Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Fides Service) - From 1 to 4 March in Madrid there will be the 4th Europe-Mediterranean Meeting of the Catholic Action International Forum with the title “Where is Europe Heading? Christians, value and hope for the future”. The meeting comes at a crucial time since the European Union widened to include 27 countries on January 1, on the way to a Seminar to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome (organised by the COMECE, Commission des Episcopats de la Communauté Européenne) and the 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly in September in Sibiu in Rumania (promoted by the CCEE-KEK).
The aim of the Forum, in keeping with the guidelines offered in the apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Europe, is to identify what needs to be done in view of the evangelisation in Europe at the beginning of the 3rd Christian millennium, highlighting Christian values as a constitutive and constituent part of European culture for a more human future. To live in a context of listening, dialogue and collaboration East and West and with the Mediterranean the citizens of Europe, the Christians first of all, must realise the tradition of a Europe aware and concerned for the rest of the world, Africa especially.
The challenge is one of formation and witness and the meeting intends to sensitise national and diocesan Catholic Action groups to collect and share existing experiences in their respective realities and also to foster reflection on formation of consciences and witness of lay Christian citizens of Europe, to promote and sustain the participation of young people, the future of the continent, to underline the value of the Association for the life of the Church and of society in the light of its associative experience.
The Forum, established in 1991, following the Synod of Bishops in 1987, approved temporarily in 1995 and definitively in 2000 by the Pontifical Council for the Laity, is according to the then Council President Cardinal Eduardo F. Pironio, a young organisation called to become “new place for meeting, sharing and promotion of all associations which identify themselves with the tradition of Catholic Action, in intense and special communion with the Pope and the bishops”.
Participants at the Meeting will include representatives of the five member countries of FIAC general secretariat Argentina, Burundi, Italia, Romania, Spain as well as Malta, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Portugal and Austria. The work of discussion, reflection and prayer will lead to the drafting of a final document. The meeting will include a pilgrimage to Avila at the school of Saint Teresa, great mystic, founder, reformer and pilgrim, before resuming the walk along the roads of Europe in their particular Churches. (FM) (Agenzia Fides 17/2/2007 - righe 36, parole 480)
