"Making room for the new extended Forum of about one hundred Catholic-inspired NGOs, which held its first meeting in Rome in November 2007, an initiative promoted by the Vatican Secretariat of State". This is the goal, according to a release published today, of the closing down of the Conference of International Catholic Organisations (Cico), as wanted by the General Assembly of the organisation held in Paris a few days ago. The decision was taken by a majority vote "at the end of a general policy debate states the document , which marked the end of one year’s multilateral talks". The current platform, explains the release, "promotes network-like exchanges, making the presence and responses of the United Nations and other intergovernmental institutions to the global challenges in the world more effective" and "helps keep together international public and private associations of lay devotees and religious congregations, with an international status with the intergovernmental authorities, around shared objectives and experiences on the evangelical values and the values conveyed by the social magisterium of the Church". This is the result concludes the release of a cooperation between the permanent observers of the Holy See, the members of several ministries and the international Catholic centres".
