As I mentioned, over the weekend there were committee meetings and, on Sunday (11/14), I participated in meetings of the Hispanic Affairs Committee, Pro-Life Committee and committee for the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, before the plenary meeting began on Monday.

Of course, so much has been said and written about the different issues we addressed, so I won't attempt to summarize them all here. Instead, I'll offer some personal highlights.

As many of you may know, we traditionally begin our gathering with a Mass at the very beautiful and historic basilica in Baltimore. This year, at the suggestion of Archbishop Wilton Gregory, who is heading up a task force on peace in the cities, we instead gathered for Mass at St. Peter Claver Parish in West Baltimore.

St. Peter Claver is a black Catholic parish in the heart of the neighborhood greatly affected by the unrest last April following the death of Freddie Gray. It was a wonderful celebration and a profound sign of solidarity with the community -- and the parishioners seemed very proud to have the entire North American hierarchy celebrating Mass in their parish!

Of course, a great deal of our discussions revolved around the issue of care for immigrants and the concern around exactly what is going to happen with immigration under the new administration.

We also had some very moving reports from the Eastern Rite bishops, especially Bishop Gregory Mansur, talking about the persecution of the Christians of the Middle East, and an inspiring address by Cardinal Marc Ouellette who was in Baltimore for the anniversary of the Sulpician Fathers.

...This was, of course, the first General Assembly for our new auxiliary bishops, Bishop Mark O'Connell and Bishop Bob Reed, so they were introduced. We had a nice gathering of all the Boston bishops for dinner one night.

Consistory in Rome

From the bishops gathering, I left for Rome to participate in the consistory for the creation of new cardinals that will take place tomorrow. I arrived yesterday afternoon (11/17) and today I had meetings with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith around the work of the Commission for the Protection of Minors. Also, I am very happy that I will be able to be here on Sunday for the closing of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and I will share all the details of that with you next week!