ROCKFORD—You may have read Bishop David Malloy’s public schedule and wondered “why is Bishop Malloy scheduled to be in Ghana July 25-28?”

 

The quick answer is that Bishop Malloy will be traveling to Accra, the capital city of Ghana located on the North Central Coast of Africa, for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, better known as SECAM.

 

Why Bishop Malloy is going requires a little longer explanation.

 

He is currently the chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace. 

 

The mandate of the committee is to advise the bishops of the United States on international public policy issues, especially integral human development, human rights, religious freedom, and peace, Bishop Malloy told The Observer. 

 

That work includes the following areas of responsibility: international policy, advocacy, justice and peace concerns, solidarity with the Church in other countries, outreach to dioceses on international issues, and international dimensions of Catholic social teaching education.

 

Bishop Malloy said some of the areas of interest for the committee’s work include nuclear disarmament, Ukraine, the Israel-Palestinian question, the situations in Burma, China and Hong Kong, Cuba and Venezuela, the environment and the social teaching of Pope Francis as it applies to international relations.

 

SECAM is part of that international dimension. Bishop Malloy will attend the meeting as part of his duties which, he explained, have been somewhat curtailed the last few years because of the global pandemic.

 

“As chairman, I have been involved in contacts with bishops’ conferences of other countries and regions during my term. These have often been meetings to express our solidarity with those bishops and to learn about their issues,” Bishop Malloy said. 

 

“I have had mostly video meetings these past three years because of the pandemic. But I have met with bishops from countries such as Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela, the Republic of Korea, as well as officials of the State Department in Washington,” he added.

 

Bishop Malloy was elected by the body of bishops of the United States as Chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace in November of 2019. 

 

“My term was to have been for three years beginning in November of 2020. However, the then-chairman was at the same time elected to serve as Secretary of the USCCB. 

 

“As a result, I was appointed to serve the final year of my predecessor’s term and then begin my own service which will conclude in November of 2023,” Bishop Malloy explained.