BALTIMORE (MD)
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 11, 2013 NCR Today
Fall bishops’ meeting 2013
BALTIMORE Two Catholic nonprofit groups urged Monday that the U.S bishops, meeting here for their annual assembly, follow the lead of Pope Francis in building a “church for the poor” in the United States.
Specifically, the groups said, the American prelates could make their national office a “bishops’ conference for the poor” by drafting a new statement on the continuing economic crisis and by launching a nationwide poverty awareness campaign.
That campaign, they said, could follow a similar game-plan as the bishops’ focus over the past two years on issues of religious liberty, which the bishops devoted significant time and energy to in 2012 and 2013, hosting twice a “Fortnight for Freedom” centered around the implementation of the health care law.
The Catholic Democrats and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good made the call for the focus on the poor Monday, holding a press conference at which they released an open letter to Louisville, Ky., Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, currently the bishops’ vice president and one of ten candidates to be elected president at this year’s assembly.
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