The annual meeting was set up in response to John Paul II’s call in his apostolic exhortation «Ecclesia in America» for the Church in America to reflect on the challenges it faces.
The bishops Feb. 12-14 will look at the causes and effects of immigration in an effort to look for ways the Churches in the different countries can collaborate with one another, according to a release from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.
These informal meetings, formerly known as the Interamerican Meeting of Bishops, began in 1967. At their meeting in Cuba in 1999, and at the invitation of John Paul II, the bishops renamed their gathering the Meeting of Bishops of the Church in America. The first meeting was held last year in Vancouver where the bishops discussed the eradication of poverty.