“Giving a face to the faith”: that’s the title of a symposium organized by the Commission for pastoral service of the German Bishops’ Conference, due to be held in Munich/Freising on 15-16 October. The main focus of the meeting is that of the goals and perspectives of the episcopal document “Catechesis in a period of change”, presented on 23 September during the plenary session of the Bishops’ Conference in Fulda. With their document on catechesis, the German bishops intend to re-think “the traditional approaches to catechesis in families, in schools and in communities”. The result, as pointed out by the communiqué presenting the symposium issued on 11 October, is the “profile of a missionary catechesis”. The meeting, in which over a hundred participants have already enrolled, is aimed at bishops, consultants of episcopal commissions, members of work groups for pastoral ministry, diocesan delegates for catechesis, seminary teachers and lecturers at academies and university institutes. The main speakers will include Bishop Joachim Wanke of Erfurt, chairman of the Commission for pastoral service of the German Episcopal conference, and Msgr. Paul Wehrle, auxiliary bishop of Freiburg, chairman of the work group “Fundamental questions of parish pastoral care”. The symposium will end on Saturday, 16 October with a celebration officiated by Bishop Wanke.
