“The innumerable European saints have made the Gospel visible in the continent”: so said Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, president of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference, during the eucharistic celebration of the bishops held at Eibnitz on 9 March. The episcopate is meeting in plenary assembly at Seggauberg. One issue on the agenda that assumes particular significance is the Katholikentag (Congress) for the Catholics of Central Europe (MEKT). It will be discussed both from a spiritual and organizational viewpoint. According to Schönborn, “the slogan of MEKT: ‘Christ Hope of Europe'”, is a response to the “great nostalgia for the authentic masters of the Christian life”. At the end of the rite, the bishops met representatives of the ecclesiastical, political, economic, cultural and media worlds. During this meeting, the president of the regional diet of Steiermark, Reinhold Purr, referred to the imminent enlargement of the EU, pointing out that one of its consequences is “the task of rendering more visible the Christian roots of Europe”. The Evangelic superintendent Hermann Miklas, in his role as chairman of the Ecumenical Forum of Christian Churches, declared that “Europe, that is growing together, may learn a lot from ecumenism: caution and patience in reciprocal respect”.
