The plenary assembly of the Czech Episcopal Conference (CBK), held at Velehrad, ended with a press conference on 4 July. At the meeting the bishops of the Czech Republic drafted a declaration on the persecution of Christians. “We believe it is impossible for us to remain silent”, said the President of the CBK, the Right Rev. Jan Graubner. The bishops also discussed the document Ratio nationalis institutionalis sacerdotalis , a programmatic document on the country’s seminaries and theological faculties. The bishops took cognisance of the text and its observations. After possible amendments, it will be sent to the Holy See to be approved. The bishops also decided on the representatives of the CBK to attend the Synod of Bishops in 2008: the Czech Republic will be represented by Cardinal Miloslav Vlk. The wide variety of other questions discussed by the bishops included some annual reports on institutions of the Bishops’ Conference, and the approaching the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu (Romania), in which ten representatives of the CBK will participate, including Bishops Ladislav Hucko and Frantisek Radkovsky. Also on the agenda was the question of Church-State relations, currently subject to negotiations with the Czech authorities. For this reason, the bishops decided that the commission that will negotiate relations with the government commission set up in May will be composed by the Permanent Council – Archbishop Jan Graubner, Cardinal Miloslav Vlk, and Bishops Frantisek Lobkowicz, Ladislav Hucko and Dominik Duka. The CBK commission will be completed by representatives of the religious orders and delegates of the Ecumenical Council of Churches. At the final press conference, Cardinal Vlk and Archbishop Graubner presented a document drafted by the plenary with the title “Life and mission of Christians in the Church and in the world”, which was solemnly delivered to the diocesan bishops on 5 July. As described by Cardinal Vlk, the document is in two parts: the mission of priests, religious and laity in the Church and in the world. “The task of the Church is not to interfere in politics but to present the values essential for the life of society”, explained the cardinal.
