AMERICA: CANADA: BISHOPS TO HOST PLENARY ASSEMBLY OCT. 17

CCCB – Ottawa REPORT… The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) will hold its annual Plenary Assembly 17-21 October 2011, at the Nav Canada Centre, Cornwall, Ontario. About 90 Bishops from across the country will gather to review pastoral activities of the past year and share their experiences and insights on the life of the Church and the major events that shape society. This Plenary will also mark the end of the term for the current President, the Most Reverend Pierre Morissette, Bishop of Saint-Jerome, and the election of a new President and other members of the Executive Committee who will serve for the next two years.

The Plenary will also welcome invited observers and guests from a number of national Catholic organizations as well as from other Churches, together with accredited representatives from the media. The public session of the Plenary Assembly is on Monday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 17 October, and on Tuesday, 9:15 a.m. to noon, 18 October. The Annual Report from the President of the CCCB and the daily liturgical celebrations will be broadcast live online this year, thanks to the collaboration of the Catholic television channel Salt and Light.

The first part of the Plenary will include reflections on the Post-Synodal Apostolic ExhortationsSacramentum Caritatis (on the Eucharist as the source and summit of the Church’s life and mission) and Verbum Domini (on the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church). The Most Reverend Robert Le Gall, O.S.B., Archbishop of Toulouse, France, will lead these reflections, which will be followed by workshops for the Bishops.

The annual Plenary Assembly is also the occasion when the Roman and Eastern Catholic Bishops of Canada receive reports on the work over the past year by the Conference’s national and sectoral commissions and standing committees, as well as the Canadian Catholic Aboriginal Council.

The CCCB is the national assembly of the Bishops of Canada. It was founded in 1943 and officially recognized by the Holy See in 1948. After the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), the CCCB became part of a worldwide network of Episcopal Conferences, established in 1965 as an integral part of the life of the universal Church.

http://www.cccb.ca/site/eng/media-room/3162-2011-cccb-plenary-assembly