Bishops form new USCCB Region for Eastern-rite Catholic churches
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By Jerry
Filteau Catholic News Service BALTIMORE — On the first day of their Nov. 13-16 meeting in Baltimore the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted unanimously to form a new 15th USCCB region, composed entirely of the bishops of Eastern-rite Catholic churches.
On
the second day, Nov. 14, they
adopted
a five-year extension of their resolution
on
diocesan financial reporting
with
a 228-1 vote, with three
abstentions. Ukrainian
Archbishop Stefan Soroka
of
He
said the Eastern bishops, who represent
18
Eastern Catholic churches that
have
established significant roots in the
United
States, unanimously supported the
idea
as a way to help them address more
fully
concerns they have in common and
to
continue having a voice on the USCCB
Administrative
Committee following the
anticipated
restructuring of the USCCB
committees.
Archbishop
Soroka's committee, ordinarily
chaired
by an Eastern-rite bishop,
is
one of the committees to be eliminated
in
a proposal to reduce the number of
USCCB
standing committees from 35 to
16.
The
membership of the Administrative
Committee
is made up of conference officers,
standing
committee chairmen and
representatives
of the current 14 geographic
USCCB
regions.
By
adding a nongeographic 15th region
composed
of bishops of the Eastern
churches,
those bishops would gain a regional
representative
on the Administrative
Committee
to replace the committee
representative
lost with the dissolution of
their Latin liaison
committee.
Archbishop
Michael J. Sheehan of
Archbishop
Soroka pointed out that the
Eastern
Catholic bishops will still participate
with
Latin bishops of their geographic
region
in regional gatherings and
retreats.
The key difference is that when
regional
meetings are held during the
bishops'
yearly fall or spring national
meetings,
the Eastern bishops will meet
among
themselves instead of with the
Latin
bishops of their geographic region,
he said.
Bishop
Basil M. Schott of the Byzantine-
Ruthenian
Diocese of Parma, Ohio,
pointed
out that the Eastern bishops would
also
remain members of state Catholic
conferences,
whose members are all
Catholic bishops residing in a
state.
In
addition to Ukrainians and Ruthenians,
some
of the other Eastern Catholic
churches
that have one or more church jurisdictions
in the
The
resolution on diocesan financial
reporting
commits the head of each diocese
in the
It
is to include the names and professional
credentials
of the members of his
diocesan
finance council, the dates they
met,
and a signed statement from them
describing
what they have done to review
and
audit the diocese's financial statements.
Archbishops,
who are the heads of
provinces,
are required to submit such a
report
to the senior bishop in the dioceses
within their
province.
The
bishops first approved the reporting
resolution
in 2000; the renewal they
approved
Nov. 14 covers the period from
January 2007 through December
2011. |