” “For the first time in history, the presidents of the Catholic Bishops Conferences of Europe (Ccee) will meet in Russia from 4th to 8th October in Saint Petersburg, on the invitation of mgr. Joseph Werth, president of the Conference of the Catholic Bishops of the Russian Federation. For the occasion, the presidents of the 34 European Bishops Conferences that are members of the Ccee will vote on the new presidency for the five years 2006-2011 and the president bishops of the Commissions for the media, for the pastoral of migration, for the catechesis, school and university, and for vocations. The topic of the plenary meeting will be the reflection on the service of Ccee, which turns 35 in 2006. The bishops will try to locate the basic lines of the future activities for evangelisation. In the first part of the session, a delegate of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow and the archbishop of Moscow, mgr. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, will speak of the situation of religion and the Church in Russia. The second part of the session will instead be focussed on the vocational pastoral in Europe and the figure of the priest. The agenda also includes such subjects as marriage and family, the Church in Europe and across the world, the relationship between the Churches and the European Union, and the European integration process. The archbishop of Belgrade, mgr. Stanislav Hocevar, will introduce the next Third European Ecumenical Assembly (Aee3) of Sibiu (4-9 September 2007).” “
