Three thousand five hundred Catholic leaders, including 150 bishops, gathered in Orlando, Florida last week for a four-day convocation. In the planning stages for five years, the event was sponsored by the US bishops’ conference with the goal of bringing together social justice activists with pro-life activists around the theme “The Joy of the Gospel.”
The event combined plenary sessions with dozens of breakout sessions. One plenary focused on “Charting the Landscape and Mission Field” at which Boston College Professor Hoffsman Ospino gave a well-received presentation on the situation of Latino immigrants. Another plenary began with a keynote address by Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl entitled “The Radical Call to Missionary Discipleship.”
The sessions were intermingled with liturgies, including a special Mass to commemorate the annual “Fortnight for Freedom,” two weeks during which some dioceses have special events focusing on religious liberty issues.
Immediately following the convocation, the National Black Catholic Congress was held at the same venue with some 2,000 attendees. At one session, focused on how to keep black young adults engaged in the Church, young people encouraged the bishops to get more involved in public witness, such as supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, which called attention to police violence against unarmed black men.
Bishop Ferdinand Cheri, an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans, told the young people, “To the black youth, I apologise to you as a leader of the Church because I feel we have abandoned you in the Black Lives Matter movement and I apologise.”
“Partly, I didn't understand it, and by the time I did understand it, it was too late — the moment was gone,” the bishop explained.
PICTURE: Prelates pray during the closing Mass on 4 July at the "Convocation of Catholic Leaders: The Joy of the Gospel in America" in Orlando
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