Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
New York (Agenzia Fides) - The 35th meeting of the Bishops of the Catholic Church in America is being held in Huntington, New York, 11 to 14 February 2008, attended by bishops from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM).
This meeting, which is celebrated every year, offers Catholics bishops of the Western hemisphere the opportunity to discuss the recent developments of the continents and specific topics pertinent to their situation. The focus this year will be a document published by the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which met in Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007. Among the questions discussed were the new evangelisation, the Great Mission launched by Aparecida, and the growth of secularism in society. The meeting will also give participants the chance to discuss pastoral plans and the main challenges facing the Church in the Americas. Another theme addressed will be the 49th International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Quebec City, 15 to 22 June 2008, where thousands of pilgrims from around the world are expected, especially from the American continent.
These meetings among the Bishops of the American continents have been a tradition since 1967, when they began to be held on an informal basis and were known as “Interamerican Meetings of Bishops.” At the 1999 meeting in Cuba, however, in view of the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America by Pope John Paul II, the Bishops decided to change the name to the Meeting of the Bishops of the Church in America, to emphasise the unity of the Church in the Western hemisphere. Since then, there have been encounters celebrated in Vancouver (2000), on the cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries, on immigration (Clearwater, Florida - 2001), on the globalisation of the economy (San Salvador, Brazil - 2002), on the globalisation of local cultures (Quebec City - 2003), on the family (San Antonio, Texas - 2004), on the media (Bogotá, Colombia - 2005), and on the laity (Toronto - 2006). The Meeting of the Bishops of the Church in America was cancelled in 2007, because of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, also attended by the Bishops from Canada and the United States. (RG) (Agenzia Fides righe 30, parole 387)
