Angelus News | September 23, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 19
On the cover: The logo used for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, is adapted from an image found in the Catacombs of Domitilla in Rome thought to symbolize “the rest and the happiness that the soul of the departed finds in eternal life.” Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the catechism’s release next month, Russell Shaw explains on Page 10 what prompted the Church to undertake such an immense project. On Page 26, Greg Erlandson offers a perspective on the text’s relevance to ordinary Catholics — like his own mother.
On the cover: The logo used for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, is adapted from an image found in the Catacombs of Domitilla in Rome thought to symbolize “the rest and the happiness that the soul of the departed finds in eternal life.” Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the catechism’s release next month, Russell Shaw explains on Page 10 what prompted the Church to undertake such an immense project. On Page 26, Greg Erlandson offers a perspective on the text’s relevance to ordinary Catholics — like his own mother.
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THE WAY OF THE LORD JESUS<br />
RUSSELL SHAW<br />
An agenda for the U.S. bishops<br />
Bishops attend a session<br />
of the fall general assembly<br />
of the U.S. Conference of<br />
Catholic Bishops in Baltimore<br />
in 2021. | CNS/BOB ROLLER<br />
In mid-<strong>No</strong>vember the American<br />
bishops, gathered in general<br />
assembly, will choose a successor<br />
to Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los<br />
Angeles to serve a three-year term as<br />
president of the U.S. Conference of<br />
Catholic Bishops. A new vice president<br />
and chairmen of several conference<br />
committees also will be elected<br />
during the meeting.<br />
Except by the bishops themselves<br />
plus a handful of habitual bishop-watchers,<br />
the USCCB elections<br />
will probably not be much noted. But<br />
there are several issues of major importance<br />
for the future of the Church that<br />
need to be on the bishops’ agenda, and<br />
the results of the upcoming vote could<br />
go a long way to determining whether<br />
they make it there.<br />
Three issues in particular stand out.<br />
First, giving new direction to the<br />
Church’s involvement in pro-life<br />
issues in the wake of the Supreme<br />
Court decision last June overturning<br />
the <strong>19</strong>73 ruling that legalized abortion.<br />
While the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson<br />
Women’s Health Organization was a<br />
huge pro-life victory, but far from being<br />
the end of the struggle, it marked<br />
the start of a new phase for which the<br />
pro-life movement was apparently not<br />
well prepared.<br />
What now? Fifty years ago the bishops<br />
adopted a Pastoral Plan for Pro-life<br />
Activities that provided guidance to<br />
dioceses in advancing the pro-life<br />
cause while hoping for what Dobbs<br />
has now accomplished — returning<br />
the abortion issue to the states.<br />
In the post-Dobbs world the Church’s<br />
response needs to be comprehensively<br />
pro-life, including support for women<br />
with problems in pregnancy, tax relief,<br />
and other assistance for struggling families,<br />
rational gun control, immigration<br />
reform, abortion laws that have broad<br />
public support, and educational efforts<br />
that counter pro-abortion propaganda<br />
with attractive, fact-based messaging.<br />
Second, exploring and explaining<br />
the meaning of synodality in a synodal<br />
Church.<br />
Writing in America magazine, Father<br />
Louis J. Cameli, a coordinator of the<br />
synod process in Chicago, cited the<br />
“immense formational task” required<br />
to prepare people for this new ecclesial<br />
environment.<br />
24 • ANGELUS • <strong>September</strong> <strong>23</strong>, <strong>2022</strong>
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