EUROPE/SWITZERLAND - Meeting of General Secretaries of European Bishops' Conferences: on the agenda the role of Christianity and the Churches in Europe, bio-ethical issues, urgent pastoral themes

Wednesday, 18 May 2005

St Gallen (Fides Service) - From 26th - 30th May 2005, the CCEE Secretariat at St Gallen is organising a meeting of the General Secretaries of Europe's 34 Bishops' Conferences. The representatives from the Bishops' Conferences will discuss: the role of Christianity and the Churches in Europe in the light of recent events in Rome and basic economic, socio-political and anthropological trends over the next few decades; bio-ethical issues that have arisen as a result of developments in scientific-medical research (from research on the brain, embryos and stem cells, to the question of euthanasia); co-operation between Bishops' Conferences in Europe on urgent pastoral themes: migration, a mass-media society, responsibility for creation, relations with Muslims in Europe, and the relationship between Europe and Africa; the Third European Ecumenical Assembly comprising a three-year staged process that will end in September 2007 in Sibiu in Romania.
In addition, part of the meeting will be dedicated to the exchange of information about specific events in the lives of the Bishops' Conferences: the next World Youth Day (Cologne, 16th -21st August 2005); the missions European capitals (Vienna, Lisbon, Paris, Brussels, Budapest, etc.); Catholic Social Weeks (Lille, 23rd -26th September 2004 and Bologna, 7th -10th October 2005) and the ratification process for the EU Constitutional Treaty. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 18/5/2005; righe 16, parole 198)


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