Heads of several bishops’ conferences and councils around the world called for greater collegiality and communion among bishops to confront the challenges facing the church in Europe and across the globe.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, who addressed the plenary assembly of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences Sept. 24, called on the bishops to “support one another in communion in order to bear witness to the Lord’s presence in all areas of life on our continent, which seems increasingly to be forgetting its history and its roots.”
The time of preparation for the 2023 world Synod of Bishops, which will reflect on synodality, communion, participation and mission, will be a “propitious occasion to reflect on the work of evangelization that awaits us in the face of the challenges of our present time, which is also in need of knowing the immutable truth of Christ and the Gospel,” Parolin said.
The Sept. 23-26 plenary of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences, which is comprised of the presidents of 33 national bishops’ conferences and a dozen other Eastern- and Latin-rite bishops from across the continent, was held in Rome.