Biennial Workshop for the Catholic Bishops

Since 1980, the NCBC, in collaboration with the Knights of Columbus, has organized an annual or biennial Workshop for Bishops intended to provide ongoing formation for the bishops in bioethical issues which affect their episcopal ministry. Each Workshop has been attended by bishops from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. The Workshops for Bishops are structured to address a specific topic or cluster of topics in the field of medical ethics.

The late Pope St. John Paul II provided vigorous leadership in the area of medical ethics, and he reinforced this by sending letters addressing the participants of the Workshops for Bishop. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI continued this tradition of support as a former keynote speaker at the 1984 and 1991 workshops. (The text of his two addresses was published jointly with Ignatius Press in a small volume called On Conscience.) Pope Benedict XVI’s 2013 letter to our Workshop for Bishops may be read here.

The 2005 Workshop for Bishops was dedicated to the moral legacy of John Paul II in Catholic health care and has been published as Live the Truth. The 2007 Workshop addressed the growing tension between cultural expectations for health care and the Catholic moral tradition; the resulting book of proceedings was titled Urged On By Christ: Catholic Health Care in Tension with Contemporary Culture.

In-print titles may be purchased from our online store.