15-18 June 2025: The annual meeting of the General Secretaries of the European Bishops’ Conferences in Istanbul
The annual meeting of the General Secretaries of the European Bishops’ Conferences will take place in Istanbul, from 15 to 18 June 2025, organised by the CCEE in collaboration with the Turkish Bishops’ Conference. The theme for this year is: “The Reform of the Ecclesiastical Structures in a Missionary and Synodal Perspective”. Bishop Marek Marczak, Secretary General of the Polish Bishops' Conference, is taking part in the meeting.
https://episkopat.pl/doc/230527.15-18-czerwca-Spotkanie-sekretarzy-generalnych-Konferencji
https://episkopat.pl/doc/230535.15-18-giugno-2025-L-incontro-annuale-dei-segretari-generali
The location chosen by the CCEE for this 52nd annual meeting of the General Secretaries is highly symbolic, since this very June marks the 1700th anniversary of the convocation of the first ecumenical council in the history of the Church, the Council of Nicaea. In the year 325, the Council was held in the city of Nicea (today known as Iznik), and marked a historic turning point for all of Christianity. More than 300 bishops gathered to make a profession of unified faith, to resolve fundamental controversies about the divine nature of Christ, as well as to reinforce the unity of the Church, which had been divided by the Arian heresy.
The ecumenical dimension will be present throughout the whole event with one of the principal moments scheduled in the programme being a meeting with His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I as well as a visit to Iznik, the location of the Council of Nicaea.
During the meeting, the General Secretaries will participate in three working sessions dedicated to various topics linked, above all, to the phase of implementation of synodality and the reform of the Bishops’ Conferences.
The first session will be focussed on “The Reform of the Offices of the Bishops’ Conferences in Light of ‘Praedicate Evangelium’”, which will be presented by Prof. Michele Miraglia, Esq., Jurist and Canonist, Professor at the LUMSA University of Rome and at the Claretianum Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University. On the second day, H. Em. Card. Mario Grech, General Secretary of the Synod of Bishops, will present on the theme “The Accompaniment Process of the Implementation Phase of the Synod”. His speech will be followed by reports from the various CCEE Commissions. The third session, also dedicated to the synodal Church, “How to Achieve a more Synodal Church: The Commitment of the Church in Germany”, will be introduced by Dr. Beate Gilles, General Secretary of the German Bishops’ Conference.
Furthermore, the participants will have the opportunity to celebrate Holy Mass together daily and to discuss topics of common interest and developments within their respective Bishops’ Conferences.
CCEE
