Meeting of national delegates for catechesis
Rabat, Malta, 1-4 March 2016

The process which will culminate in the celebration of a Symposium in Barcelona in Spring 2017 on Christian journeying with young people is about to begin with a meeting of national delegates for catechesis, the first of a series of four meetings between now and June which will bring together on separate occasions also national delegates for university pastoral work, for youth work, school work and for vocations.

Over the next few months, the different sections of CCEE’s ‘Catechesis, School and University’ Commission, along with the EVS (European Vocations Service) and delegates for youth work will meet separately to draw up the programme for the 2017 Congress in the light of the challenges emerging from their different areas of work.

“We want to create bridges between the different areas of pastoral work, which are rightly specialised. As well as the sharing between the different fields, we want to reflect together on the ways to accompany children and today’s young people, in their unity as people, in their faith journey”, said Fr Michel Remery, Deputy General Secretary of CCEE. He went on to say that “the challenge, which already emerged during the Symposium of bishops on ‘Young people and new evangelisation’ which CCEE had organised in 2002, is that of getting national delegates for catechesis, school pastoral work, youth and university pastoral work, and those responsible for vocations, from the whole of the European continent, to work together on one issue: accompanying young people in their response to God’s call”.

In Malta (1-4 March 2016), the first stage of this process, with national delegates for catechesis as protagonists, there will be an opportunity for listening and examining the situation of catechesis in Europe through the presentation of reports from the Bishops’ Conferences which will touch in particular on the theme of the catechumenate, the Jubilee for Catechists and the Jubilee of Mercy.

Subsequently, there will be a reflection on youth pastoral work in the digital and multimedia world from Sr Nathalie Becquart, responsible for the French Bishops’ Conference’s National Service for the evangelisation of young people and for vocations. Finally, the meeting will conclude with various aspects (group work, discussion in plenary sessions, etc.) aimed at preparing for the Symposium in Barcelona.

The meeting, which will take place in the Archepiscopal Seminary in Rabat, is being organised in collaboration with the Maltese Bishops’ Conference.

A news release will be published at the end of the meeting.

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The 2017 Symposium in Barcelona

Below is some brief information about the Barcelona Symposium. Further information will be sent out to journalists in due course.

Participants

The Symposium envisages the participation of national delegates from the Bishops’ Conferences in Europe for catechesis, schools, universities, youth pastoral work and vocations. Also invited will be representatives from lay groups and church movements, and a large number of young people.

Aims and methodology

Looking towards the Symposium, which falls within the activities CCEE has progressed throughout its history – think, for example, of the IV and X Symposia of Bishops which took place in 1979 and 2002 respectively, of the congresses and annual meetings organised over the years and aimed at bishops and delegates from the various areas outlined above – some guidelines have been prepared which will be discussed and completed in the different stages of the process and which will then constitute the basis of the programme of the Symposium.

The various stages of the process

1. Meeting of national delegates for Catechesis – Rabat, Malta, 1-4 March 2016;
2. Meeting of national delegates for university pastoral work – Szeged, Hungary, 27-29 April 2016;
3. Meeting of an EVS working group (European Vocations Service) – Brussels, Belgium, 10-11 May 2016;
4. Meeting of a working group for school pastoral work – Paris, France, 16 May 2016.