Last week, saw the end the Plenary Meeting of COMECE, the European Bishops’ Commission based in Brussels. Bishop Mario Grech is a member of this commission as representative of the Maltese Episcopal Commission.

During the last three days, the bishops reflected on various themes regarding the relationship of the Church with European institutions. One of the central arguments in this plenary meeting was the Lisbon Treaty, which is due to become effective on 1st December 2009, particularly regarding Art.17 of the Treaty establishing the need for dialogue between the European Union, the Church and religious communities.

The bishops analysed also an important sentence decreed last June by the German Federal Constitutional Court regarding how the Lisbon Treaty conforms with the country’s Law. This sentence, which created a lot of discussion in Europe, indicated what subjects form part of the country’s identity and, as such, are outside the competence of the European Union to any interfere with them. It is the duty of the constitutional organs of member nations to ensure that there is no such interference by the European Union.

With the assistance of the Holy See representative, who is a Permanent Observer in the Council of Europe in Strasburg, the bishops made an evaluation of a Sentence given early this month by the European Court of Human Rights ordering the removal of the Cross from Italian schools. There was a strong reaction against this sentence, not only from other Churches that are non-Catholic, but also from many countries.

The bishops began discussing a project for the coming year which will be “The European Year Against Poverty.”

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