Portugal, Germany, CCEE

Portugal: rethinking the evangelization of Gypsies In his address for the 39th national meeting for the pastoral care ofgypsies, that closed Sunday November 25 in Viana do Castelo, devoted to the theme, "Gospel Proclamation in the Roma reality", the director of the national works (ONPC), father Francisco Sales, said: "The Catholic Church ought to reconsider her mission towards the Gipsy communities, by promoting greater evangelization and less charity. Father do Castelo recalled that the Gipsy community, currently consisting of 50 thousand people, has been present in Portugal for many centuries, marked by a strongly Catholic connotation. He added, "in many regions it’s not a question of pastoral care, as in most dioceses Christ proclamation for the gipsy community is not a priority". Father Sales recognized that the situation of gipsies, who have a completely different view of the world, is very difficult". But he underlined that the "Catholic Church has received a mandate and a responsibility to deal with all populations". "Early Christians addressed pagan cultures, and they weren’t afraid to evangelize. Instead, it seems that today, having to face a community that lives on the margins of society, people are uninterested". Under the thrust of the Year of Faith the national meeting on the Pastoral care of Gipsy people has decided to reconsider its organization and its objectives: "Unless the Church lets herself be transformed by apostolic zeal – concluded father Sales -, opening up to the reality of the world at all levels, the Year of Faith will indeed be a celebration full of beautiful things, but it will leave many things just as they were before".Germany: Munich monstrance in dioceses The first Sunday of Advent coincides in Germany with the beginning of spiritual preparations for the Eucharistic Congress scheduled to take place in Cologne June 5-9 2012. It was announced by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK) in a release issued November 24. Whilst preparing the event, the Munich monstrance, used in 1960 in Munich for liturgical celebrations of the international Eucharistic Congress will be brought to all German dioceses. The beginning of the journey is in Freiburg: in the archdiocese of Msgr. Robert Zollitsch, president of DBK on December 1st, will be celebrated a Mass in the cathedral that will mark the beginning of preparations. The monstrance will reach Cologne for the solemn celebrations of Corpus Domini after having passed a week across the various dioceses, where Eucharistic adoration will be used as a prayer for the preparation for the days in Cologne. The Eucharistic Congress next June, organized by DBK, draws inspiration from a passage from the Gospel of John: "Lord, to whom shall we go?" For five days the meeting will take place with a series of Eucharistic celebrations, along with forums, theological conferences, a broad program of cultural events, a festival for the youth and a set of charity programs.CCEE: meeting of bishops of Eastern rite in Croatia How to promote the contribution of the Catholic churches of Eastern rite in Europe, in ecumenical dialogue but above all in support of the increasingly numerous immigrants coming from South Eastern Europe and the devotees of the Eastern Catholic churches. All this, "aware that there is still a certain ignorance in the Catholic Church itself" about the liturgical, theological and cultural traditions of the Eastern Churches. This is what has been talked about by about 60 participants, bishops and experts, who from 22nd to 25th November took part in the yearly meeting of the Eastern Catholic bishops in Europe. This year, the meeting was held in Zagreb-Krievci (Croatia), on the invitation of the bishop of Krievci, mgr. Nikola Kekiæ, with the support of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccee). Croatia has been chosen as the venue of the conference – as stated in a release published by Ccee – to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the renewed union of the Croatian Greek Catholic church with the Apostolic See of Rome, sanctioned and known as the Union of Marèa. In a message to the participants, the president of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccee), card. Péter Erdõ, expressed the wish that the traditions of the Catholic churches of Eastern rite "may be better known and loved by the faithful and the clergy of all the world". During the meeting, the bishops spoke of the role the Eastern churches may play "in ecumenical dialogue, especially with the Orthodox churches"; of the way "the "pastoral care of the bishops of Latin rite, who receive in their dioceses increasingly numerous communities of faithful of Eastern rite, is manifested in Europe today". "The specific contribution to the new evangelisation of the Eastern churches – the release published by Ccee states – involves first and foremost "faithfulness" to a model of evangelisation "where the announcement of the Gospel is imbued with and fed by a deep spirituality". "Add to this the testimony, the martyrdom, of so many bishops, priests and lay devotees, which now looks like a gift when faced with the anthropological crisis that often makes modern man unable to justify himself and the direction of his life". On Saturday 24th November, the participants had a private audience with the president of he Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipoviæ. In 2013, the meeting will take place in Slovakia, at Košice, which next year will be the European Capital of Culture, from 17th to 20th October, to coincide with the 1150th anniversary of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the country, and on the invitation of mgr. Milan Chautur, bishop of Kosice.