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Fatima (Agenzia Fides) - The Presidents of the bishops' Conferences of Europe are gathering in Fatima, Portugal from 4th to 7th October 2007, following an invitation by Mgr. Jorge Ferreira da Costa Ortiga, President of the Portuguese bishops' Conference. For the first time, the Assembly will be presided over by the newly elected President of CCEE, Cardinal Péter Erdö, along with the vice Presidents Cardinal Josip Bozanic e Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, elected during last year's Plenary (St Petersburg, 4th to 8th October 2006). The Presidents of the bishops' Conferences will begin their meeting in Lisbon on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th October. A meeting will be held at the Patriarchate (S. Vicente de Fora Monastery) in the morning of 4th October. The Patriarch of Lisbon Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo and the Prime Minister of Portugal, José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, also currently the President of the Council of the European Union as head of government of the State holding the presidency at this time, will all attend. Following this, the delegates will travel to Fatima.
In the first part of the Fatima session the Bishops will have the opportunity to reflect on the situation of the Catholic Church in Portugal and the role played by the Shrine of Fatima. At 18:30, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for the Bishops (Holy See), will preside over a Eucharistic celebration in the Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady. The monographic theme of the Plenary Assembly will be marriage, analysed from various perspectives: the pastoral and legal situation of the institution of marriage in the different European countries; marriage and family in the European Union and mixed marriages
The second part of the meeting will instead concentrate on the service of CCEE to the Churches of Europe with the presentation of five-year projects of the new Bishops in charge of the CCEE Commissions (European bishops' Commission for media - CEEM; Commission for the pastoral care of migration; ‘Catechesis school and university’ and European Vocations Service Commission). The Archbishop of Belgrade, Mgr. Stanislav Hocevar, will chair the debate on the ecumenical situation and the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (EEA3) which ended in Sibiu (Romania) on the last 9th September. After the assessment of the European pilgrimage of the Christian Churches of Europe which began in Rome in January 2006 (24th to 27th January 2006), the Presidents will reflect on the commitments contained in the final message read out to the Sibiu Assembly (the message is available on the www.eea3.org website) and new perspectives for ecumenism in Europe
Part of the sessions will be devoted to the theme of co-operation between CCEE and CELAM (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano) and CCEE and SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar). The Presidents of the bishops' Conferences of Europe will specifically reflect on the results of the 5th general Conference of CELAM which ended in Aparecida (Brazil) in May 2007 and on the forthcoming CCEE-SECAM seminar to take place in Ghana (Cap Coast) from 14th to 18th November 2007 on the theme Slavery and new Slaveries. This seminar represents a further step in the cooperation between CCEE and SECAM cooperation program between European and African Bishops which will reach its highest point at an international Symposium in 2010. The theme of European institutions and of the process of European unification 50 years after the Treaties of Rome will be introduced by Comece executives. A brief memo on pastoral care in prisons will be presented during the meeting by the President of the International Commission for Catholic pastoral care in prisons, Dr. Christian Kuhn. The Plenary Assembly will close with a Eucharistic celebration in the Chapel of the Apparitions in the Shrine of Fatima on Sunday 7th October 2007. This will be presided over by Cardinal Péter Erdö, CCEE President. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 2/10/2007, righe 35, parole 441)
