To love "according to the truth" requires that Catholics be willing to embrace a spirit of joy, sacrifice and forgiveness with their family members as well as with unknown neighbors in need, said the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

During a special Mass for some 200 U.S. bishops at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles June 16, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., noted in his homily that the bishops had gathered for their annual spring meeting at a moment when they and the world's Catholics were continuing to reflect upon the guidance Pope Benedict XVI offered through his first encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est" ("God is Love").

Pope Benedict "highlights one of the central tasks of our ministry as bishops -- to remind the world to love and to love authentically," said Bishop Skylstad, noting that Christian love is not just a sentiment, but requires people of faith to "love according to the truth."

He urged the bishops not to become discouraged by the world's brokenness. "We must remain confident, and even joyful, as we continue to remind the world of how to love God and our fellow men and women," he said.

The U.S. bishops, 269 in active ministry, shepherd 194 archdioceses and dioceses. There are more than 69 million Catholics in the United States, representing 23 percent of the country's population.

In his homily, Bishop Skylstad also spoke about marriage.

"Christ gives us the authentic blueprint for a faithful marriage," he said. "To love others in truth is to love marriage as God established it -- as an eternal lifelong union between man and woman.

"The joyful, sacrificial and forgiving love of spouses is one which is open to children and which in the appropriate and natural way integrates both agape and eros as our Holy Father reminded us in the encyclical," Bishop Skylstad said.

"True love respects and reveres life, from conception to natural death. Nor would it make use of the earliest stages of life for any purpose not consistent with the good of that life," he added.

Christian love also requires that people of faith respond to the needs of the impoverished, he said. "As God has dealt generously with us in our needs, so we must be alert to and generous with the poor, the marginalized in our midst," said Bishop Skylstad. "At this moment in our country's history we must also be moved to raise our voices and insist that the debate on immigration be based in true and authentic love."

The U.S. has a duty to protect its citizens and to secure its national boundaries through appropriate legal means, said the bishop.

"At the same time, love demands respect for the dignity and the needs of those who find themselves in our country wherever they are found," he continued. "In the words of our Holy Father, love of neighbor consists in the very fact that in God and with God, I love even the person I do not know. I learn to look on this other person, not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend."

He said the bishops' task "is to cry out that love of God and love of neighbor are not two acts, but one."

"We do indeed see many examples of good and strong families, of laity, religious and our brother priests who are living out the call to holiness, at times under difficult circumstances and conditions," he said.

"We all face in our dioceses the challenge similar to what we have seen here in Los Angeles, added the bishop, "that is to foster that love that builds a harmonious society and a single unified local church gathered around us as bishops in union with the Holy Father, integrating the many different languages and cultures into one."