Pastoral ministry for immigrants, beatification of 498 martyrs and illumination of the times: these were the main issues discussed by the permanent Commission of bishops of the Spanish Episcopal Conference which ended in Madrid in recent days. Bishop José Sánchez González of Sigüenza-Guadalajara, who chairs the episcopal committee for migration, presented a draft document on the “Church in Spain and the Pastoral Care of Immigrants” during the meeting. It contains various observations of the bishops on the issue. The document will be put to the vote at the next meeting of the Commission in November. The bishops also announced celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio . A Symposium sponsored by the Paul VI Foundation in Madrid and a message on the encyclical will mark the occasion. Meanwhile Cardinal Rouco, Archbishop of Madrid, has announced that the beatification of 498 martyrs of the 20th century, initially planned to be held in the basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls (Rome), will probably be shifted to St. Peter’s Square to accommodate the large number of pilgrims expected to attend.
