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November 13, 2012
The proposed statement on poverty from the ad hoc drafting committee led by Archbishop Allan Vigneron was defeated by a vote of 134 to 85, short of the two-thirds majority needed for passage. This is fairly stunning. I cannot remember a document from a committee being rejected by the full body of bishops in recent years. I will have more to say on this tomorrow, but what we are witnessing is a bishops' conference that can't find consensus about how to preach the Gospel in the world today. Perhaps the bishops in executive session tomorrow need to focus on this precise issue - how to build consensus among themselves.
