80th Plenary Meeting of the Czech Bishops´ Conference

In the days 20.-21.4.2010 the 80th plenary meeting of the Czech Bishops’ Conference will take place in Prague. The session will start already on Monday, April 19, 2010 at 5.30 pm with a Holy Mass in the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert at the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the pontificate of the Pope Benedict XVI. The Mass will be presided by the Apostolic Nuncio in the Czech Republic Mons. Diego Causero. The two-day long meeting will take place in the Capuchin monastery at Loreta in Prague.

Prague (CZ): From Tuesday, April 20, 2010 the jubilee 80^th plenary session of the of the Czech Bishops’ Conference will take place in the Capuchin monastery at Loreta square in Prague in attendance of bishops of Bohemian and Moravian dioceses and representatives of the Conferences of Major Superiors of Men and Women Religious Orders. The Apostolic Nuncio in the Czech Republic Archbishop Mons. Diego Causero will participate at the beginning of the plenary meeting.

Vojtěch Cikrle, bishop of the Brno diocese will speak the opening spiritual words. The new Archbishop Mons. Dominik Duka will give a reflection on today’s society in the national and international context. During the session the bishops will discuss some pastoral and organisational matters. They will speak for example about the project of Bible for Youth, about the activities of youth within the frameworks of the pastoral year 2010, which has the Scriptures as its main theme, about the offer of lectures of the Council for pastoral activities of gipsies and about the preparation of the Congress about the God´s mercy for the year 2011.

Towards the end of the first meeting day the bishops will celebrate the Holy Mass in the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Wenceslas and Adalbert, which will be a requiem mass for the Cardinal  Tomáš Špidlík, who died in Rome on Friday 16.4.2010. The Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka will be the main celebrant, the Archbishop of Olomouc, Jan Graubner will preach during the Mass.

This year the second five years long period of the Archbishop of Olomouc, Jan Graubner in the function of the President of the Czech Bishops’ Conference is completed. Therefore the elections of the President and further responsible positions of the Czech Bishops’ Conference will take place during this plenary session as it is listed in the Regulations and in the Rules of procedures and organisation of the Czech Bishops’ Conference.

On Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 3 pm the new leadership of the Czech Bishops’ Conference and the main outputs of the plenary meeting will be presented to journalists during a short media briefing.

Irena Sargankova, the press speaker of the Czech Bishops’ Conference (Mobile phone: +420 731 625 984) will be at the disposal of journalist during the whole plenary session.