Zagreb, (IKA) – On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the tenth anniversary of the beatification of the Blessed Alojzije cardinal Stepinac, on Tuesday, February 10, there will be a historical encounter of the cardinals and presidents of the bishops conferences of Central and Eastern Europe, according to an announcement by the Press Office of the Croatian Conference of Bishops. The main theme will be The Mission of the Church in Central and Eastern Europe Twenty Years after the Fall of the Communist System (1989 – 2009).
The participants will be the archbishop of Vilnius, Cardinal Audrys Juozas Bačkis; the archbishop and metropolitan bishop of Crakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz; the archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Archbishop Cardinal Peter Erdö; the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola; and representatives of the bishops’ conferences of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, the Ukraine and Croatia.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the main auditorium of the archdiocesan ordinariate at Kaptol 31 in Zagreb, with introductory presentations conducted by Cardinal Angelo Scola and the president of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE), Cardinal Peter Erdö, archbishop of Budapest and Primate of Hungary. Then each of the participants will present the situation in his country in terms of the main topic of the meeting.
At 7 p.m., the cardinals and representatives of the bishops’ conferences will concelebrate a Mass in honor of the Blessed Alojzije Stepinac at the Zagreb cathedral. The main celebrant who will deliver the sermon will be Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanić of Zagreb, vice president of the CCEE.
The Zagreb meeting will be the third in a series. The first was held in Budapest in 2004 and the second in Prague in 2007.