Episcopal conferences in the context of communion: some notes on the American experience (Pre-published version)

Abstract

In A Report on the Crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States, The National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People made numerous observations about the exercise of the episcopal ministry that indicated a serious lack of accountability among bishops, an unwillingness to heed advice from the bishops' conference, from their own clergy, and from the faithful at large. The authors claimed that "the bishops failed to make effective use of the accountability mechanisms already built into the Church's structure by Church law," whether these be the diocesan consultors, the finance council, the metropolitan, or the national conference of bishops. They draw attention to a statement of John Paul II in Pastores gregis, to the effect that, "[I]f communion expresses the Church's essence, then it is normal that the spirituality of communion will tend to manifest itself in both personal and community spheres, awakening ever new forms of participation and shared responsibility in the faithful of every category."