The next Plenary Assembly of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) on “New Steps for a Synodal Church in Europe” will be held in Valletta, Malta, from 27 to 30 November. “Three will be the main themes of the meeting”, according to a statement released by the CCEE today. Card. Mario Grech, Secretary General of the Synod, will present the work of the 16^th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops “For a Synodal Church: communion, participation, mission” and will offer guidance on the work of preparation for the second part of the Synod that will be held in October 2024. Card. Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg, Vice-President of the CCEE and General Rapporteur of the Synod, will discuss the relationship between supranational structures and synodality for a new missionary thrust of the Church in Europe. Card. Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź, will report on the progress made by the working group on the revision of the Charta Oecumenica, the joint document for cooperation among the Christian Churches in Europe, which was signed in 2001 by the CCEE and the Conference of European Churches (CEC), whose 20^th anniversary was celebrated in 2021.
The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) is made up of thirty-nine members, of which thirty-three are national Bishops’ Conferences, plus the Archbishops of Luxembourg, the Principality of Monaco, the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus and the Bishops of Chişinău (Moldova) of the Mukachevo Eparchy and the Apostolic Administration of Estonia. All together they represent the Catholic Church in forty-five countries in the European continent. The CCEE President is Mgr. Gintaras Grušas, Archbishop of Vilnius.