Bishops' meeting highlights change

By ART BABYCH
Canadian Catholic News
Cornwall, Ont.

Faced with a four-year string of deficits despite an increase in the per capita rate last year, some jobs within the CCCB could be on the chopping block.

The more than 80 bishops are to be briefed on the current financial situation during the opening day of the plenary assembly but will go behind closed doors for committee-of-the-whole sessions on the 2005 budgetary estimates.

For the first time in several years, the bishops at last year's plenary meeting approved an increase in the tax on each diocese based on its Catholic population. The increase was expected to bring in $500,000 to the CCCB's coffers but even so the conference projects a deficit of $118,000 for 2004.

Also on the agenda for its annual assembly is a discussion on the implementation of the instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, the Vatican's lengthy directive aimed at curbing liturgical abuses in the Church.

The bishops will also receive progress reports on several projects, including the special taskforce on the review of the document From Pain to Hope, the CCCB's 1992 strategy for dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse in the Church.

The CCCB's assembly comes on the heels of the closing of the International Eucharistic Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Oct. 17, at which Pope John Paul is expected to announce that Canada will host the next congress in Quebec City in 2008.

The bishops of Canada last year agreed to support the Eucharistic congress in Canada, which is expected to cost more than $8 million.

The congress would coincide with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and the 350th anniversary of the appointment of Blessed Francois de Laval as Canada's first bishop.

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