BRUSSELS (CNS): The new head the Brussels-based Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community bishops, Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, pledged to combat populism and promote European unity.
 
“The European Union (EU) is a gain for the common good and this is why the Church should be in constant dialogue with it,” said Bishop Hollerich, who was elected president of the commission on March 8.
 

HONG KONG (SE): To mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the Commission of Episcopal Conferences in the European Union held a gathering in the Eternal City from October 27 to 29, the final day of which included an audience with Pope Francis.
 
Meeting under the theme of Rethinking Europe, the bishops chose the anniversary for their gathering because they believe that the treaty that was signed in 1957 marked the beginning of the integration process which finally lead to the formation of the European Union.

BUDAPEST (SE): The European Union has upheld the right of ecclesiastical courts to maintain their independence in making decisions regarding ecclesiastical law.
 
In the case of Nagy versus Hungary on September 24, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights ruled against a pastor from the Reformed Church of Hungary who had been dismissed from his stipendiary over comments he had made to local media.
 

OXFORD (SE): While Church leaders in the United Kingdom (UK) expressed concern over the possible fallout from the 52 to 48 per cent vote to quit the European Union, bishops on the continent pointed out that the decision runs directly in the face of the call of the modern world for unity.

STRASBOURG (SE): The Council of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Europe has given its support to a resolution of the European Parliament to label the persecution of religious minorities by the Islamic State as genocide.

MANCHESTER (CNS): “We cannot accept that people drown and suffocate at the borders of Europe. Building barbed-wire fences and walls to prevent refugees from entering Europe is not a solution,” the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) said in a statement on September 10, a day after meeting in Munich, Germany.

A common asylum policy for the European Union (EU) would prevent countries from keeping out migrants, the commission said.