The "silent genocide" in Congo and the Church involvement in the media have been the main themes of the 282nd ordinary assembly of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference who was held in Lucerne on 1st and 2nd December. The news is announced in a statement released today. "Swiss Bishops and Abbots are worried" about "the dramatic civil war in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo," reads the statement that refers to the letter sent by the prelates to the president of Congolese Bishops Mgr Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya last 1st December. After having examined the report by Mgr Jean-Paul Rüttman on catholic involvement in the media in Italian Switzerland – the third after those carried out in the French and German parts , the prelates expressed "the urgent necessity to improve the planning, the co-ordination and the management of Church communication at both regional and national levels." In collaboration with some experts, Mgr Rüttman is working on the draft of a "Business-Plan" on the subject. Following the meeting on State-Church relations, which was held in November in Lugano, the Bishops decided to establish an expert group with the task of clarifying and analysing thoroughly the questions that had been raised on the matter."” “
