BALTIMORE (RNS) — After years of complaints that they have ignored Pope Francis’ teachings in their biannual meetings, the U.S. Catholic bishops’ fall meeting this week seemed to make up for lost time, discussing the pope’s 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’,” and his more recent declaration “Dignitas Infinita,” on human dignity, as well as migration, a core interest of the pope, and a key issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.
On Tuesday (Nov. 12), the first day of the public sessions, the bishops dove deep on synodality, the topic of the just-concluded three-year-long synod, which Francis called with the aim of engaging Catholics at every level of the church in dialogue.
The topic prompted unusually lively engagement from the floor as bishops discussed how to implement the theological posture of listening and discernment in their dioceses.
After years of conservative fears that the synod would bring radical change, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori, a synod delegate often seen as sympathetic to that camp, told reporters at a news conference, “It’s about culture change, not necessarily structure change or not necessarily canonical changes.”
Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores, who led the synod process in the U.S., told his fellow bishops in a presentation that it should be possible to both “be strengthen …