Though the quadrennial “Faithful Citizenship” statement was in the end approved during the U.S. bishops’ fall assembly in Baltimore, the normally pro forma vote included a surprise expression of discontent. Several bishops suggested rejecting it and starting over this year. Bishops Gerald Kicanas of Tucson and Robert McElroy of San Diego argued that the mandate given last year—to revise and extend the existing statement—may have been in error. “Too much has changed,” Bishop Kicanas said, questioning the current statement’s value as a teaching document for voters in 2016. Bishop McElroy criticized the lack of attention and emphasis to issues that Pope Francis has made the keystones of his pontificate—global poverty and the degradation of the environment. Pope Francis, he said, “has radically transformed the prioritization of Catholic social teaching and its related elements.... This document does not do that.”
‘Faithful Citizenship’ Challenged By Bishops
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
In a time of increasing disaffiliation from and disillusionment with the institutional church, a new theological perspective on the church is needed—one that places Jesus’ own teaching at the center.
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley are thrilled to speak with their friend and colleague Father James Martin about his new podcast, “The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.”
Pope Leo XIV renewed his “appeal for peace” in an interview after a surprise visit to the Vatican Radio Center.
There are so many things you can enjoy when you are poor—and some, it seems, that are easier to enjoy when you’re poor because you cannot lean on the crutches and the shortcuts that litter the path of the rich.