"What we are and what we want to be: this is the element to define European identity. It is a cultural project involving everybody, and the Catholic Church intends to go on paying its contribution to it". Father Piotr Mazurkiewicz, new secretary general of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE), said that in Brussels today, during his first meeting with journalists at the seat of COMECE itself. Father Mazurkiewicz was appointed to succeed Msgr. Noel Treanor, current bishop of Down & Connor, Ireland, and is going to coordinate the activities of this body of the Catholic Church in Europe, presided over by the bishop of Rotterdam, Msgr. Adrianus van Luyn. "COMECE explained the new secretary has the task of correctly informing European Churches on the activities of institutions, correctly reporting the thought of the Churches themselves to institutions. Therefore, respecting the independence of both, COMECE fosters a collaboration relationship before the various needs of citizens". Mazurkiewicz, university teacher of political science, philosophy and politics, as well as expert in European matters, added that "the social doctrine of the Church offers us precious instructions on the current social and economic issues, including the financial crisis, making the European Union unusually meditate on the political-economical-ethical relationship".
