On The Floor, Deja Vu
Under normal circumstances, the June meeting of the US bishops travels to a different city each year, staffed by a skeleton crew and with barely a quorum of prelates on hand.
Of course, however, these days are anything but normal, so the bench has returned to its usual November site in Baltimore for two reasons – first, the level of business at hand requires a larger presence of the DC-based staff... and, as one senior prelate said of the initial venue (in Santa Barbara), “We didn’t want a Ritz-Carlton.” Even so, just the cancellation fee to make the switch ran into six figures.
The complete agenda released late yesterday, with the Floor slated to get underway at 9am Eastern, the crisis-related items shelved in November remain the focus, but abuse and its fallout won’t be the only topic at hand. Among the other matters on tap are a discussion on the church’s engagement with the growing population of the religiously unaffiliated (the so-called “nones”), a vote to integrate the Pope’s categorical ban on capital punishment into the US’ adult catechism, and the bench’s approval of the first text to fall under Francis’ new rules on liturgical translations, which give the Holy See less of an oversight role.
All that said, here’s the livefeed – beyond the usual opening formalities, today’s business will be dominated by the usual preliminary presentations of the matters at hand; the final debates and votes won’t take place until later on Wednesday and early Thursday.
As ever, more to come.... On another scheduling note, though, the public meetings between now and Thursday will be unusually spotty: all Wednesday morning will be spent in closed-door regional meetings and, above all – given the lead role to be played by metropolitans in Francis’ new accountability norms, this afternoon brings a private summit of the nation’s 32 archbishops, the first time that’s happened in at least some three decades.
While all this is the brief version of what we do know, the focus from here tends to be on what we don't. With that in mind, stay tuned.
-30-
Of course, however, these days are anything but normal, so the bench has returned to its usual November site in Baltimore for two reasons – first, the level of business at hand requires a larger presence of the DC-based staff... and, as one senior prelate said of the initial venue (in Santa Barbara), “We didn’t want a Ritz-Carlton.” Even so, just the cancellation fee to make the switch ran into six figures.
The complete agenda released late yesterday, with the Floor slated to get underway at 9am Eastern, the crisis-related items shelved in November remain the focus, but abuse and its fallout won’t be the only topic at hand. Among the other matters on tap are a discussion on the church’s engagement with the growing population of the religiously unaffiliated (the so-called “nones”), a vote to integrate the Pope’s categorical ban on capital punishment into the US’ adult catechism, and the bench’s approval of the first text to fall under Francis’ new rules on liturgical translations, which give the Holy See less of an oversight role.
All that said, here’s the livefeed – beyond the usual opening formalities, today’s business will be dominated by the usual preliminary presentations of the matters at hand; the final debates and votes won’t take place until later on Wednesday and early Thursday.
As ever, more to come.... On another scheduling note, though, the public meetings between now and Thursday will be unusually spotty: all Wednesday morning will be spent in closed-door regional meetings and, above all – given the lead role to be played by metropolitans in Francis’ new accountability norms, this afternoon brings a private summit of the nation’s 32 archbishops, the first time that’s happened in at least some three decades.
While all this is the brief version of what we do know, the focus from here tends to be on what we don't. With that in mind, stay tuned.
-30-
posted by Rocco Palmo at 08:20
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