Spirituality

Prelates attend a Nov. 11, 2025, session of the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore. OSV News photo/Bob Roller

Word on Fire

A glimpse into the world of USCCB committees

Wednesday, November 26, 2025Spirituality

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I have enjoyed both of my committee chairmanships, but I'm also glad to cede my LMFLY role to Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas, a marvelous man and good bishop.

Bishop Robert
Barron

I have been a bishop for the last 10 years, and during that time, I have served as chairman of two separate committees within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). From 2017 to 2020, I was head of the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, and from 2022 to 2025, I have led the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth. I suspect that for many, the work of these subgroups within the conference remains something of a mystery. So, I would like to take the occasion of my departure from my second chairmanship to tell you a bit about what our committee has done.

I often referred to my staff at LMFLY (our playful acronym for the group) as the hardest-working people in show business. For during my time as chairman, they took on an impressive number of projects. At my first meeting as chair, I commented that our committee had already done yeoman's work in regard to the Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality. Without denying for a moment the centrality of that contribution, I said, I wanted the committee to look at the question of mental illness in our society, especially among the young. Both my experience at Word on Fire and study after study show that armies of young people are suffering from suicidal ideation, depression, and anxiety. I wanted our group to look into this matter and advise the bishops on how to deal with it. Accordingly, we launched, with the cooperation of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, a national mental health initiative, whose purpose was to erase the stigma around mental illness, to give sufferers access to resources, and to raise consciousness of the problem within the Catholic world. When I, along with Archbishop Borys Gudziak, announced the inauguration of the mental health initiative at the USCCB meeting, the bishops responded with over an hour of questions, comments, and encouragement. In the course of the last three years, our committee has sponsored a number of roundtable discussions with church leaders and mental health professionals and has given diocesan leadership some of the tools they need to better address this matter in their local churches.

A second preoccupation of LMFLY these last three years has been the development of a document on persons with disabilities. It has been over 40 years since the bishops of the United States last addressed this matter, and the conviction of our committee members was that a new statement was long overdue. Once again, when I presented the proposal to the entire body of bishops, there was an enthusiastic and encouraging response. Over the past several years, we have been doing wide consultation with the many individuals and groups that care for those with disabilities, both mental and physical. As you can probably imagine, people have very strong feelings on the topic! Accordingly, there have been spirited discussions, sometimes even sharp disagreements, as the document has gone through various stages of the editorial process. Our hope is that the statement, once finally formulated, will help bishops to minister more effectively to this most important constituency.

A third focus of my chairmanship has been the writing of a new document on the role and ministry of the laity in the Church. Once again, it has been many years since the conference expressed itself formally in this regard ("Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord" from 2005). At my prompting, the committee decided to dedicate the document not so much to lay ministries within the Church but rather to the role of the laity in the transformation of the world. One of the principal concerns of the fathers of Vatican II was to encourage the laity to bring the light of Christ to the realm that is proper to them -- namely, the secular order. They wanted the laity to find their personal sanctification in the sanctification of the worlds of education, finance, entertainment, law, government, the family, medicine, etc. But I have long wondered whether the Church has adequately communicated this calling, this mission peculiar to the laity. Consequently, we have been holding listening sessions within dioceses, with groups of lay leaders, and with the bishops of the country in order to prepare this statement. In fact, "fraternal dialogues" among the bishops at our most recent USCCB meeting were dedicated to this topic. My hope is that the document will appear sometime in the coming year.

Another aspect of our committee's work has been the periodic issuing of directives, statements, and formal teachings with respect to matters of pressing political importance. LMFLY, obviously, is concerned with anything dealing with the family and sexuality. Hence, over my signature as chair, a number of such declarations have gone out, dealing with legislation regarding transgenderism, same-sex marriage, IVF, etc. But I have also articulated the Church's concern about artificial intelligence, pornography, and certain insurance mandates repugnant to Catholic teaching. As is typically the case, these expressions of Catholic moral and political doctrine never neatly fall into the secular binary of "liberal" or "conservative," which means that they inevitably awaken controversy. But so be it.

I have enjoyed both of my committee chairmanships, but I'm also glad to cede my LMFLY role to Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas, a marvelous man and good bishop. I hope this brief exposé has given you an idea of the work of the USCCB committees, which is accomplished, for the most part, under the radar. The purpose of all of the committees is simply to help individual bishops minister more effectively to their people by giving advice, providing resources, and focusing energies within the Church. Please pray for their success.

- Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and is Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.