SOFIA,
Bulgaria, NOV. 8, 2010 (Zenit.org).
The Eastern Catholic bishops of Europe are underlining their full communion
with the See of Peter as part of the criteria of ecclesiology of the Churches.
This was one of the conclusions of an annual meeting of the Eastern Catholic
bishops, which concluded Sunday in Sofia.
The theme of the meeting, which was sponsored by the Council of European
Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), was “The ecclesiological Criteria of the
Eastern Catholic Churches and the Reality Today.” It also marked the 150th
anniversary of the union of Bulgaria’s Eastern Catholic Church with Rome.
Some 35 prelates representing various Eastern Churches of Europe took part in
the meeting, along with Cardinal Peter Erdo, CCEE president, Cardinal Leonardo
Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, and other
representatives of that dicastery. Members of the Pontifical Council for
Migrants and Travelers also participated.
On Friday, at the beginning of the meeting, there was a prayer service in
memory of Monsignor Eleuterio Fortino, who died due to illness on Sept. 22. He
was supposed to have given the opening talk on “The Ecclesiological
Criteria of the Eastern Catholic Churches on the Basis of the Vatican II
Documents and Recent Papal Documents,” but before he passed away he provided
an outline for the address. Thus Father Manuel Nin, rector of Rome’s Pontifical
Greek College, was able to give the talk based on the outline and previous
works of Monsignor Fortino, who had served as subsecretary of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity and focused particularly on relations
with the Orthodox Churches.
Archbishop Antonio Vegliò, president of th e Pontifical Council for Migrants
and Travelers, next gave a talk on “Pastoral Structures for Catholic
Migrants from the Eastern Churches, on the Basis of the Instruction ‘Erga
Migrantes Caritas Christi.'”
The Byzantine exarch of Sofia, Bishop Christo Proykov, who hosted the meeting
in his region, presided over a Divine Liturgy with the participants in which
they recalled the Greek Catholic martyrs of the communist persecution and how
that Church was almost wiped out.
In another Divine Liturgy, celebrated on Saturday, Cardinal Sandri gave the
homily and urged his listeners to give an authentic witness of faith to young
people in particular.
Archbishop Janusz Bolonek, apostolic nuncio to Bulgaria, read a letter that
Benedict XVI sent through his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
for the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Byzantine Catholic Church in
Bulgaria.
The next annual meeting of Eastern bishops will ta ke place in Oradea, Romania,
on the theme, “You Will Be My Witnesses: The Evangelization in Europe’s
Catholic Eastern Churches.”