Comece : father Mazurkiewicz is the new secretary generalFather Piotr Mazurkiewicz is the new secretary general of Comece (Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Community). “He has been elected – states a note from the European institution – by the member bishops of Comece, in agreement with the Vatican, for a three years’ term”. Father Mazurkiewicz – a native of Poland – replaces mgr. Noël Treanor, ordained bishop of Down and Connor (Northern Ireland) on June 9th this year and will take office on October 1st in Brussels. Mgr. Adrianus van Luyn, bishop of Rotterdam and president of Comece, hailed the appointment of father Mazurkiewicz “as a sign of hope for the Church in Europe”. Born in 1960, the new secretary general of Comece is a priest of the archdiocese of Warsaw, where he runs the Institute of Political Studies at Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University. The release adds that father Mazurkiewicz is an expert in European issues, political philosophy and the social doctrine of the Church. In 2002, he discussed a thesis to qualify in “Cultural identity of Europe in the context of the integration process”. At the service of the Polish Bishops Conference, he is a member of the groups of advisors on the European Union and in this capacity he has worked on several occasions for Comece, where he also took part in the drafting of the European Bishops’ report, named “The becoming of the European Union and the responsibility of the Catholics”. Italy: Mgr. Betori the new Archbishop of FlorenceThe general secretary of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), Monsignor Giuseppe Betori, hitherto titular bishop of Falerone, will be the new Archbishop of Florence. The Pope nominated him to the new post on 8 September. Born in Foligno on 25 February 1947, Mgr. Betori was ordained priest on 26 September 1970 and incardinated in the diocese of Foligno. He took his licence in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and his doctorate in Holy Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He was nominated general secretary of the CEI and elected to the titular Church of Falerone on 5 April 2001. His consecration as bishop took place in Foligno Cathedral on 6 May of the same year. He was reconfirmed in the post of general secretary of the CEI for a further five-year term on 6 April 2006. One curiosity: Giuseppe Betori, then a seminarian, was one of the youths who went to help during the flood in Florence in 1966, with other seminarians who are now bishops, Mgr. Monari, Mgr. Bianchi and Mgr. Coletti. Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the CEI, now in the Holy Land, has sent a “communication” in which he calls Mgr. Betori’s appointment “a joyful piece of news” and praises the new Archbishop of Florence for his “prompt, generous and daily dedication, combined with his capacities of mind and of heart”: he is a man who has earned the “esteem and gratitude of the Italian episcopate”. The new general secretary of the CEI will be nominated by the Pope on the proposal of the next permanent Episcopal Council.Portugal: more laity at the side of priestsThe national Missionary Congress on the theme of “Portugal’s experience of mission and opening of horizons” was recently held in Fatima. During the meeting, which ended on Sunday, 7 September, the chairman of the Bishops’ Commission of Missions, Mgr. António Couto, said that the ecclesiastical perspective cannot be characterized by a passive attitude of wait-and-see: “the majority of people are outside the Church, and we have the duty to enter into contact with them. Priests, however, cannot, nor should they, try to do so alone: we must prepare the laity who have this ability to mix with their fellowmen”. Mgr. Couto, auxiliary bishop of Braga, insisted on the need to transfer some functions of priests to lay believers: “The modern pronouncements of the Church teach us that wherever in the world a serious lay assistance does not exist the faith does not succeed in taking root: a hierarchy of ministers is not enough; far-reaching action is also needed in those social groups in which people’s life actually takes place: in families, in schools and on the work place”. “These are the places in which the gospel message must thrive and bear fruit, not just in sacristies, in parish halls and in churches themselves”, the bishop continued. “The priest – he said – must especially be an animator of other trained coadjutors. He must abandon the old role of single protagonist”. “The true missionary spirit must be transferred within parishes – stressed Mgr. Couto: for they are the houses of God that are found amid the houses where people live. That’s why it’s essential to revitalize them with serious and evangelically prepared laypeople to accompany those in need within parishes, and to hold out a welcoming hand to those who ask for help outside them”. “It is not walls that we evangelize – he concluded – but people who live in the real world. That’s why it’s important to have experience of what is happening in the world to be able to give words of comfort and provide concrete aid”. Spain: “no” to the new law on abortion”It’s an essential question of human rights in which what’s at stake are the constitutional right to life and the woman’s right not to be abandoned or left to fend for herself in the problems she faces. So it is not a question of experts but a political decision of whether to respect the right to life or not”, says a statement put out by the Spanish Families’ Forum, after the government’s announcement of a new law on abortion. The chairman of the Forum, Benigno Blanco, emphasized that “the committee designated [by the government] is utterly partisan and a mere a masquerade to conceal the government’s decision to liberalize abortion” with the help of these designated experts. The Spanish Families’ Forum emphasizes the need not to mislead public opinion on so essential an issue. Instead the government should be asked for “an explicit and unequivocal dedication to the fundamental value of human life and solidarity with the pregnant woman”. The Forum also draws attention to the fact that the panel of experts designated by the government includes a socialist PM and former president of the Association of authorized clinics for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy, while no representative of associations that defend the right to life, or associations that provide assistance to pregnant women are present on it. “We shall be the voice of those whom the government does not wish to hear: the unborn and defenceless children and the women abandoned to their fate following an unplanned pregnancy”, concludes the Forum’s statement.
