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	Sex Abuse, Liturgy, Stem Cells on Bishops' Agenda at Spring Meeting By Nancy Frazier O'Brien Catholic News Service Junó 12, 2008 http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0803130.htm ORLANDO, Fla. (CNS) — Opening their spring general meeting in Orlando, members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops got an interim report on the causes and context of child sexual abuse by priests and made quick work of proposals to revisit the ethical guidelines on feeding tubes and to declare a National Catholic Charities Sunday in 2010. In the first morning session of the June 12-14 assembly at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, the bishops also took a preliminary look at two documents they will vote on later in the meeting. The first was a 700-page draft translation of the proper prayers in the Roman Missal for each Sunday and feast day during the liturgical year. The other was a seven-page policy statement from the Committee on Pro-Life Activities that calls embryonic stem-cell research "a gravely immoral act" that crosses a "fundamental moral line" by treating human beings as mere objects of research. Both documents were scheduled for further debate and vote June 13. Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship, said the liturgical document under consideration was the second of 12 sections of the Roman Missal translation project that will come before the bishops through at least 2010. Each draft section first goes through a consultative process in all English-speaking countries and a final draft is proposed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, made up of representatives of bishops' conferences throughout the English-speaking world. Because of that process, Bishop Serratelli said his committee had accepted only "a limited number of amendments considered absolutely necessary." Nearly 100 amendments proposed by a half-dozen bishops were rejected by the committee, although some might be brought before the full body of bishops before a vote. The stem-cell document was introduced by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., in the absence of Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the pro-life committee. Saying that the church has been "one of the most effective voices in the national debate on the use of embryos in stem-cell research," Archbishop Naumann said the new document would be the first by the bishops "devoted exclusively to this issue." He said the stem-cell document will serve as a complement to a "somewhat longer, more pastoral document," aimed primarily at Catholic couples, on the church's teachings on reproductive technologies. The bishops decided not to consider both topics in one document because they face "distinct educational challenges," he added.
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