The spring session of the plenary meeting of the German Catholic Bishops is opening today at the monastery of Reute. Unusually, instead of the Lenten time, this year the meeting is held after Easter due to the recent pilgrimage of the Bishops Conference to the Holy Land. Several items are on the agenda of the 70 Bishops gathered until April 13th, such as a family policy that will provide more opportunities for assisting children under three years of age and a pension reform that will be more suitable to the families. In addition, the Bishops will select the topics for the pro-Life Week for the three years 2008-2010. Wednesday 11th will be the day of a workshop about the prospects of the pastoral, in particular the reforming processes with which the 27 dioceses react to lower income from church taxes, and to the drop in the number of Catholics and priests. The plenary meeting will also discuss the developments of digital mass media, with special reference to the representation of violence and the new virtual worlds. The guests of the plenary meeting are mgr. Anthony Fisher, auxiliary bishop of Sydney, who will speak of the next WYD, and card. Ouellet, who will speak of the 49th international Eucharistic congress, due in Canada in 2008.
