Thoughts, experience, projects

Collegiality amongst Europe’s Bishops Conferences, ecumenism and the Church’s relations with the cultural and social realm, are the major areas of interest of Ccee (Council of European Bishops’ Conferences). Some the most important events of the past months include the meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences of South-Eastern Europe in Sophia at the end of February; the meeting in Taizé (France) of Ccee Secretariat in March, and the Budapest encounter of Ccee Presidency and Comece on European reality, in response to the kind invitation of His Eminence Cardinal Péter Erdö, which was held at the end of April. Ccee Presidency also defined the program of the 2008 plenary assembly on the Church’s relations with the media, scheduled from September 30 to October 3rd in Esztergom (Hungary). Past February, London hosted the meeting of the joint Ccee-Cec Committee, while the joint Ccee-Cec Committee for Relations with Muslims in Europe (Crme) met in Esztergom in the month of April. The Executive Committee of the European Bishops Media Commission (Ceem) held its encounter in Rome at the end of April. Also in Rome, on June 11-14 Ccee press officers and spokesman will hold their convention. The General Secretaries of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences will convene in Covadonga (Spain) June 26-30. Follows a survey of recent initiatives by European Churches. Each issue of SIR Europe examines at length Churches’ activities throughout the Continent. Belarus. In the month of February, a Conference on the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady from Lourdes was held in the Church of Saint Simone and Helena in Misnk. The event was attended by prelates from Belarus and Russia, including an Orthodox priest. In February and March the diocese of Vitebsk held a series of Days against Aids. Priests, monks and parishioners promoted meetings and conferences on this issue in schools, universities and parishes. On March 1st, in the Cathedral of Minsk, over 5thousand young Catholics from Belarus attended for the first time the “space bridge” prayer with Pope Benedict XVI together with the youth from different continents. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Past February, the X Plenary meeting of the Bishops Conference of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of Croatia’s Bishops Conference took place in Banjaluka. The bishops analyzed the issues of mutual interest such as pastoral care for Croatians abroad and the initiative of Croatia’s Caritas: “The week of solidarity with the Church and people of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. On April 26-29 the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with the States, archbishop Dominique Mamberti, paid a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he met with politicians to continue the works on the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and Bosnia-Herzegovina, ratified in 2007 and which will soon be implemented. Bulgaria. From February 28 to March 2 the annual meeting of the Presidents of the Bishops Conferences of South-East Europe organized by Ccee took place in Sofia on “Preparation to marriage and spiritual counseling of spouses, especially in ‘mixed’ marriages and inter-faith marriages”. The Presidents of the Bishops Conferences decided to prepare a Pastoral Care handbook for priests, pastoral workers and couples. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Orthodox Church and Muslim scholars. Bulgaria’s government was represented by the director of the Department for Religious Confessions of the Council of Ministers. The President of Bulgaria awarded Apstolic nuncio Msgr. Giuseppe Lanza with the “Stara Planina” medal in acknowledgement of his commitment for the Bulgarian People. Msgr. Lanza terminated his diplomatic mission in the Country, from which he left at the end of April headed for Dublin for his new assignment. Czech Republic. During the past weeks, the Czech Bishops Conference and the Ecumenical Council of Churches launched an awareness campaign on Church-State agreements: “Co, kdo a komu” (what, who and to whom). The Government proposed to return a part of the goods confiscated to religious orders (30%) and reimburse the rest. The estimated value of the property usurped by the Communist regime in 1948 amounts to 134 billion Czk (approximately € 5,3 billion). The Parliament will be voting the proposal in June. On April 10, Reverend Msgr. Jan Graubner, President of the Bishops Conference, held a meeting with the Health Minister Tomas Julinek for an exchange of views on special medical care. The bishops claim that IVF must be viewed as the very last step in infertility therapies and that this should be performed only after other therapies failed. “We found an agreement over different issues”, the archbishop declared. Lithuania. During the Plenary Meeting of Lithuania’s Bishops Conference, held in the month of March, the new Statute of the S. Casimiro Pontifical Lithuanian College in Rome was approved. Lithuanian Bishops decided to hold an international gathering of youth in Vilnius, together with the Taizé community, in May 2009 on the occasion of the millenary since the word “Lithuania” was first pronounced in the description of the life and death of Saint Brunon Boniface Querfurt in the Baltic Countries. In 2009 Vilnius will be Europe’s capital of culture. Moldavia. The diocese of Chisinau has been working to intensify ecclesial communion especially between the bishop and the presbyters (diocesan and religious) as also among presbyters only. During the Mass, the bishop, reverend Msgr. Antonio Cosa, provided instruction for the local Church and clearly identified the Pastoral guidelines which ought to be followed by parishes, clergy and religious families. Past May 3rd Msgr. Petro Herkulan Malchuk, appointed as auxiliary bishop of Odessa-Simferopol, in Ukraine, received Episcopal ordination. The new bishop was born in the Moldavian Republic. Hence, this event bears special significance to Moldavia’s Church. Romania. In the month of April Caritas Romania organized in the cities of Iasi and Bucarest a symposium called “Man and the Market”, in the framework of which it presented the compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church translated into the Romanian language. The meeting was attended among others by Cardinal Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, by Msgr. Ioan Robu, archbishop of Bucarest, by the president of Romania’s bishops Conference, Msgr. Petru Gherghel, bishop of Iasi, the auxiliary bishops and a large number of priests, religious, faithful and representatives of civil institutions active in social work. Russia. On March 25 Msgr. Paolo Pezzi, ordinary form the archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, and prelate Vladimir Shmaliy, Secretary of the Theological Commission of Moscow’s patriarchate, presented Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical “Spe Salvi” in the “Spiritual library”, the cultural centre of the capital city. At the end of the month the mixed Catholic-Orthodox working commission gathered in Vladimir (180 km from Moscow). Participants met with Msgr. Yevlogiy, bishop of Vladimir and Suzdal. During the meeting special emphasis was placed on the positive cooperation of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in the region of Vladimir. During the past weeks, Msgr.Pezzi convened in Moscow with Metropolitan bishop Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, head of the department for foreign affairs of Moscow’s Orthodox Patriarchate. Scandia. In the month of March the Spring Plenary Assembly of the Nordic Bishops Conference was held in Stiklestad, in the diocese of Trondheim (Norway). Debates focused on the project of a Pastoral Letter on adult catechesis. The new statutes for the formation of permanent deacons were also approved. During the assembly bishops had the opportunity of greeting the new bishop of Nordic Countries, archbishop Paul Tscherrig. Msgr. Peter Bürcher, new bishop of Iceland, took part in the meeting for the first time. Slovakia. On February 14, 2008 Benedict XVI disposed the restoration of Latin ecclesial parishes in Slovakia. Having partitioned the area of the Metropolitan archdiocese of Bratislava-Trnava, the Pope erected the Metropolitan archdiocese of Bratisava and established the suffragen archdiocese of Trnava. The Pope then erected the new diocese of Žilina, from the partition of the dioceses of Nitra and Banská Bystrica, whose seat is Žilina. This is suffragen of Bratislava’s Metropolitan Church. Msgr. Stanislav Zvolenský was appointed Metropolitan bishop of Bratislava.SS. Cyril and Methodius. During the past weeks, the XX Plenary Assembly of the International Bishops Conference of Saints Cyril and Methodius took place in Belgrade. The Assembly was attended, among others, by the delegate bishops of neighboring Bishops Conferences: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Hungary and Slovenia. The main topics of the Assembly were: the condition of the Catholic minorities living in the Country with Orthodox majority; Catholic families living in a diaspora situation and the situation of ecumenism. In their addresses, delegates explained that in Orthodox-majority Countries ecumenical relations are difficult. For this reason bishops intend to devote greater emphasis to the Ravenna document. The Serb Republic has been awaiting the enforcement of legislation on denationalization. The dioceses of the Catholic Church, stripped of a large amount of their possessions under Communist rule, are expecting their restoration by the State.