Under many respects, taking stock of the relations between the Church and the State in Europe, twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. This will be done by the presidents of the European Bishops Conferences that will be meeting in Paris from 1st to 4th October. The meeting will be opened by an address by card. André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris and president of the French Bishops Conference, card. Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Bishops Congregation, and card. Peter Erdö who, as the president of the Council of European Bishops Conferences (Ccee), will read the opening address. “Just after the collapse of the Berlin Wall (9 November 1989), which symbolically marked the end of the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and Eastern Europe – father Duarte da Cunha, Secretary General of CCEE, explains to SIR –, many nations, especially in Central Eastern Europe, drew up new Constitutions and at the same time formalised, with laws and/or concordats, their relations with the Catholic Church”. The presidents of the European Bishops Conferences – father Duarte goes on – will also measure “the rising weight that the European Institutions are having in the life of each country”. A weight – the Secretary General of Ccee goes on – that “sometimes results in amendments to the legislations of these countries when it clashes with the agreements made on a European scale”. Because of this – father Duarte states –, “the presidents of the Bishops Conferences, driven by their pastoral task of taking care of God’s People through the Church as an institution, felt the need to be informed on the variety of solutions and models that have been adopted by each state, as to ‘pending’ issues (for instance, the return of the assets confiscated to the Church during the Communist regime), and have an opportunity to reflect together on the relations that the Holy See has as much with the individual countries as with the European Institutions, such as the European Union and the Council of Europe”.

© SIR - sept 28, 2009