Catholic News Service: U.S. bishops took to heart the resolve they pronounced to control the number of projects the conference undertakes and voted Nov. 16 to put off issuing a pastoral statement on the use of the Bible by Catholics.
Task force chairman Bishop William B. Friend of Shreveport, La., noted in introducing the proposal that funding would be sought from outside sources to pay the costs of developing the pastoral statement. Sales of the publication would be expected to cover the costs of printing it.
But in discussion about the proposal, several bishops rose to question whether it was appropriate to be developing something new that had not gone through review by a formal committee and advance approval of expenditures, as will now be required under rules they agreed to a day earlier.
