CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Switzerland: bishops’ plenary endsThe plenary assembly of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, meeting since 28 February at Mariastein for the 291st time, ended on 1st March. The main issues discussed by the bishops during their meeting included prayer and solidarity for the countries of North Africa, thanks to the volunteers during the Year of Volunteer Service 2011, called by the European Union, and a solution of some difficulties within the diocese of Chur. In the press release issued at the end of the plenary, the Bishops’ Conference recalled that “in the Catholic Church, the contribution of volunteers is of fundamental importance. The bishops thank the numerous volunteers who devote themselves in various ways to the needs of the Church, in parishes, in foundations, in associations, in committees or in individual initiatives”. The bishops also thanked “the faithful who show their fidelity to the Church by paying the ecclesiastical tax”. The communiqué also mentions a commission of experts, whose work “is still in progress”; it was set up with the aim of verifying the current juridical system that regulates relations between Church and State and formulating proposals for their improvement, including the differentiation between pastoral and administrative tasks.Ukraine: UGCC Synod to elect the new PrimateDuring the Synod of the Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), which is due to be held at Lviv-Briuchovychi from 21 to 24 March, the new Archbishop Major of Kyiv-Halyè and Primate of the UGCC will be elected. The new Primate will succeed Cardinal Lubomyr Husar following Benedict XVI’s acceptance on 10 February of his resignation for reasons of age from the post he has held for ten years. The Synod, to be held in the “Patriarch Josyf Slipyj” Retreat House, will be attended by fifty bishops, of whom 15 retired, mainly from Ukraine but also from America, Europe and Oceania. They will remain sitting until Benedict XVI’s confirmation of the election and the official proclamation of the new Archbishop Major. The enthronement ceremony will be held on Sunday 27 March in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Kiev. Legislative organ of the Church composed of bishops and normally convened once each year, the Synod determines internal and external policy, deals with the construction of ecclesial structures, and makes decisions on pastoral, ecumenical and educational questions. Archbishop Ihor Voznyak, temporary administrator of the archbishopric, has appealed “to everyone, both priests and laity, to pray so that” the choice of the UGCC leader “be according to God’s will”. Cardinal Husar has led the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church ever since the death of Cardinal Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, and was the first Primate of the UGCC to be elected by a special Synod of bishops, convened after the emergence of Greek-Catholics from the underground and after the proclamation of the independence of the Ukraine. There are estimated to be some 6.5 million Ukrainian Catholics, the majority of whom live in the country.Germany: congress on clandestine immigrationThe 7th annual Congress on illegality, with the title “Adjustment to reality? Possible political responses to clandestine immigration”, ended in Berlin on 4 March. The experts who intervened during the debate tried to identity a compromise between efforts to curb clandestine immigration and respect for human rights. Mgr. Norbert Trelle, chairman of the Forum “Leben in der Illegalität”, urged the federal government to implement the reform of the legislation on immigration and permit children without residence permits to go to school. “I am convinced that society and the political institutions are ready to attenuate the tension between the right of public order and fundamental social rights – said Mgr. Trelle – through pragmatic solutions that take both needs into account”. The Congress was promoted jointly by the Catholic Forum “Leben in der Illegalität” (“Life in Illegality”), by the Council for Immigration and by the Catholic Academy. The Council for immigration is an independent organization that brings together scholars on problems of immigration. The Forum for its part was founded in 2004 on the initiative of the Commission for immigration of the German Bishops’ Conference and comprises all Catholic organizations committed to the protection of immigrants without residence permits.
