by Gerhard Pross | Feb 22, 2023 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The European Bishop’s Synodal Assembly in Prague on 7 – 9 February, 2023
The European Assembly of the Bishops’ Synod was held in Prague on 7 – 9 February, 2023. Four Bishops or Delegates from each of the 39 Episcopal Conferences participated. I took part in my capacity as moderator of Together for Europe, and it turned out that I was the only Evangelical to be invited; together with Margaret Karram and Francisco Canzani (Focolare Movement), Cesare Zucconi and Hilde Kieboom (Sant’Egidio), Fr Heinrich Walter e Maria Pelz (Schönstatt), Matthew and Luce (Taizé), we represented the spiritual Movements. The organizers did a good job in allowing the continental Assembly to be a listening journey. Indeed, the plenary sessions were dedicated to listening to the reports from every Episcopal Conference. This was also true during the small group meetings, during which our mutual listening meant that we were all journeying together.
The word Synod comes from the Greek σύνοδος Syn hodos, that is, journeying together, which is precisely what pope Francis in inviting the Catholic Church to do.
Among the topics that many Countries underlined, and which the Synod must tackle, there are: equal rights for women and their participation in the ecclesial decision-making processes; priestly celibacy and the ordination of married persons; new ways of how to deal with homosexual persons, and clericalism.
Synodality
What does synodality really mean? The issue remained open, albeit brought about several times. Will the Synod end with a common decision on this open issue, or is this Assembly just a consultative body and the ultimate decision will be eventually taken by the Bishops? Can the hopes that arose during the synodal journey be fulfilled?
We, as Together for Europe, can surely provide valid experiences of synodality, because in many Communities and Movements the synodal process has shown its validity, and Together is always characterized by common decisions. Our foundations and our rich experience are not based on hierarchy, by on mutual listening and harmony. I was really glad that we were invited; we were able to contribute in many personal conversations and encounters. Moreover, we surely contributed toward an atmosphere of openness and encounter through our basic attitude and our experience.
Rev. Martin Michalíček, the General Secretary of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE), was struck by this when he participated in our Meetings for the Friends of Together for Europe in Augsburg and Porto, and that is why he invited us to Prague.
Keeping sight of the Word of God
While delivering a brief public declaration to the Synod, I offered three thoughts which I deemed to be important:
- I’m aware that the synodal process has unleashed an enormous potential of hope. And for this, I must express my congratulations.
- I wish that the Synod will have the courage to formulate several points that represent necessary steps for change. Without any concrete steps, the potential of hope can easily become resignation.
- To make concrete steps I augur to the Synod the light of the Word of God. In Psalm 119, 105 we read: “Your Word in a lamp for my feet and a light for my journey”. During these days I was upset seeing that, in some contributions, sociology often took the place of the Word of God as the normative basis.
Prayer vigil in Rome
I augur that the potential of hope provided by the world synodal journey may bring about courageous steps for change, which will help the Church on her journey toward the future. It is important that we accompany this process with prayer. On the eve of the Synod, the Taizé community is organizing a day of prayer. This will be on September 30, 2023, and the theme chosen is: “Together. A gathering of the People of God”. As Together for Europe, we wholeheartedly support this initiative and invite you all to participate.
Gerhard Pross
Photo: Gerhard Pross with Margaret Karram
by Beatriz Lauenroth | May 4, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The Steering Committee of Together for Europe (TfE) met in Munich
The Munich YMCA hosted the annual gathering of the TfE Steering Committee which was attended by 20 members and several invited guests, from 27 to 29 April 2022.
The participants experienced a wave of fresh air that was brought about by the young adults belonging to the European Network of Communities (ENC), the YMCA, the Focolare and the Schönstatt Movements: they wanted to reflect with the first generation of the network upon the future of ‘Together’. The guests carried out their task with delicacy and respect. Mária Špesová (ENC) from Slovakia said: “In TfE I see something sacred that grew in these 20 plus years. I feel invited to enter this rich experience on my tiptoes”. Also, Georges El Hage (Syndesmos): “Here I feel free to express my thoughts and people listen attentively. We are welcomed with great trust”.
Program
The program of these days included numerous spiritual inputs, prayers and a lively exchange of ideas. The recurrent topic was the war in Ukraine. During the first evening, several persons from Ukraine, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Poland and Slovenia were linked via zoom to share their experiences of practical help. An Italian participant affirmed: “We are seeing the birth of a new Europe based on solidarity”. And Zsuzsanna Klemencz (Sant’Egidio/Hungary) stated: “We ought to disarm ourselves and let others disarm us. How? By putting aside our arrogance and our hatred”. According to this Hungarian, this is what true disarmament means; this will give rise to a “peaceful people”, disarmed to win the war. Franꞔois Deloors (Sant’Egidio/Belgium) added: “This is the attitude that we strive to constantly put in practice between us, and thus, as TfE, we can offer it to Europe and the entire world”.
Porto 2022 and Timisoara 2023
“Here I feel at home” was the comment offered by Clotilde Pestana of the Schönstatt Movement. She travelled to Munich with another member of the National Committee of Portugal to help out in the preparation for the “Meeting of the Friends” scheduled for November 2022 in Porto. “Portugal has a lot to offer to Europe: openness, hospitality and a rich culture”. These are but a few of the reasons to hold the 2022 ‘Meeting of the Friends” in the Country on the far western side of Europe.
In 2023, the ‘Meeting of the Friends’ will be held in Romania, in Timisoara. Ilona Toth of the Steering Committee updated us regarding the many conversations and meetings she had in Romania. The encounter with the Orthodox world and the multicultural reality of Eastern Europe, among others, require a detailed and in-depth preparation.
Witnesses for humanity
During the meeting it became ever more clear that TfE, faced with the great sufferings in Europe and in the world, is called to support the “incomplete” and to go down the rifts of humanity, which are injustice, hatred and war.
Thomas Römer (YMCA Munich) underlined: “Indeed, most probably we are living through a change of epoch, an epochal upheaval, so to speak. Let’s not allow evil to win, but let’s defeat it with good”.
As Römer noted, death and resurrection are entwined in the history of humanity. He was introducing the participants to the renewal of the Pact of Mutual Love, based on Jn 13, 34. With fraternal encounters with the Risen Lord in the midst, TfE continually witnesses hope for humanity.
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Diego Goller / Group photo: Thomas Barthel, YMCA Munich
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | Apr 4, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The character of the Church 3.0
“The character of the Church 3.0, and thus even the character of our 200-strong meeting, has completely changed once Ukraine was attacked. All nice thoughts were swept away; at Baar we became aware that this is not a time for nice and important words. Rather, it is a time in which the people of God, and therefore even the Church, ought to gather in prayer. Reunited once again. Existentially reunited. And the prayers need to go beyond all boundaries.
Some days ago, during the prayer session that involved more than a thousand persons, we promised to “keep on praying”. And this is what we are doing: last week Austria continued to pray, and now it is us in Switzerland that came together to pray. Whenever Communities and Movements come together, there is a lot of power…
Undauntedly, all political meetings are important and necessary. However, as our Ukrainian brothers and sisters recently prayed, also beseeching the transformation of hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, go hand in hand. It moves side by side and it helps.
A praying and communitarian Church
We became aware that the Church 3.0 is a Church that prays. It is a communitarian Church because it prays of behalf of others, and its vitality comes from the charisms and not from numbers and structure. It is a wounded Church, and for this reason she relies upon God’s compassion – and not only for herself.
Therefore we prayed, and we experienced something of the new form of the Church. There was a feeling of a new beginning. We were conscious that in our prayer, words and actions, we were journeying with and Ukrainian brothers and sisters. In our prayers we included our confusion, fear and lack of words. Something will grow out of the ashes.
Right now, let there be peace: just peace and the possibility to protect persons. It’s quite sad to see persons being used as power pawns. And it is even sadder when their life is taken away for this reason. We hope that the power that we felt here during our meeting may bring about peace and life in the world”.
Being Christian in a post-Church-society, sr Nicole Grochowina, 12 March 2022
Source: miteinander-wie-sonst.ch
Photo: Fokolar-Bewegung Schweiz; Dialoghotel Eckstein
by P. Hans-Martin Samietz | Feb 25, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The coming together of groups and charisms stimulates a new form of Church
Something great, beautiful, undiscovered lies in every charismatic break-up. The initiative group of German-speaking Schoenstatters of Together for Europe became aware of this during the weekend of February 19-20, 2022, in Augsburg and Munich. They dared to knock on doors and entered into encounters with generations and charisms.
On Friday afternoon we met in the Prayer-House in Augsburg. The prayer room on the second floor is flooded with light and bright, centered towards a small wooden cross hanging from the ceiling in front of a white background. In the front, the band with well-chosen voices is singing antiphons of the first two verses of Psalm 50 and their alternate singing moves into a deepening conversation about these Bible verses – enlightening and leading to inner worship.
On Saturday afternoon we were at the Schoenstatt Centre in Munich. 4 young adults from YMCA Munich and the Focolare Movement came along with experienced people from the same movements, who discovered their life’s theme in Together for Europe.
Our goals: We pay attention to the intuition of the young adults present / We meet different generations and charisms / We share faithful interpretations of our encounter. Our finding: Together for Europe is a promise that allows us to discover a new design of Church. Each of these movements is a light inflamed by the Holy Spirit. If they step up to each other, an undiscovered land becomes visible, a Church that builds itself from churches, step by step, encounter by encounter.
On Sunday, in the rooms and during the church service of the Christian church “Vineyard Munich”, we witnessed people telling their stories of how God is acting concretely in their lives. How beautiful to know that every Sunday Christians are getting in contact with the God of life.
The pact of mutual love can be concretized in reaching out to groups and charisms that are strange to us, who are searching for God in their lives. The pact can be of central help in jointly grasping a new form of Church.
P. Hans-Martin Samietz
Photo: Gebetshaus.org / schoenstatt-muenchen.de
by Beatriz Lauenroth | Feb 24, 2022 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
Great preoccupations for peace: Europe prays and keeps on hoping
Many initiatives of prayer imploring peace are multiplying all over the Continent, starting from the Countries that are directly involved.
Our network Together for Europe, too, has rallied in this sense and has adhered to this great current of prayer for peace.
We would like to point out this initiative: an evening during which we can meet, understand better and pray. We will be linked to some Ukrainian brothers and sisters, to listen to them and pray together for peace (in German and English)
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, 7 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. (CET) via Zoom
(One needs to register at this address: mfe2021@web.de)
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Ilona Toth
by Beatriz Lauenroth | Sep 20, 2021 | Experiences, reflections and interviews, News
The European Conference on the future of the Continent
How can one bring together 446 million persons for an exchange of ideas? The European Commission and the European Parliament have launched a digital platform to allow communication between those living in Europe. The aim of the Conference is to formulate by 2022 new responses for the future of Europe and to trace the next steps toward European integration.
This Conference is a sign of the times. The future of Europe does not depend solely on politicians; indeed, more than ever before, it depends upon the responsibility of each person.
The dialogue between European citizens started on 19 April 2021 on the online platform futureu.europa.eu. All inputs are being collected, evaluated and published in 24 official languages. This applies also for discussions regarding reform proposals.
The topics are divided into 10 categories:
- Climate change and the environment
- Health
- A stronger economy, social justice and employment
- The EU in the world
- Values and rights, rule of law, security
- Digital transformation
- European democracy
- Migration
- Education, culture, youth and sport
- Other ideas
The Conference will go on till Spring of 2022, when a commission will synthesize the final results in a report and examines how they can be put into practice in a concrete manner.
Together for Europe invites you to participate in the Conference either as a private person, or as a group in a city or as a national Committee. In this way we can put forward ideas, desires and concrete proposals for the future of Europe based on the experience of Together, which is rich in Christian values.
For further information: futureu.europa.eu
Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Pixabay.com
