Bishops to prepare message on work and the economy

Catholic News Service reports that the U.S. bishops have approved a proposal to draft a statement on work and the economy "as a way to raise the profile of growing poverty and the struggles unemployed people are experiencing."

Titled "Catholic Reflections on Work, Poverty and a Broken Economy," the message would advance the bishops' priority of human life and dignity to demonstrate the new evangelization in action, explained Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

The bishops voted 171-26 during their spring meeting in Atlanta to move ahead with a draft of the document. It is expected to be ready in time for a final vote at the bishops' fall meeting in November.

The message would be a follow-up to a Sept. 15, 2011, letter by Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, in which he urged bishops and priests across the country to preach about "the terrible toll the current economic turmoil is taking on families and communities."

That letter was sent at the urging of the bishops' Administrative Committee, which directs the work of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops between general assemblies. The committee "wanted something more than a public statement," the cardinal said in the letter.

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