Tuesday, May 8, 2007

EUROPE: EVANGELIZING IMPULSE TO FACE CURRENT CHALLENGES


VATICAN CITY, MAY 8, 2007 (VIS) - Made public today was a communique concerning the seventh meeting of the Special Council for Europe of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops. The meeting was held in the Vatican on April 23.

  The gathering was attended by Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, and by members of the presidency of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE).

  According to the communique Archbishop Eterovic, making reference to John Paul II's 2003 Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in Europa, recalled the challenges and the signs of hope facing the Church on the European continent.

  "The challenges of the current moment should encourage all the living forces of the Church," the communique reads, "to renew the impetus of evangelization on the European continent, which is showing signs of some weariness but also of revival."

  "In the face of the modern challenges facing the Church throughout the continent of Europe," it is "episcopal collegiality" that represents "the appropriate space for the communion of pastors among themselves and with the Holy Father, with a view to renewed evangelizing activity.

  "Such communion," the communique adds, "which enjoys the guarantee of unity and effectively ensures the real unity of the universal Church and of the Church in Europe, strengthens pastors as they constantly announce the Gospel in their various situations, where it is necessary to reaffirm the primacy of God in order to reiterate the dignity of man, created in His image an likeness, in the personal and community dimension."
SE/EUROPE/ETEROVIC                        VIS 20070508 (270)


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