Bishops embrace conference change, more openness

National Catholic Reporter, July 28, 1995

A dozen U.S. bishops formulated the following document over the past year, received endorsements from some 30 other bishops, and presented it to a National Conference of Catholic Bishops' ad hoc committee considering the restructuring of the NCCB and U.S. Catholic Conference, its administrative arm. Following NCR's report of this document in its June 30 issue, many readers asked to see it in its entirety. The document includes episcopal suggestions pertaining to the role of U. S. bishops and the need for dialogue with the Vatican. It includes a call for more openness in the church.

Looking back

Church life was different back in 1966 when the [National Conference of Catholic Bishops] was founded. Parish councils were uncommon and diocesan pastoral councils nonexistent, as were presbyteral councils and finance councils. Diocesan offices were different, too, mostly because there were fewer of them. The world was different, too. The reality of change in our country and the world is challenging all institutions -- nations, businesses, charities, schools, hospitals, governments, unions, families.

The NCCB has developed considerably in these nearly 30 years. One need only compare the agendas, procedures, structures and staff of 1966 to today. With the rest of the church, we've learned much about consultation and established structures and procedures that allow more openness. But the structures and procedures of any large organization can become so heavy that their weight works against what they were intended to achieve.

Looking ahead

One senses a growing feeling among bishops that as a conference we aren't accomplishing what we need to accomplish. We work hard at our meetings, the agendas are well-planned and full, but we leave with a feeling that we haven't dealt with many of the pressing and important matters that face us. No one, of course, is really prevented from speaking, but we somehow miss the opportunity to have the open exchange that reflects the thoughts and feelings one hears privately among the bishops themselves and among the priests and other leadership people in our dioceses. Many people see us as a conference remaining silent on the real issues while pursuing minutiae.

We seem to lack a mechanism to confront urgent matters, breaking issues. If something pressing arises in the U.S. church after the agenda has been set, we can modify our agenda when the meeting begins, but often nothing has been planned in this regard -- for example, ad hoc committee work, the presence of experts in the particular field. and so forth -- and we return home without having seriously addressed the issue, This has resulted in a loss of credibility with priests, religious and laypeople. Credibility gaps quickly become authority crises,

Why do major and Dressing concerns seem so often to go unaddressed? Surely not for lack of nerve. Bishops are accustomed to confronting hard issues, saying things that are not popular, taking the heat. If we are not, as a collegial body, dealing with the real issues or speaking honestly and openly about them, it is not because bishops are afraid to do such things. One might wonder if it has to do with the particular nature of these issues; for example, they often involve disagreement with the approach taken by curial offices. Our twofold role as leaders of a particular church and members of the college of bishops creates a unique kind of pressure that ought to be addressed. One might also wonder if it also has to do with the structure of the conference and the format of the meetings.

Collegiality and episcopal conferences

It should be of our nature to work together in dealing collectively with the important or urgent issues in the lives of our people and to deal with them in an open way. By our nature we are collegial.

Lumen Gentium presents the "college" of bishops as part of the very foundation of the church, forging strong bonds among all bishops, and in a special way with the Holy Father who is included within the college as its head. Collegiality is not reserved to exceptional moments (for example, an ecumenical council) when the college exercises its highest power. Collegiality is part of the nature of episcopacy and ought always to be active.

Episcopal conferences are one of the significant ways in which collegiality has been exercised concretely. After speaking of patriarchates, Lumen Gentium says that in a like manner (simili ratione), episcopal bodies today are in a position to put this collegiate sense into action (#23). Pope Paul VI, in his opening address to the 1969 synod, said he had "already given proof of his will to give practical increase to episcopal collegiality, both by instituting the Synod of Bishops and in recognizing the episcopal conferences."

Christus Dominus expands upon this:

Nowadays especially, bishops

are frequently unable to fulfill their

office suitably and fruitfully unless

they work more harmoniously and

closely every day with other bishops.

Episcopal conferences, already

established in many nations, have