From September 30 to October 3, 2008, the annual plenary session of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae (CCEE)), in which the heads and authorized representatives of 34 national episcopal conferences of Europe took part, was conducted in Budapest. From the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC His Beatitude Lubomyr, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, and Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC and auxiliary bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, took part in the work of the CCEE." />
From September 30 to October 3, 2008, the annual plenary session of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae (CCEE)), in which the heads and authorized representatives of 34 national episcopal conferences of Europe took part, was conducted in Budapest. From the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC His Beatitude Lubomyr, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, and Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC and auxiliary bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, took part in the work of the CCEE.
From September 30 to October 3, 2008, the annual plenary session of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe (Consilium Conferentiarum Episcoporum Europae (CCEE)), in which the heads and authorized representatives of 34 national episcopal conferences of Europe took part, was conducted in Budapest. From the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC His Beatitude Lubomyr, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, and Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC and auxiliary bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy, took part in the work of the CCEE.The theme of the current meeting was "The Church and the Mass-Media." The heads of Churches and chairmen of conferences considered, on the one side, how the Church’s life lights up on the pages of society’s media, and, on the other side, how the Church should co-operate with the world of the mass-media to spread the Gospel, and also how effectively to use modern technologies more in the middle of the Church for evangelism and pastoral ministry.Before the plenary assembly, questioning was conducted in the separate episcopal conferences (synods). Questioning was conducted in order to produce a model and strategy of activity of the Church in Europe on the basis of the answers. In particular such questions were posed: Are there phenomena in the press directed against the Church, Christians and Christianity? How does the Church counter this? Is there a juridical base and other possibilities for this? In addition to this it was suggested to give examples of positive experience, when there is public media in the Church, and to specify how good and wide are the possibilities of using the secular media for the activity of the Church (for statistics on the Greek-Catholic Mass-Media, see the addendum). In addition, according to the report of Bishop Bohdan, during the plenary meetings important themes for the European continent generally and for the Church in Europe in particular, migration, vocation, catechesis, Catholic schools, and chaplaincy in higher educational institutions will be considered. Because Europe is more and more opening itself to the world, the Churches also wish to make more close contacts with other parts of the world. For this reason this year there is something new: questions of the Church in Africa and cooperation between bishops of Africa and Europe are to be examined.For this purpose for participating in the assembly representatives from Latin America and other continents have been invited, in order jointly to consider the importance of deepening cooperation. The theme of ecumenism, which is important for the European continent, was presented by the President of the CCEE, Cardinal Peter Erdo. "For us this theme is very close, because Ukraine is a place where various Christian confessions coexist peacefully. The UGCC feels a certain obligation and vocation to assist in approaching Christians for the possible joining of Christian Churches in Ukraine. Therefore our participating in the plenary meeting is useful to both sides, both Ukrainian and European," said Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh) regarding this.InformationIn Europe there are 34 national Catholic episcopal conferences which form one European structure, the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe, which since 2006 has been headed by the president of the council, Cardinal Peter Erdo.Plenary assemblies enable the separate episcopal conferences to communicate and to produce a unified position in relation to the various challenges of our days. For the UGCC such meetings are especially important, because through them it enters Europe and by them, in particular, the perception of Ukraine as a European state is formed.AddendumStatistics on the Greek-Catholic media in Ukraine Amount of the general church-media of the UGCC in Ukraine 9
Amount of journalists in the general-church media 36
Amount of eparchial publications 17
Amount of journalists in eparchial newspapers 62
Amount of press-services in eparchies 10
Amount of operating eparchial Internet pages of the UGCC 9