Under the presidency of Archbishop Franz Lackner of Salzburg, the Austrian Bishops’ Conference is meeting today, Monday 8 June, in Mariazell for its summer plenary assembly. Items on the agenda of the three-day meeting include the election of the president and vice-president, whose six-year terms of office have come to an end. Lackner was elected President of the Bishops’ Conference in June 2020, also in Mariazell, during the pandemic; on that occasion, Bishop Manfred Scheuer of Linz was elected as his deputy. The Plenary Assembly opens with an afternoon of study on religious life, as explained to Kathpress by the Secretary General of the Bishops’ Conference, Peter Schipka. Religious orders will be represented by the two presidents of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders, Prioress Franziska Madl and Provost Anton Höslinger, as well as by the Secretary General, Sister Christine Rod, and the Director General, Peter Bohynik. The Conference of Secular Institutes of Austria will be represented by its president, Maria Lukas. Rev. Schipka also announced that the bishops will discuss Pope Leo XIV’s recently published social encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas”. As explained by the Secretary General, the upcoming election of the president and vice-president is governed by the statutes of the Bishops’ Conference. The president must be elected from among the diocesan bishops; re-elections are allowed.