Their goal is to complete a task they were unable to finish six months ago: establish standards to hold themselves accountable for sex abuse allegations.
The nation’s conference of Catholic bishops will return in June to Baltimore for another assembly as leaders continue to grapple with a sex abuse crisis that has engulfed the highest orders of the U.S. church. That's a switch for the conference, which had planned in meet in California.
U.S. Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore for an annual meeting aired their thoughts about how to address the latest sexual abuse crisis in the American church. Despite instructions from the Vatican not to vote on plans to address problems, some bishops continued to advocate for a consensus.
After Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, a former Washington archbishop accused of sexual abuse, Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore on Monday praised the pope's decision and said it was an effort to "eliminate the evil of sexual abuse in our church."
Three deer scurried past the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen as Steve Thomas and his wife, Debbie, arrived for Sunday Mass to celebrate the new spiritual leader for Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis.
Pope Benedict XVI surprised Catholics in Baltimore and around the world Monday when he told a meeting of cardinals that he lacked the "strength of mind and body" to continue leading the church and would step down at the end of the month after nearly eight years.
