Open doors to European bishops

Bratislava will host the annual Plenary Assembly of the presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on 3-6 October. Preparations for the event are in full swing, while the emphasis is placed on the panel speakers and their much anticipated contribution to the main theme of this important meeting – “God and the State: Europe in the midst of secularity and secularism.” The preparations are marked by intense efforts and activities of Slovak Catholic laity towards the state and society. In the footsteps of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. “For the Church in Slovakia, the meeting represents a great honour, enabling us to welcome the representatives of the faithful from all over Europe. It gives us an opportunity to thank them for the spiritual and material support given to our Bishops’ conference and to the whole Catholic Church in Slovakia”, said archbishop Stanislav Zvolenský, head of Catholic bishops in the country. According to the prelate, it’s symbolical that Bratislava will host the event tackling the topics regarding evangelization in a secularised world in the Jubilee Year of Sts. Cyril and Methodius – two great evangelizers who brought Christian faith to the Slavic nations 1150 years ago. As he explains, the main theme of the plenary assembly “touches very intensely the way of thinking of people in Slovakia” where – according to the result of the last Census of 2011 – 71.7% of inhabitants claim to belong a Christian denomination, with 62% Roman Catholics and 3.8% Greek Catholics among them. “The theme chosen for the event represents a basic challenge for the faithful who have ongoing contacts with secular institutions, the state system being at the first place among them”, commented Mons. Zvolenský, emphasizing that such contacts are an invitation for Catholic lay people to be active in public life and, according to their conscience, “to spread the values of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church”. Voice to be heard and considered. The words of the president of the Bishops’ conference are more topical today in Slovakia than ever before, explained the Slovak members of the organizing team of the plenary assembly, especially in regard to the National Strategy on Protection and Support of Human Rights that is being planned by the Government Council for Human Rights, Ethnical Minorities and Gender Equality. Its approval that was supposed to take place on 4 September has been postponed until June 2014, due to numerous appeals by representatives of the Catholic Church and 69 mainly Christian non-governmental organizations who requested the authorities to pay more attention to the “right of unborn children to life, right to conscientious objection, rights of parents, and right to religious freedom and freedom of expression”. The debate is gaining grounds across all areas of society and one could rightly underline that the voice of God is starting to be truly heard in the midst of secularism.Lay people – missionaries of values. “The role of Catholic laity in society is irreplaceable. Thanks to them, Christian values, mainly the need to protect life, family and marriage, become more visible. They witness in their everyday life that it’s possible to live in accordance with the Gospel in any environment, and this is very precious”, said Anton Ziolkovský, executive secretary of the Bishops’ Conference of Slovakia, emphasizing the importance of Catholic laity’s contribution. Members of the Slovak organizing team of the CCEE plenary believe it to be a key issue of the Catholic Church also in other European countries, hoping that the plenary assembly will provide an encouragement and renewed thrust to work in this area. The zeal of the Catholics is really visible. About 70,000 of them gathered at the National March for Life in Košice on 22 September to say their “yes” to protection of human life and its dignity, showing the rest of the society that they don’t intend to be silent about the crucial issues of existence. Encouragement of the Holy See. Words of encouragement in this regard came also from the representative of the Holy See – apostolic nuncio Mons. Mario Giordana who said that today, the society in Europe and the world, “soaked with the spirit of secularism, engaged in a battle against faith and against the Christian message, is loosing the fundamental meaning of natural human values and refuses to understand them as norms for behaviour”. Thus, Slovakia is getting ready for the plenary of CCEE in all directions, hoping to get the spur on this difficult but also beautiful path which – according to Jozef Kováèik, spokesman of the Bishops’ conference – seems “inevitable in the future” with an impact on the very core of humanity.Danka Jaceckova (Sir Europe – Bratislava)