"Following our elderly brothers and sisters who over the centuries have made their contribution to its cultural, human and spiritual identity, we too now want to play our part so that Europe will not lose its deep roots". This was written in the message that was published at the end of the General Assembly of Ucesm (Union of European Conferences of Superiors Major) which was held from 11 to 17 February in Torhout, Belgium. The Assembly which brought together the delegates of the 38 Conferences of religious men and women of 26 European countries, on behalf of the 400 thousand religious men and women living in Europe was also attended by card. Franc Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for the institutes of consecrated life. "We, religious men and women reads the message , feel like the sons and daughters of this Europe of the painful history, with its tensions, its contradictions and its weaknesses, but we want to be the bearers of a project of spirituality and fraternity". The religious people explain that their proposal for Europe is the fruit of communal living as a "place of fraternity and communion", "a school of relations", "of reconciliation and forgiveness", of "hospitality". The assembly appointed new president sister Lutgardis Craeynest (a Belgian Salesian) and deputy president father Manuel Joaquim Gomes Barbosa (a Portuguese dehonian).
