EUROPE - The CCEE, forty years at the service of the Church in Europe

St Gallen (Agenzia Fides) – Forty years ago, on 25 March 1971, the first directive rules of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) were approved. On the anniversary, the President of the CCEE, Card. Péter Erdo, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and Primate of Hungary, and the two Vice-presidents, Card. Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and Card. Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zagabria, sent the Bishops of Europe a letter in which they write about the history of this continental body which is at the service of communion between the Bishops in Europe and highlights the areas of work for the next few years.
The CCEE – says the letter – “can be considered a fruit of the Second Vatican Council and the deepening of the ecclesiological truth of the communion of bishops, something clarified with special emphasis precisely in that period”. Right from its origins, in fact, CCEE was thought as “a body which had to breathe 'with two lungs' and which had to gather the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the whole of the European continent.”
“CCEE has tried to be a workshop, a school and a house of communion,” underlines the text. “Thus we have learned to experience ourselves more as one Catholic Church, and to have respect for the diversity of situations and sensitivities, to take on the burdens and problems of others, to intensify the plans for collaboration and help within a perspective of the exchange of gifts”.
The text affirmed that “today in Europe the challenges are perhaps different, but the importance of the relationships between us bishops and between our Bishops’ Conferences has in no way diminished.”
In highlighting the areas of work on which the Council is focusing, the three Cardinals at the head of CCEE recall how the main attention of this ecclesial European body is “focused on the person in Europe, his/her personal, social and spiritual situation. We think in particular about questions linked to migration and problems connected with the demographic collapse: of the family, the education and culture of the respect for life to defend it in all its stages, from conception to natural death. Only the culture of love and life can guarantee a future. Also and above all to love the human person means for us to give each person the opportunity to encounter and know Jesus Christ. For this reason CCEE is particularly committed to evangelisation and care for the faith”.
The letter also recalls the commitment to Christian unity in Europe and particularly “with the Orthodox Churches from the whole of Europe”.
The letter concludes with an invitation to the Christian faithful to pray in thanksgiving to the Lord for the gift of CCEE. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 26/03/2011)