After the injustice and damages” “

The Slovene Bishops’ Council (SBC) met for its plenary assembly in Ljubljana on 28-29 November 2005. In the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio in Slovenia, Monsignor Abril y Castelló Santos, the assembly opened with some reports from delegates who had participated in various international meetings, in particular the 11th Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist in Rome and the plenary assembly of COMECE in Brussels. The bishops approved the Statutes of three national organizations: the Committee for pastoral care in the healthcare sector, the Missionary Centre and the Christian Fraternity of Patients and Invalids. They also confirmed the nomination of France Dolinar as chairman of the Council for Ecclesiastical Archives of the SBC. BIBLE AT THE CENTRE. The bishops decided to proclaim 2007 “Year of the Bible”, to coincide with the holding of the International Biblical Congress in Ljubljana in July 2007. They also discussed the role of the Catholic Church within the Slovene Bible Association and tackled some questions connected with the problem of the de-nationalization of ecclesiastical properties. The plenary assembly of bishops was also attended by the delegates of the Bishops’ Conferences of Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. The president of COMECE, Msgr. Josef Homeyer, together with the Secretary of the same Commission, Msgr. Noel Treanor, also participated in the work and took part in the eucharistic concelebration in the cathedral of St. Nicholas officiated by the President of the SBC, Msgr. Franc Kramberger. In his intervention to the assembly, Bishop Homeyer spoke of some of the main challenges posed to the Church by the European Union, especially in consideration of the fact that some 60% of the population of the EU declare themselves Catholics and many of them, in case of need, turn to the Catholic Church for help. “All the Popes – he said – have hitherto supported unification in the EU. The late-lamented John Paul II, in his Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Europa”, had invited Catholics to think, pray and act in a European spirit”. The words of the President of COMECE were followed by those of the delegates of the neighbouring Bishops’ Conferences, reporting on the most important events that have marked ecclesial life in their respective countries over the last year. The Italian, Austrian, Hungarian and Croatian delegates also described some specific aspects of the challenges tackled in their own local Churches. SLOVENE CHURCH PROPERTY. On this controversial point the bishops expressed, in a communiqué, signed by Msgr. Franc Kramberger, all their concern “in response to the opposition expressed in Slovenia in political and media circles to the law on religious liberty, prepared by the Government, although most of the Churches and religious movement have evaluated it in a positive way”. The SBC says it is convinced that “the approval of the law can provide the necessary legal foundations for the normalization of the position of the Slovene Catholic Church in the light of the Accord between the Republic of Slovenia and the Holy See on juridical questions, on the basis of which State and Church are independent and autonomous in terms of organization, but cooperate in the search for the common good and the progress of the person”. In this regard the SBC says it is “willing to collaborate [with the State] and make its contribution wherever possible”. On the question of Church property – which, following de-nationalization, has been returned, or will be returned, to the respective juridical persons of the Catholic Church, of whom there are over a thousand in Slovenia – the bishops explain that “erroneous data on the scale of this property have been diffused in public opinion” and point out that “the injustice and damages suffered by the Church during the Communist regime through various forms of repression, including the nationalization of most church property, will never be totally healed”. To strengthen its position, the SBC “authorises the Slovene Ministry of Justice to furnish data on the de-nationalization of church property to those with a legitimate interest in it”. At the same time they ask the mass media to provide “reliable and integral information, to inform public opinion also on the condition of properties returned to the Church and the obligations and duties that juridical persons assume at the moment of restitution”.