“Christ, hope of Europe”: that’s the slogan of the “Mitteleuropäischer Katholikentag “, the first assembly of the Catholics of Central Europe, organized by eight European bishops’ conferences: Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. A delegation led by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Episcopal Conference, and composed of leading exponents of the other episcopates including archbishops Franjo Komarica of Bosnia, Josip Bozanic of Croatia and Istvan Seregely of Hungary, had a meeting with the president of the European Commission Romano Prodi in Brussels on 13 January. “Europe has a soul that needs to be rediscovered,” affirmed Cardinal Schönborn; this may also be achieved through the “great places of pilgrimage”, since “integration especially takes place along the spiritual and religious routes by which Europe was formed”. The assembly is due to open between 31 May and 1st June this year and will end between 22 and 23 May 2004 with the “Pilgrimage of peoples” to the Marian sanctuary of Mariazell (Austria).
