen to one another, work together, and walk together cum Petro et sub Petro.”

Archbishop Pierre’s final guideline concerned “living the Eucharist as mission.” Referring to the USCCB's ongoing Eucharistic Revival, he said that the process would only be truly successful "if the faithful learn that the Eucharist which they receive is meant to make them missionaries – who take the presence of Christ, which is now in them, to people who do not yet know the Lord.”