On “Europe Day”*, the CCEE Presidency met in Rome to prepare for the next Plenary Assembly – the ecclesial gathering which brings together the Presidents’ of the Bishops’ Conferences of 41 European nations.
The 2018 Plenary will take place in Poznań (Poland) from 12-16 September. At that meeting, the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences will discuss the theme Europe’s supportive spirit. By means of European research undertaken through the Bishops’ Conferences, the Plenary Assembly aims to examine in-depth the role of Catholic voluntary work in European society and in the evangelisation of the generations of young people.
On the evening of 8 May, the Presidency of CCEE met with His Grace Mgr Leo Cushley, Archbishop of Edinburgh and St Andrew’s (Scotland) and President of CCEE’s “Family and Life” Commission, set up during the 2017 Plenary Assembly. The meeting was an opportunity for a discussion about issues which impact upon the family today and the protection of life, from conception to its natural end, in the light, too, of the World Meeting of Families scheduled for Dublin (Ireland) from 21-26 August 2018.
* 9 May is considered by many to be “Europe Day” in memory of the historic address given on 9 May 1950 by Robert Schuman, then French Foreign Minister, in which he proposed that France and Germany pool the resources of their coal and steel industries, thereby setting the foundations for what subsequently became the European Community, and then Union.
The CCEE Presidency comprises Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa (President) and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and Mgr Stanisław Gądecki, Archbishop of Poznań (Vice-presidents).