Catholic bishops split on views of economy

A divided U.S. Catholic hierarchy has failed to agree on a statement about the economy after a debate that revealed sharp differences over the kind of social justice issues that were once a hallmark of the bishops’ public profile.

The defeat of the document, titled “The Hope of the Gospel in Difficult Economic Times,” followed an hour of unusually intense debate among the 230 bishops gathered in Baltimore for their annual mid-November meeting. It left many of them openly frustrated that the prelates have not made a joint statement about the nation’s economic woes four years after the recession hit.

“This document is dead,” New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said on November 13 with obvious disappointment. He brought the gavel down on the debate after it failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed for passage.