TWELFTH GENERAL CONGREGATION

VATICAN CITY, OCT 8, 2001 (VIS) - The Twelfth General Congregation of the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops began at 5 p.m. in the presence of the Holy Father and 232 synod fathers. The president delegate on duty was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

Following are extracts from several of the speeches given this evening:

CARDINAL CAMILLO RUINI, VICAR GENERAL OF HIS HOLINESS, PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE. "When Vatican Council II reformulated the relationships between the primacy of the Pope and the collegial power of the bishops, acknowledgment of the authority in the Church seemed to be taken for granted and generally agreed upon. Soon after, however, a sort of 'cultural revolution' occurred which challenged authority at all levels of civil as well as ecclesial life. The Council had, however, given a substantial response in advance, again proposing the Gospel teaching on authority as service. After the Council, the exercise of authority in the Church often encountered difficulties, and although the most critical phase seems to be over, there is still the problem of how the necessary service of authority can better be understood, accepted and carried out. In this regard I would like to make two considerations. The first one regards the motivation of ecclesial authority, which in order to be accepted on the interior level must be shown as clearly as possible to be participation in the mission of Christ, therefore to be experienced and carried out with humility, dedication and service. The second consideration refers to the profound and convincing unity which must exist between the various facets of authority in the Church, in order to be able to give a reliable answer to the questions of our time; thus, the great importance of the spirituality of communion, or also the 'mysticism of communion'."

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