USCCB

BELLEVUE, Wash. — The U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved extensive revisions to their 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" June 16, but the bishop who heads up their efforts to confront the clergy sex-abuse crisis said it must remain "a front-burner issue."

Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane spoke at a news conference after the bishops closed the public sessions of their June 15-17 spring general assembly near Seattle with a 187-5 vote in favor of the charter revisions, with four abstentions.

BELLEVUE, Wash. — The U.S. bishops June 16 approved a policy statement on physician-assisted suicide, the first on the issue by the bishops as a body, and they also approved revisions to their 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."

The votes came on the second day of the bishops' annual spring general assembly held near Seattle in Bellevue June 15-17.

WASHINGTON — Although the U.S. bishops' spring general assembly will focus primarily on a review of the 2002 "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People" and consideration of a new document on physician-assisted suicide, the June 15-17 meeting in Seattle also will include a variety of presentations looking forward and back.

WASHINGTON — Bishops have a responsibility to teach the Catholic faith and preserve it "as it has been received and passed on" and thus are bound to respond to the work of theologians if they perceive the faith is being portrayed in error, the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine, said in a new resource for prelates.

While bishops welcome dialogue with any theologian over any particular work, they also must uphold the teaching magisterium of the church, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, the committee chairman.

WASHINGTON (CNS) — In a detailed critique, the U.S. bishops' Committee on Doctrine has concluded that a 2007 book written by Fordham University theology professor Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson "contains misrepresentations, ambiguities and errors" related to the Catholic faith.

JAMAICA, N.Y. -- Cardinal Edward M. Egan told a March 19 conference that "all labor issues" are resolved in passages in the Book of Genesis, St. Matthew's Gospel and St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians "if only we have the faith and confidence in God to realize it."

The retired archbishop of New York spoke on the second day of a two-day conference on "The Theology of Work and the Dignity of Workers" at St. John's University School of Law in the borough of Queens.