MESSAGE
The president of the German Bishops Conference, card. Reinhard Marx, sent a letter to Thomas Sternberg, who was reappointed president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) during the meeting that opened in Bonn this morning. Sternberg’s tenure was renewed with 92% of the votes. In the letter, as reported by a release from the press office of the Bishops Conference, card. Marx thanks, on his own and on the other bishops’ behalf, for “the renewed availability to fulfil this assignment”, “for the confident cooperation and positive exchanges between us, that we have experienced on several occasions”. Marx defines the “diversity of the positions upheld within the Central Committee as an element of enrichment”: despite the controversial situations that may occur, “we are united by the goal of testifying to our Christian faith in the church and in society”, the letter states. “At a time in which the transmission and the testimony of faith in the public sphere are getting ever more difficult, we must find ways to present a united front”. According to the cardinal, such positive partnership is also proven by the fact that for the very first time the German Bishops Conference will take part in the Katholikentag 2018 in Münster with an initiative of its own. The 2018 event has actually been included in the agenda of the Zdk meeting, along with the problems of asylum and migration. The deputy president of the EU Commission, Frans Timmermans, will take the floor in the afternoon.
