The New Evangelisation in Europe to be the focus of the meeting of the General Secretaries and Spokespersons of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences   

Vilnius, Lithuania, 16-21 June 2011

The theme of the “new” evangelisation in Europe will be at the centre of the work of two consecutive CCEE meetings: the meeting of the General Secretaries which will take place in Vilnius from 16-19 June, and then that of the Media Officers and Spokespersons of the Bishops’ Conferences which will take place from 18-21 June also in the Lithuanian capital. For the first time, CCEE is bringing together the General Secretaries and the Spokespersons to discuss together the issue of Church communication.

CCEE’s working week will begin with the General Secretaries who on Thursday 16 June will be welcomed by Cardinal Audrys Juozas Backis, Archbishop of Vilnius; by the Apostolic Nuncio in Lithuania, Mgr Luigi Bonazzi; and by Mgr Gintaras Grušas, Military Ordinary and General Secretary of the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference. In the next few days, the Secretaries will focus their attention in working groups on some specific aspects of the new evangelisation, such as: the relationship between culture and quality of faith; a Church perspective; spiritual life and belonging to the Church today in the midst of the quick rhythms of life and stress; and, finally, the Church’s structures and charisms. Subsequently, there will be presentations about the work carried out by CCEE and ComECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) and about some of the future initiatives which will see the involvement of the Bishops’ Conferences: World Youth Day (Madrid, Spain, 16-21 August 2011); World Meeting of Families (Milan, Italy, 29 May-3 June 2012); International Eucharistic Congress (Dublin, Ireland, 10-17 June 2012).

On Saturday 18 June the Media Officers and Spokespersons from the Bishops’ Conferences will arrive in Vilnius for an afternoon working session with the Secretaries (the final session of their own meeting) about the organisation of communication in the Bishops’ Conferences in order to carry out in the best way possible their mission of proclaiming the Gospel even in difficult situations.
On the Saturday evening there will be a presentation of the first version of EuroCathInfo – the institutional information Portal of the Bishops’ Conferences in Europe – and the European Intranet which will be on-line in the course of 2011.

In turn, from Sunday to Tuesday morning, the Spokespersons will focus on the theme of the new evangelisation starting from the experiences already existing in the European continent which witness to the “newness” inherent in the Church, especially in the area of voluntary work, enterprises and new media.

The reflections in Vilnius are linked to the work of the next CCEE Plenary Assembly (Tirana, Albania, 29 September – 2 October 2011) when the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences will tackle the theme of the new evangelisation, along with the President of the new Vatican dicastery, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella.

A News Conference will take place on Friday 17 June at 1230 in Vilnius at Šv. Juozapo Kunigu seminarija (Saint Joseph Seminary), Kalvariju G. 325 - Vilnius

The meeting, promoted by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), is taking place in Vilnius at the invitation of the General Secretary of the Lithuanian Bishops’ Conference, Mgr Gintaras Grušas, Military Ordinary, and thanks to the hospitality of Cardinal Audrys Juozas Backis, Archbishop of Vilnius.

The work will take place behind closed doors. A News Release will be published at the end of the two meetings.

Thierry Bonaventura
CCEE Media Officer
+41788 516040
thierry.bonaventuraccee.ch

The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) gathers the Presidents of the current 33 European Bishops’ Conferences of this Continent, represented by their Presidents, and the Archbishops of Luxembourg and of the Principality of Monaco, the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus, as well as the Bishop of Chişinău (Moldavia). The President is Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Primate of Hungary; the Vice-Presidents are Cardinal Josip Bosanić, Archbishop of Zagreb, and Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux. The General Secretary of CCEE is Mgr Duarte da Cunha. The headquarters of the Secretariat is in St Gallen (Switzerland).

13.06.2011