Plenary Assembly

The Church and the Challenge of Secularisation

Via della Conciliazione n° 5, 6-8 March 2008

Thursday 6 march 2008

09.00:    Lauds

09.15:    Welcoming and opening session: His Excellency Rt. Rev. Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture

09.45:    Report of activities: Most Rev Bernard Ardura, Secretary

10.15:    Presentation of the Instrumentum Laboris: Rev. Fr. Laurent Mazas, Rev. Msgr. Franco Perazzolo

10.45:    Coffee Break

11.15:    1^st session: Secularisation: theological, cultural and pastoral challenges

- Constructing the City of God at the Heart of Secular Society, His Excellency Rt. Rev. Joseph Doré, Emeritus Archbishop of Strasbourg

12.00:    Discussion

13.00:    Lunch

15.00:    2^nd Session: The Church and secularisation of civil society

- The Church’s Pastoral Responsibility in a Context of Secularisation of Civic Institutions, His Eminence Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez, Archbishop of Guadalajara

- Facing the Challenge of a Crisis of Faith towards the Church, His Excellency the Most Rev.  Donal Brendan Murray, Bishop of Limerick

- What kind of Democracy leads to Secularism? His Eminence Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago

- A People of  Missionaries caught up with Secularisation,  His Eminence Cardinal José da Cruz Policarpo, Patriarch of Lisbon

- African Cultures and the Challenge of Migration: a  concern for the Church,  His Excellency the Most Rev. Anselme Titianma Sanon, Archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso

- What Pastoral Priorities for the Church in Traditional Asia?, His Eminence Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples

- The Challenge of Sects and Religious of Indigenous Inspiration: the urgency of a renewed proclamation of the Gospel, His Eminence Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, Archbishop of Guatemala

- The Resurgence of the Irrational in Western Culture: a challenge for the new evangelization, His Excellency Rt. Rev. Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto

- Are the new forms of religiosity an indication of post-secularisation? His Excellency Rt. Rev. Mark Benedict Coleridge, Archbishop of Canberra

- The Concerns of a Christian Humanism in a Society deprived  of Transcendence, His Eminence Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč

- New Ways for a Dialogue between the Church and the Sciences, His Excellency Rt. Rev. Józef Mirosław Życiński, Archbishop of Lublin

- What Language should the Church employ to speak to the Heart of man devoid of religious references? His Eminence Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster

- The Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace, in the perspective of the II^nd Special Assembly of the  Synod of Bishops for Africa, His Eminence Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam

- Which pastoral perspectives for the evangelization of culture in Europe?, Rev. Msgr. Peter Fleetwood, Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture

- The formation of priests and the consecrated amidst atheism and secularisation, His Excellency Rt. Rev. Joseph Vu Duy Thong, Auxiliary Bishop of Thành-Phô Hô Chí Minh

- A Church witnessing faith and charity in a Muslim country Rev. Fr. John M. Prior, Consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture

- The Evangelization of culture at the service of reconciliation and peace, His Excellency Rt. Rev. Guy-Paul Noujaim, Maronite Patriarchal Vicar of  Sarba

- Religious experience and dimension in the  process of reconciliation and peace in Africa, His Eminence Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier O.F.M., Archbishop of Durban