US Catholic bishops’ meeting has light agenda — in public

Church leaders were planning to open the event to media and observers from the first session this morning through midday tomorrow. But after that, the bishops will air opinions behind closed doors for another day or two — perhaps treating delicate topics such as Catholic politicians, the sex-abuse crisis or the ongoing review of seminaries.

As a result, it promises to be the most secretive November session since the American bishops decided to open up their gatherings in 1972. The hierarchy also meets each June, and occasionally those sessions have been entirely private.

The unusual degree of closed-door deliberations this time is not a policy change but rather the product of an unusually short list of items that require formal action, said Monsignor Francis Maniscalco, spokesman for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The public agenda includes a statement reaffirming opposition to the death penalty, policies for lay ministers who help overcome the church’s priest shortage, liturgical and administrative matters, reports and elections of committee chairmen and a new head for the bishops’ national staff.

Bishops’ meetings at the Vatican and in other nations are usually secret, and over recent years some US bishops have said their gatherings should provide more time in private.

"The reason I’ve often heard from bishops for the growing use of executive sessions is that bishops are more comfortable that way," said Russell Shaw, who was the hierarchy’s information director in 1972 when the open-meetings policy began. "I don’t begrudge them comfort but there are larger issues at stake here than anyone’s comfort level."

To Shaw, closed meetings are "a matter of serious concern for Catholics and for others who feel they have a stake in what the bishops do, and have a legitimate right to know what’s going on among the leaders of the church."

The topics treated in secret are not disclosed but there’s no shortage of sensitive possibilities the bishops could take up. Among them:

— Continuing financial threats and legal tangles for US Catholicism resulting from sex-abuse scandals.

— The inspection of all US seminaries being directed by the Vatican, an effort that resulted from the abuse crisis.

— Church policy on gays in seminaries and the priesthood, on which a Vatican pronouncement is expected soon.

— The question of whether to limit access to Communion or take other actions in 2006 against Catholic politicians who oppose church teaching on abortion or gay marriage.

Last month, an international synod of bishops at the Vatican declared that Catholic officeholders have a grave responsibility to uphold church teachings.

However, it set no strict rules on Communion, saying bishops should exercise "firmness and prudence" in their local situations.

A bishops’ task force led by Washington’s Cardinal Theodore McCarrick plans to seek advice on this at meetings with Catholic Democrats and Republicans who were recommended by their local bishops, but the bishops’ headquarters declined to provide further details.