Convention of the General Secretaries of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences Begins in Rome

On June 10-13, 2010, the annual convention of the General Secretaries of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences will take place in Rome. As the Secretary of Synod of Bishops of the UGCC Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh) reported, on June 11 during the Pontifical Mass with participation of the Holy Father marking the completion of the Year for Priests, Pope Benedict XVI will solemnly proclaim Father Jean Maria Vianey, pastor from Ars, the patron of all pastors of the Catholic Church. “The topic for us is very familiar because we recently presented to all our pastors as an example and patron the beatific holy martyr Omelyan Kovch. I hope that there will be a chance during our meeting to present the our beatific,” noted Bishop Bohdan This year the annual meeting of the General Secretaries of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences will be devoted to challenges in interchurch cooperation, in particular, in the internal relations between churches and intereparchial contacts in the Catholic Church, as well as the relationships of the church with the public bodies of authority and the outer world and public opinion. “As these questions are currently in the spotlight, the church wants to consider them in order to produce certain mechanisms to better reveal to each other different projects which take place in the churches and to learn how we should react to events that take place in the politic space and in our societies, where the church operates in Europe,” reported Bishop Bohdan.  Remembering last year's 37^th Convention of the General Secretaries of Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences that took place on July 10-13 in Lviv, the secretary of the Synod of Bishops of UGCC noted: “For us it was a momentous event as representatives of 34 Bishops’ Conferences of Europe were able to learn about our church, to open us and our church for themselves.” Last year's meeting in Lviv brought considerable attention to the pastoral care of the faithful of the UGCC who are working abroad. Will remind that in June of last year the Holy Father began the Year for Priests for the Catholic Church. In the UGCC 2009 was also proclaimed the Year of Christian Vocation with an emphasis on the priest’s vocation. In autumn 2008 the Synod of the UGCC proclaimed the holy martyr Omelyan Kovch the patron of all pastors. This Ukrainian priest was beatified in June 2001 during a pastoral visit to Ukraine of Pope John Paul II. Beatific Omelyan perished in March 1944 in the fascist concentration camp Majdanek. The father voluntarily gave up liberation from the death camp and to his final day fulfilled his pastoral mission among prisoners who belonged to different nationalities and religions.

Information Department of the UGCC