STATISTICS CONCERNING THE CHURCH IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

VATICAN CITY, 22 SEP 2009 (VIS) - For the occasion of Benedict XVI's forthcoming apostolic trip to the Czech Republic, due to take place from 26 to 28 September, statistics concerning the Catholic Church in that country have been published. The information, updated to 31 December 2008, comes from the Central Statistical Office of the Church.

  The Czech Republic, the capital city of which is Prague, has a population of 10,380,000 of whom 3,290,000 (31.7 percent) are Catholic. There are 9 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 2,576 parishes and 70 pastoral centres of other kinds. Currently there are 20 bishops, 1,956 priests, 1,725 religious, 160 lay members of secular institutes and 1,109 catechists. Minor seminarians number 7 and major seminarians 184.

  A total of 15,977 children and young people attend 79 centres of Catholic education, from kindergartens to universities. Other institutions belonging to the Church, or run by priests or religious in the Czech Republic include 50 hospitals, 98 clinics, 134 homes for the elderly or disabled, 59 orphanages and nurseries, 58 family counselling centres and other pro-life centres, 170 centres for education and social rehabilitation, and 28 institutions of other kinds.
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FIFTIETH INTERNATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS IN DUBLIN, 2012

VATICAN CITY, 22 SEP 2009 (VIS) - The Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses has announced, in a communique made public today, that the next International Eucharistic Congress, the fiftieth of the series, will take place from 10 to 17 June 2012 in Dublin, Ireland, on the theme: "The Eucharist: Communion with Christ and with one another".

  "The choice of theme arises from the fact that the celebration of the congress coincides with the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of Vatican Council II which, as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has affirmed, was a moment of renewal for the Church's teaching and for her understanding of herself as Body of Christ and Body of God", the communique explains.

  "The theme has its direct inspiration in paragraph 7 of the Constitution 'Lumen gentium' which reads: 'Really partaking of the body of the Lord in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, we are taken up into communion with Him and with one another. 'Because the bread is one, we though many, are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread'. In this way all of us are made members of His Body, 'but severally members one of another'".

  The communique goes on: "The archbishop of Dublin has also emphasised the possibility of developing the theme of the next International Eucharistic Congress by reflecting on certain important topics such as: communion with Christ as a foundation for Christian life; the Eucharist as a way of life for clergy, Christian families and religious communities; the gesture of 'breaking bread' as a principle of Christian solidarity; the Eucharist, seed of life for the world of suffering and fragility; and ecumenism and the sharing of the one bread".
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 22 SEP 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

 - Archbishop Luigi Ventura, apostolic nuncio to Canada, as apostolic nuncio to France.

 - As members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Archbishop Walmor Oliveira de Azevedo of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Bishop Mario del Valle Mornota Rodriguez of San Cristobal de Venezuela, Venezuela.
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