Bishops from the Americas gather in Tampa, Florida

The 40th meeting of the Bishops of the Catholic Church in America is taking place in Tampa, Florida, from 22 to 25 February, with the presidents of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Latin American Episcopal Council taking part.

This gathering gives an opportunity to the three major organizations of Catholic Bishops from the Western hemisphere to discuss recent developments and also reflect on a specific theme.

The theme this year will be: 'Jesus Christ, the face of the Father's Mercy, with the Encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato si'' and the Aperecida document as foundational documents.

Pope Francis was the principal writer of the Aparecida document when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The text was published by the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which met in Aparecida, Brazil, in May 2007.

More than 20 delegates will participate in the meeting. Representing the USCCB are members of the Executive Committee, including Archbishop Joseph E Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, USCCB president; Archbishop Gregory M Aymond of New Orleans, USCCB secretary; and Bishop Richard J Malone of Buffalo, New York, who also serves as chairman of the USCCB Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

The meeting is part of a series of informal gatherings previously known as the Interamerican Meeting of Bishops, held every few years since 1967, and called the Meeting of the Bishops of the Church in America, to emphasize the unity of the Church in the Western hemisphere, since the year 2000. This year's meeting is organized by the CCCB. Recent meetings have discussed debt cancellation of the poorest country, immigration, globalization of the economy and cultures, the family, secularism, evangelization, humanitarian efforts for Haiti and communications.

Source: Fides/USBCC