WASHINGTON - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will gather for the 2026 Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore, Maryland, November 16-19. The public sessions on November 17 and 18 will be livestreamed on the USCCB website.Throughout the week they are together, the bishops will have multiple opportunities to spend time in prayer and fraternal dialogue with one another. The public portion of the assembly will begin with an address by Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the USCCB. The bishops will also hear from Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Papal Nuncio to the United States. Among the first items of business for the bishops during the plenary will be to vote for a Conference secretary. The position is up for election as Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend was elected last November to complete the term left vacant when Archbishop Coakley was elected Conference president. The bishops will also elect chairmen of six USCCB committees; the

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Bishops will go home from a weeklong meeting on marriage and family life, with a renewed commitment to listen to the realities of modern families as well as to reach young people and their hesitancy to marry."In a world increasingly shaped by robots, anonymity and isolation, the family has a prophetic role to play not only in society but in the future of humanity," Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said at the conclusion of a Vatican gathering on marriage and family life.Speaking at an Oct. 14 briefing marking the end of a weeklong meeting Pope Leo XIV called to discuss what has been done in local churches to implement Pope Francis' 2016 document, "Amoris laetitia," on love in the family.  Archbishop Scicluna and other participants said the text remains as relevant today as it was a decade ago, challenging the Church to listen to families before passing judgment and to meet people where they are.The gathering, held Oct. 7-14, brought to