Common meeting of Czech and Slovakian bishops

On 22nd–24th October 2013, a common plenary meeting of the Czech and Slovakian bishops’ conferences will take place in Vranov u Brna. The program will also include a mass at the cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Brno.

Vranov u Brna: Among the main topics to be discussed during the common program of both bishops’ conferences will be secularization as a pastoral challenge, relation between the Church and the State, and an evaluation of the activities of the Church during the past twenty years.

The mass at the Brno cathedral, planned for Wednesday 23^rd October at 5.30 p.m., will be presided over by Archbishop Stanislav Zvolenský, president of the Slovak Bishops’ Conference.

Last similar meeting of Czech and Slovakian bishops in the Diocese of Brno took place on 27^th–28^th January 1992; this was the last common plenary meeting of the Czechoslovakian Bishops’ Conference. Following the country’s split on 31^st December 1992, the planned event will be a common meeting of both conferences in the diocese of Brno after 21 years.

Other common meetings of both bishops’ conferences after the division of Czechoslovakia took place in Olomouc, Czech Republic (23^rd–24^th November 1993), and Badín, Slovakia (8^th–9^th November 1994).