ROME, NOV. 27, 2012 (Zenit.org).- A three-day meeting, sponsored by the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on the Catholic Church’s pastoral care of migrants in Europe, began today in Rome.
Around 40 delegates from 25 countries – representing bishops, national directors for the pastoral care of migrants from Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences, and other continental ecclesial bodies –gathered in Rome to make a plan of activities for the «Migrants» section of the CCEE’s Caritas in Veritate Commission.
«Through this meeting, we want to reflect together on the new opportunities and challenges which human mobility in Europe sets before the Church in terms of evangelisation,» said Cardinal Josip Bozanić, Archbishop of Zagreb and President of the ‘Migrants’ section of the CCEE’s Commission, Caritas in Veritate.
«More and more in Europe,» he went on, «it seems evident that the questions which arise from human mobility necessitate the contribution of the Bishops’ Conferences to witness the ecclesial communion and the Catholicity (universality) of the Catholic Church.»
The event will begin with introductions by President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò, the President of the Fondazione Migrantes, Msgr. Paolo Schiavon and Msgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, President of the CCEE’s Caritas in Veritate Commission.
Participants will also hear interventions from Msgr. Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation, and Msgr. Cyril Vasil’, Secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
