(Vatican 2014-12-17 ) Over one hundred bishops, priests, deacons and seminarians will meet in Rome in January 2015 for the Second International Conference of the English-speaking Confraternities of Catholic Clergy.
The conference brings together clergy from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each of these countries has an active confraternity which assists its members to grow in zeal, learning and holiness.
The 2015 conference takes up Pope Francis' call for the Church to contemplate Jesus Christ, and to go out from itself toward its existential peripheries. It is entitled: 'Quo vadis, Domine? The Church, Priests and Mission in the twenty-first century.'
Conference speakers include Cardinal George Pell who heads the Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal Angelo Amato who heads the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, and Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, who is Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The conference will join the Holy Father for Mass in St Peter's Basilica on the Feast of the Epiphany.
The US and Australian Confraternities organised their first international clergy conference in 2010, in response to Pope Benedict's declaration of a Year for Priests. That conference proved so successful that it inspired newly-founded Confraternities in Britain and Ireland.
A highlight of the 2015 conference is the opportunity to celebrate the sacred liturgy in Rome's major basilicas, assisted by Dublin's, Lassus Scholars, who excel at choral masterpieces sung in their authentic liturgical setting.
Although booking is now closed, the conference was not restricted to confraternity members. An invitation was extended to all English-speaking clergy; with seminarians enjoying a generous subsidy, which expressed one of the Confraternities' particular concerns: the promotion of priestly vocations.
The conference brings together clergy from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Each of these countries has an active confraternity which assists its members to grow in zeal, learning and holiness.
The 2015 conference takes up Pope Francis' call for the Church to contemplate Jesus Christ, and to go out from itself toward its existential peripheries. It is entitled: 'Quo vadis, Domine? The Church, Priests and Mission in the twenty-first century.'
Conference speakers include Cardinal George Pell who heads the Secretariat for the Economy, Cardinal Angelo Amato who heads the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, and Archbishop Joseph Di Noia, who is Assistant Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The conference will join the Holy Father for Mass in St Peter's Basilica on the Feast of the Epiphany.
The US and Australian Confraternities organised their first international clergy conference in 2010, in response to Pope Benedict's declaration of a Year for Priests. That conference proved so successful that it inspired newly-founded Confraternities in Britain and Ireland.
A highlight of the 2015 conference is the opportunity to celebrate the sacred liturgy in Rome's major basilicas, assisted by Dublin's, Lassus Scholars, who excel at choral masterpieces sung in their authentic liturgical setting.
Although booking is now closed, the conference was not restricted to confraternity members. An invitation was extended to all English-speaking clergy; with seminarians enjoying a generous subsidy, which expressed one of the Confraternities' particular concerns: the promotion of priestly vocations.