Bishops pledge to continue Year of Mercy and renew ‘Christian memory’

Europe’s Catholic bishops have predicted that the Church’s just concluded Year of Mercy will enrich the continent’s “journey of faith” and have pledged to support local Christian initiatives deriving from it, write Jonathan Luxmoore and Christa Pongratz-Lippitt.

“The deafening noise of wars, ideological struggles, conflicts, cultural deviations and social exclusion and poverty amplify the sense of bewilderment spread into European societies,” the Council of Catholic Episcopates of Europe (CCEE) said in a statement from its headquarters at St Gallen in Switzerland. “We cannot forget that, behind all this, lies the abandonment of the great values promoted and supported by the Gospel which have inspired European culture. Today there is need to … renew the Christian memory that gave a human dimension to European history.”

The statement was co-signed by CCEE vice-president Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The German bishops meanwhile welcomed the Pope’s decision effectively to prolong the Year of Mercy in his latest apostolic letter, Misericordia et misera of 21 November.