USCCB meeting: Migrant message, self-identity, Eucharistic Revival highlights

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) gathered for the Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore Nov. 11 to 14. The event kicked off with prayer at the Baltimore Basilica of the Assumption. Bishop Walker Nickless attended the plenary and shared some of the highlights from the bishops’ meetings with Lumen Media.
 
Message to migrants
Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, chair of the USCCB Committee on Migration, was featured in national Catholic news outlets for his Nov. 13 report on immigration to the bishops. The statement urged the government to work towards immigration reform and “fair and humane treatment of immigrants.”
 
Bishop Seitz made a “wonderful” presentation, Bishop Nickless said. Also, it was suggested that each bishop pen a “personal letter to the immigrants in his diocese.” The four Iowa bishops decided at that meeting to join forces in crafting a letter, Bishop Nickless said. (The English and Spanish letter was released Nov. 19.)      
 
“We were very impressed by the need to reassure the immigrants that the bishops are 100% behind them,” said Bishop Nickless, noting that the bishops acknowledge immigrants are currently “scared and they are nervous.”
 

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso made national news requesting fair and human treatment of migrants. /Screenshot from USCCB video

Bishop Thanh Thai Nguyen, auxiliary bishop of Orange (California), a refugee from Vietnam was able to come to the United States through the work of what is now the Migration and Refugee Services department of the USCCB, made an impression upon Bishop Nickless with his supportive comments following Bishop Seitz’s message.
 
Bishop Nguyen thanked Bishop Sietz for his “inspiring words” to the body of bishops. The bishop explained he arrived as a Vietnamese refugee 45 years ago. He expressed his appreciation of the bishops’ work at that time.
 
“I heard in those days the United States bishops were talking about how the parish needs to open up for the Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975. Next year the Vietnamese refugees here in the U.S. celebrate 50 years (since coming to America),” Bishop Nguyen said. “On behalf of the Vietnamese community here in the U.S. I wanted to express my deep appreciation for all your work and pray for continued work of this body to the people we want to welcome.”
 

Bishop Nguyen made an impactful statement about his own refugee experience and that of the Vietnamese people

“You and so many like you have really made us proud,” Bishop Seitz addressed the Vietnamese bishop.  “Proud as Americans, proud as Catholics, proud as a church in the United States that we had a part in receiving you and helping to help you make the difficult transition in such challenging times. You are a blessing.”
 
Self-invention
Rather than attending days of meetings and hearing reports, the U.S. bishops asked that their meetings include educational components. Bishop Nickless said the “Religious Liberty in a Culture of Self-Invention” workshop, discussing the “contemporary culture” to define oneself was one of the educational sessions available to the bishops.
 
Workshop speakers were D.C. Schindler, professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family at The Catholic University of America and Paul Scherz, Our Lady of Guadalupe Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. 
 
“Unfortunately, in our culture today the goal of most people is to create oneself versus following God’s plan,” Bishop Nickless pointed out. “There’s an identity problem with so many people today. They try to invent their own identity, forgetting that they already have an identity as a child of God.”
 
The cultural trend of self-identification of individuals causes tensions in families, especially those with traditional values. With youth connected to social media for extended periods, there is much discussion about “self” and “the new self.”
 
“It doesn’t matter that God made us. That doesn’t mean anything,” Bishop Nickless said of the mindset of some youth. “Social media gives meaning to their identity, which is why people want ‘friends’ and all of those things. If they don’t get that, then they are depressed.”
 
The presenters explained that although people want to know who they are and can be fascinated by the question, they are not content with the concept that they are a child of God, the bishop said.
 
“We usually question our identity when we’re not sure where we belong. That’s why we started asking, am I male? Am I female? Am I conservative? Am I liberal? When you get to know who you are, a child of God, created in God’s own image, male and female and then you’re secure,” he said.
 
Detaching from technology is an important way to help people define their true identities in today’s society, the bishop said.
 
“One-on-one personal encounters are really important, not social media,” Bishop Nickless said. “Many people can feel hopeless when they just try to connect with people on their social media. When the most important thing to do is one-on-one in person, we don’t invent ourselves. We all desire to be loved and affirmed and we fail to realize that we already are loved and affirmed.”
 
Eucharistic Revival continues
The U.S. bishops concluded that the Eucharistic Revival was a success, Bishop Nickless said. Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, the director of the revival, pointed out that most reservations for the congress came in the final two weeks “and it was an overwhelming success.”
 
The bishops don’t want to lose the enthusiasm generated from the revival. The third year is the mission year and there will be a procession during the 2025 Jubilee Year.
 
“They are now looking forward to the pilgrimage starting in Indianapolis, going to Los Angeles. They are going to make their way across the country celebrating the congress, but doing it in reverse order in the summer,” Bishop Nickless said, noting it would be a similar type of procession as the summer 2024 event.
 
Other items
The bishops discussed the USCCB norms governing confessionals, face-to-face and anonymous confessions behind screens. They pondered establishing new norms for all dioceses or letting bishops set their own standards.
 
“In whatever case, there was a big push for no physical contact to be able to take place,” Bishop Nickless said.
 
Next year will mark 10 years since Pope Francis’ Laudato Si encyclical was published. Bishop Nickless noted that climate is an important issue in the church.
 

Mass at the Basilica of the Assumption in Baltimore.

“Climate and the sabbath are two things that go together. We need to stop on the seventh day, rejoice in the gift of creation, rejoice in the earth,” he said. “I thought immediately of the Shrine of the Grotto and Trinity Heights and encouraging people to take a Sunday and be outside, be in nature, be in those beautiful places.”
 
Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia and chair of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, made national news when he suggested that returning to abstaining from eating meat on Fridays would be beneficial to the planet and for the spiritual lives of the faithful.
 
Bishops were encouraged to revisit the National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, which was released in 2023 to “strengthen the church’s response to the Hispanic/Latino presence” in the church.
 
Bishops who participated in the Synod of Bishops in Rome this fall shared their impressions of the experience.
 
“They worked hard, discussed a lot and they are now in a synodal mode,” Bishop Nickless said. “It was a success. People were happy.”