European Bishops acknowledge uphill road to re-Christianize Europe

Vatican City, May 8, 2007 / 08:58 am

European bishops gathered in Rome for the seventh meeting of the Special Council for Europe of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops acknowledged today that the impulse for a new evangelization faces serious challenges on the old continent.

During the meeting, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, Secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, made reference to John Paul II's 2003 Apostolic Exhortation "Ecclesia in Europa” and  recalled “the challenges and the signs of hope facing the Church on the European continent.”

 

According to the statement "the challenges of the current moment should encourage all the living forces of the Church to renew the impetus of evangelization on the European continent, which is showing signs of some weariness but also of revival.”

 

“In the face of the modern challenges facing the Church throughout the continent of Europe,  it is Episcopal collegiality that represents the appropriate space for the communion of pastors among themselves and with the Holy Father, with a view to renewed evangelizing activity,” the statement adds.

 

"Such communion, which enjoys the guarantee of unity and effectively ensures the real unity of the universal Church and of the Church in Europe, strengthens pastors as they constantly announce the Gospel in their various situations, where it is necessary to reaffirm the primacy of God in order to reiterate the dignity of man, created in His image an likeness, in the personal and community dimension, the document concludes.