Comece: Lisbon Treaty and EU integration”After the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and the decision of the German Constitutional Court: What is the future for European integration?”: that’s the main theme on the agenda of the autumn plenary assembly of COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) scheduled to be held in Brussels from 18 to 20 November. The plenary will open on the afternoon of 18 November; in the evening the bishops will attend the annual reception of the Katholisches Büro and the EKD (Lutheran Church of Germany). An address by the Rev. Joachim Wanke, Bishop of Erfurt, is expected. Three main reports are scheduled for the following day. First, Frank Schorkopf, director of the Institute of International and European Law (University of Göttingen), will speak on “The perspective of the German Constitutional Court”. Second, Piotr Nowina-Konopka, director of relations with national parliaments (Secretariat of the European Parliament), will explain “The perspective of the European Parliament. Lastly, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, judge of the European Court of Justive (ECJ), will outline “The perspective of the European Court of Justice”. The session will be held in camera. A press conference will be held at 2.00 pm in COMECE headquarters (square de Meeûs 19).Italy: the Pope’s message to the bishops”The emergence of the educational challenge is a sign of the times that urges Italy as a whole to place the formation of the new generations at the centre of our attention and commitment, according to our respective responsibilities and in the framework of a wide-ranging convergence of aims”, says Benedict XVI in the message he has sent to the President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, on the occasion of its 60th general assembly now being held in Assisi. According to the Pope, education is “an essential and ongoing need of the life of the Church” and “is situated at the very heart of her mission, aimed at ensuring that each person may meet and follow the Lord Jesus, Way that leads to the authenticity of love, Truth that comes to meet us and Life of the world”. The educational challenge, emphasizes the Holy Father, “is posed to all sectors of the Church and demands that the great questions of the contemporary world be tackled with determination: that relating to the nature of man and his dignity – decisive element for the complete formation of the person – and the ‘question of God’, which seems more urgent than ever in our time”.Russia: new website of the archdiocese of MoscowOn 1st November, All Saints, the Archbishop of Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, announced the creation of the new official website of the archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow (www.cathmos.ru). The site contains news, for the time being only in Russian, on the diocese and its activities, and on the most significant events in the life of the Catholic Church in the world. In the area dedicated to the archbishop can be found a biography of Monsignor Pezzi, his homilies, pastoral letters and interviews. Russian visitors to the site unfamiliar with Western spirituality may consult pages dedicated to the liturgy and to the main prayers of the Latin Catholic tradition. The website also presents the various communities of consecrated life and lay movements present in the territory, and the cultural and educational institutions linked to the archdiocese: the St. Thomas Institute of Philosophy, Theology and History; the “Library of the Spirit” Cultural Centre; the “Art of the Good” Foundation”; Radio “Dar” in Moscow and “Radio Maria” in St. Petersburg; and many publishing houses. The multimedia area contains downloadable photos and videos of significant events, as well as historical and contemporary images of the Catholic churches in the diocese.Romania: cause for the beatification of 7 bishops openedThe process for the beatification of seven bishops of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, who “died in prison following the Communist persecution begun in 1948”, has been officially opened by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Having reached its last phase, that of the Congregation in Rome, the process proposes the beatification of Cardinal Iuliu Hossu, Archbishop Valeriu Traian Frentiu and Bishops Vasile Aftenie, Ioan Suciu, Alexandru Rusu, Tit Liviu Chinezu and Ioan Balan. Among them, Iuliu Hossu, the first Romanian cardinal of the Greek-Catholic Church, is particularly distinguished. Shortly before being arrested, he had tried to present the Statute of the Catholic Church in the country to the authorities. Before dying, he expressed thanks for his arrest: “I know in whom I believe and am strengthened by the conviction that He shall preserve all the good that has been entrusted to me until the life to come (…) and, among them, the greatest good of all is my arrest for the faith” with its attendant “contempt, humiliation, hunger and privation of every kind, death in solitary confinement and isolation from society”. The opening of the process was announced by the Synod of the Greek-Catholic Church which recently concluded its autumn session with a moment of prayer in commemoration of the “61st anniversary of the arrest of the entire Greek-Catholic hierarchy on the night of 28 October 1948”.
