African and European Bishops will be having their Second Symposium from February 13-17, 2012.
The Symposium is on the theme: Evangelisation today: communion and pastoral collaboration between Africa and Europe. The human person and God: the Church’s mission to proclaim God’s presence and love.
It is being organised by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE).
The participants include about 70 bishop-delegates from the Bishops’ Conferences in Africa and Europe, as well as representatives of Vatican dicasteries and partner agencies like Aid to the Church in need and Missio.
The Symposium is part of a project of collaboration between the two continental bodies which began following the First Symposium that took place in Rome in November 2004. This collaboration is aimed at deepening the common responsibility of the African and European bishops for evangelisation and the human development of their respective continents in particular and the world in general.
In recent past bishops of the two continents have held seminars on:
a) Slavery and new slaveries in November 2007 in Elmina, Ghana;
b) Migration as a new point of evangelisation and solidarity, in November 2008 in Liverpool, United Kingdom;
c) New situation of the ad Gentes mission in November 2010 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
During the forthcoming Symposium in Rome, the bishops of the two continents will among others evaluate the journey undertaken so far; examine the current situation of pastoral communion between Europe and Africa and seek areas of future collaboration.
They are also expected to discuss the next Synod of Bishops scheduled to take place in the Vatican in October 2012 on New Evangelisation for the Transmission of the Christian Faith.
The Symposium will furthermore provide an opportunity for the participating bishops to deepen their friendship and their common pastoral and evangelising mission. The bishops are more than ever fully aware that there is a new inter-dependence between the two continents in tackling and finding together responses to common challenges.
The sessions of the Symposium will be marked by moments of prayer, sharing of ideas and experiences through a reflection introduced by European and African bishops, starting from the human person (who are the men and women in Africa and Europe) and the human person’s relationship with God, to arrive at the proclamation of the Gospel which is the heart of the Church’s mission (for details, please, refer to the programme of the Symposium).
On Thursday 16 February, after the celebration of the Eucharist in St Peter’s Basilica, the participants will be received in audience by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI; while on Friday 17 February they will go on pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Holy Face at Manoppello, Italy.