Thoughts, experiences, projects” “

The annual meeting of the general secretaries of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) at St. Gallen (Switzerland, 26-30 May 2005) focused on a number of important issues such as the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, bioethical questions, ecumenism, the relation of the Church with the European institutions; issues that continue to be at the centre of the commitment of the bishops of the continent. During the meeting in Zagreb (Croatia, 18-21 July 2005), the CCEE executive prepared the agenda for the plenary assembly scheduled to be held in Rome from 29 September to 2 October. Meanwhile, preparations continue for the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (EEA3) due to be held in Sibiu (Romania) from 4 to 8 September 2007 on the theme “May the light of Christ illuminate everyone. Hope of renewal and unity in Europe”. In recent months the CCEE and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) have held a competition for the realization of the assembly’s logo. Meetings have also been held between the preparatory committee of EEA3, the Romanian Bishops’ Conference and the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. As regards the relations between the Churches and European culture, some twenty press officers and webmasters of the various bishops’ conferences of Europe met for the first time in Rome in recent months to promote greater reciprocal cooperation. We present below a review of the most recent activities of the European Churches and their projects for the months ahead. ALBANIA. After years of intensive work by a Commission composed of representatives of the Holy See and the Albanian government, the “Law on the procedures for the recognition of the juridical personality of ecclesiastical juridical persons of the Catholic Church” was recently published in Albania’s Official Gazette. BELARUS. During the 25th plenary assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of Belarus (CECB) held in Minsk in recent months, Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek informed the bishops of the decision of the Apostolic See to extend for a further five years (to the end of 2010) the validity of the CECB statute. The questions examined at the meeting included the pastoral programmes for the parishes and dioceses for the next two years; a programme to pay tribute to John Paul II; and the formation of candidates to the priesthood. The translation into Bielorussian of the Rite of Confirmation was approved and sent to the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. BELGIUM. The bishops recently issued a statement on the bill for the adoption of children by homosexual couples, emphasizing that such a measure would give credence to the mistaken conviction that homosexual couples are a mere variant of the couple formed of man and woman. To legalize this type of adoption, say the bishops, “would only increase the confusion about the sexual difference that is the fundamental parameter of the family”. The bishops also announced that they would shortly undertake a reflection on the various opportunities regarding the catechesis of adults, with a view to the formulation of guidelines for the Centre of permanent formation, Caritas and the Faculty of Theology. BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA. During the session of the Council for the means of Communication in July, the new Handbook was presented and discussion focused on the celebration of the national Day for the Means of Communication planned in the country on 25 September. The Council for the Family examined the “Handbook for the Family”, the proposed statute for an association of Catholic families, and the agenda for the celebration of Pro-Life Day 2006. CROATIA. “The Year of the Eucharist – The pastoral tasks of the local Churches” was the theme of the plenary assembly of the Croatian Bishops’ Conference held in Zagreb in recent months. The questions discussed at the assembly included the preparations for WYD in Cologne, the organization of Croatian Caritas, the pastoral care of students, the juridical personality of the lay associations and the means of social communication. The bishops also discussed preparations for the joint Slovene-Croatian pilgrimage to Brezje (Slovenia) on 24 September. In recent weeks the bishops also met the representatives of the Croatian Conference of Superiors Major in Zagreb to discuss the convention for the assignment of parishes to religious priests and joint work in the promotion of the vocational ministry. Agreement was reached on the text of the convention. HUNGARY. Negotiations aimed at the realization of a bilateral accord between the Hungarian State and the Holy See continued in recent months. The Hungarian State does not recognize the criterion of financing requested by the Church for Catholic schools. The closing of the Eucharistic Year will take place in Budapest on 17 September, with the celebration of the national Eucharistic Congress. Representatives of the dioceses, religious communities and ecclesial movements will participate in the event. LITHUANIA. The main questions discussed by the Lithuanian bishops meeting in plenary assembly in recent weeks included a book-keeping model for internal use, which ought to enter into service next year, strategies to obtain refunds for land confiscated from the Church, and a pastoral letter on the growing dissemination of occult practices. In July Cardinal Audrys Backis, president of the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference, led the celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the first Benedictine foundation in Lithuania at the monastery of Palendriai. MALTA. While expressing understanding for and solidarity with couples who are unable to have children by natural means, “the Church has the duty to recall that children are never a right, because each person conceived is a gift freely given by God”. That is a key passage in the statement that the Maltese bishops published in recent weeks, as part of the debate going on in the country on in vitro fertilization (test-tube babies). A bill on the matter is currently being drafted. “The duty of the Church to protect and promote human life from the moment of conception to natural death is the prerogative not only of Christians – write the bishops -, but of all those who wish to contribute to the moral order of society. Each positive law must recognize and guarantee these duties and obligations”. POLAND. The session of the permanent Council and of diocesan bishops was held at Jasna Gora in recent weeks. The main theme of the meeting: reflection on the achievements of the pontificate of John Paul II. The bishops then made an official invitation to Benedict XVI to visit the country. The 3rd national Congress of Catholic movements and associations was inaugurated at Warsaw in recent weeks; it is due to end in 2007. The inaugural ceremony, held in the presence of Bishop Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, was attended by some 600 representatives of over 100 Catholic movements and associations in Poland and in 17 other European countries. SLOVAKIA. The Third Slovak Eucharistic Congress, for which the Pope has nominated as his own special representative Cardinal Jozef Tomko, chairman of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, will be held in Bratislava from 11 to 18 September. During the congress the second anniversary of the third apostolic journey of John Paul II to Slovakia (11-14 September 2003) will be celebrated; during that visit the Pope beatified the Greek Catholic martyr Bishop Vasil Hopko and the religious Sister Zdenka Cecilia Schelingova. The Slovak Bishops’ Conference, which has prepared for the occasion of the congress a pastoral letter that will be read out in all the dioceses, also approved the changes “of the gestures and attitudes” of the faithful during mass in all the particular churches in order to unify them in conformity with the new Missale romanum editio typica tertia. SLOVENIA. During the 23rd ordinary Assembly of the Slovene Bishops’ Conference held in recent weeks, the bishops outlined the future course of the pastoral ministry, planning inter alia a National Pastoral Day for 2007. Two further significant events will characterize the life of the Slovenian Church in the months ahead. The first is the joint Slovene-Croatian pilgrimage to the national Marian sanctuary at Brezje (Slovenia) on 24 September, in continuity with the events planned after the meeting in Mariazell in 2004, and following the Croatian-Slovenian pilgrimage to the sanctuary of Maria Bistrica (Croatia) in 2003. A meeting of the CCEE general secretaries will be held at the diocesan seminary of Ljubljiana from 24 to 27 June 2006. SPAIN. The Spanish Bishops’ Conference issued a statement in recent weeks, protesting that, in breach of the Accords between State and Church signed in 1979, it had not been consulted about the new bill on education which has been approved by the Government and will now pass to the examination of Parliament. The provision places in question the continuance of religious education in schools and the very existence of so-called educational centres of social initiative, most of which are owned by the religious congregations. TURKEY. The questions discussed during the meeting of the Bishops’ Conference of Turkey (CET) held in recent weeks included the present situation of the Latin Church in the country. The president of the Turkish episcopate and archbishop of Izmir, Ruggero Franceschini, underlined the problems deriving from the lack of legal recognition of the Church as a moral entity, the need for the Christian communities to have suitable places for worship and the importance of the formation of new priests. The apostolic nuncio in Turkey and Turkmenistan, Edmond Farhat, drew attention to the address given by Pope Benedict XVI in Bari and the commitment to ecumenism assumed by the pontiff. The Synod on the theme of the Eucharist as source of the Church will be held in the autumn; Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar in Anatolia, will take part in it as representative of the CET.