Named advisor to U.S. bishops

Last fall, the National Council of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) met to make decisions on issues ranging from a pastoral letter for young adults to guidelines for televised Masses. Each year, their documents and decisions affect millions of Catholics across the country.

This spring, when the bishops meet again, someone from the Albany Diocese will be among their advisors. Sister Sean Peters, CSJ, a province leader for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet who serves at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham, has been named to the bishops' National Advisory Council.

The approximately 60-member council meets twice a year to review the NCCB's agenda of issues and make recommendations to the bishops. At their last meeting, the NCCB approved segments of a Sacramentary to be used throughout the English-speaking world, norms for Catholic higher education, principles for making moral economic decisions, missalette guidelines for receiving Communion, adaptations for funeral rites and several other agenda items.

The council, Sister Sean told The Evangelist, is an intrinsic part of any decision made by the bishops, who take the council's suggestions very seriously. The council is also "a real cross-section of the Church," she said, one that mirrors the makeup of the U.S. Church by including lay men and women, clergy and women religious, bishops, diocesan priests, and deacons.

Sister Sean is one of nine new members recently added to the council -- three bishops, three religious and three laypersons. She will serve a three-year term.

Sister Sean believes that her membership came as a result of her work with the Leadership Council of Women Religious, a national organization with which she has served for several years.

"I've been in a leadership position at the state level," she explained, "and I served on the executive committee and worked on a national survey of all the members.

"I'm pretty excited," she said. "I think it will be a wonderful opportunity, and it's a real gift. It's a privilege to be invited -- and any of these opportunities we take are a benefit to the people at home."

(02-06-97) [[In-content Ad]]