U.S. bishops to meet in November to discuss synod, Eucharistic Revival, canonization causes

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 18, 2024 / 18:15 pm

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will gather in Baltimore next month for its 2024 Fall Plenary Assembly.

Major items on the agenda for the plenary assembly, according to a USCCB press release, include reports on the U.S. bishops’ efforts concerning the National Eucharistic Revival and the National Eucharistic Congress, which took place this summer in Indianapolis.

Additionally, coming on the heels of the second session of the Synod on Synodality in Rome this month, bishops attending the Nov. 11–14 plenary assembly will discuss a comprehensive report on the multiyear synodal process begun by Pope Francis in 2021 and concluding this month. 

Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the United States, and USCCB president Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, will address the conference. 

While the full schedule is not yet set in stone, the USCCB stated that bishops are expected to discuss updates on resources being developed among several USCCB committees to advance papal initiatives on human dignity and the ministry of catechesis. 

They will also reportedly discuss plans for “pastoral implementation of integral ecology” as articulated by Pope Francis in his 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’. 

Bishops will also vote for new chairman-elect for five of the USCCB’s committees and a new USCCB treasurer.

Another highlight for the plenary assembly will be a consultation among the bishops regarding the causes of beatification and canonization for two 20th-century women: Sister Annella Zervas, a Benedictine nun from Minnesota, and teacher and servant of God Gertrude Agnes Barber of Pennsylvania.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Diocese of Crookston, Minnesota, announced in October 2023 that preliminary steps had been taken that could lead to the advancement of the cause for Sister Annella’s canonization, while the process was begun for Barber’s in December 2019. 

Public sessions of the assembly will be livestreamed on Nov. 12 and 13 on the USCCB’s website along with other news updates, texts of addresses, and voting results.