NCBC: Bishop's Workshop

BISHOPS WORKSHOP

Since 1980, the Center has organized an annual, or biennial, Workshop for Bishops. Each Workshop has been attended by several hundred Bishops from Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, the Philippines, South America and Central America and since 2007, Poland.

Due in large part to the generosity and support of the Knights of Columbus, the event has been an ongoing success. His Holiness, Pope John Paul II provided vigorous leadership in the area of medical ethics, and reinforced this by sending letters addressing the participants of the Bishops' workshops. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI addressed Workshop participants in 1984 and 1991 and the text of those two addresses has been published jointly with Ignatius Press in a small volume called On Conscience.

Each year, a specific topic or cluster of topics is addressed in the field of medical ethics. The proceedings are then published in book form and are available from The National Catholic Bioethics Center and at this site, through our on-line booklist. The 2005 Workshop was dedicated to the moral legacy of John Paul II in Catholic healthcare and has been published as Live the Truth. The 2007 Workshop was titled Urged On By Christ: Catholic Health Care in Tension with Contemporary Culture.The proceedings from the 2007 Workshop can be published from our online store.

The Twenty-first Workshop for Bishops was attended by over 130 bishops from 15 countries.