The President of COMECE, H.E. Mgr. Mariano Crociata, greeted the participants of the 2023 General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches in Tallinn (Estonia) on Sunday, 18 June 2023. Crociata: “As the tragic war against Ukraine rages on, common understandings and projects are necessary to overcome conflict and create ways of reconciliation and peace”. Speech [EN – IT]
H.E. Mgr. Mariano Crociata, President of COMECE, addresses the 2023 General Assembly of CEC taking place in Tallinn on 14-20 June 2023. (Photo: Albin Hillert/CEC)
Mgr. Mariano Crociata was invited to participate as observer in the 2023 General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) taking place in Tallin on 14-20 June 2023.
In his greetings, the President of COMECE praised the consolidated experience of collaboration and mutual understanding with CEC. “I express my wish to renew and continue this cooperation with even more conviction and dedication”, he stated.
Mgr. Crociata also thanked the outgoing president, Rev. Christian Krieger, for the excellent cooperation in recent years, and expressed his best wishes and prayers to the future CEC President, who will be elected by the Assembly on Monday, 19 June 2023.
“The presence of our Churches in the EU Member States is first and foremost a calling of history, of our common history of these last decades and of today. As Christians, we feel called to make our contribution to a Union that can truly constitute, according to the intentions of its founding fathers, a unique possibility of development for its peoples and a promise of peace for all of us and for the whole world”, Mgr. Crociata continued.
In his contribution, the President of EU Bishops also addressed the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine – one of the main topics of discussion during this 2023 CEC General Assembly.
“It is precisely the aspiration for peace that has been most challenged for almost a year and a half now with the war in Ukraine, with no sign of an end, despite the attempts and efforts being made from various sides to ensure that the war is stopped, first and foremost by those who unjustifiably started it”, he stated.
Mgr. Crociata concluded by wishing to “witness an ever stronger will for communion and growing efforts to find common understandings and projects to overcome conflictand create ways of reconciliation and peace”.
Under the theme ‘Shape the future, with God’s blessing’, the CEC General Assembly featured high-level keynote speeches, including from His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who offered a reflection on the future of ecumenism in Europe. Read Patriarch’s speech
On Monday 19 June 2023, the Assembly will elect the new Presidency of the Conference of European Churches. More info
While in the Baltic country, the President of COMECE met with the Apostolic Administrator of Estonia, H.E. Mgr. Philippe Jourdan, and offered a homily during the Holy Mass celebrated at the local Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. Read the homily
Documents
- Mgr. Crociata’s speech [EN–IT]
- Patriarch Bartholomew’s speech [text – video]
- Mgr. Crociata’s homily
- Official website of the 2023 CEC General Assembly
