Vatican, 28th February 2025
The Study Group dealing with ‘The Role of Pontifical Representatives in a Missionary Synodal Perspective’ has held a series of webinars over the past few days, three in all, with Pontifical Representatives from different continents: with those present in Europe and North America, with those present in Asia and Oceania, and finally with those present on the African continent and in Latin America.
The three meetings were chaired by Card. Mario Grech, Secretary General of the General Secretariat of the Synod, and by Card. Oswald Gracias, Archbishop Emeritus of Bombay and Coordinator of the Group.
Also participating as members of the Study Group were His Exc. Mgr. Antonio Guido Filipazzi, Apostolic Nuncio in Poland; Mgr. Joseph Murphy, Under-Secretary for the Diplomatic Staff of the Holy See, and in representation of H.Exc. Mgr. Luciano Russo, Secretary for Papal Representations; Prof. Myriam Wijlens, Professor of Canon Law at the University of Erfurt (Germany).
A total of over eighty Apostolic Nuncios took part in the meetings, in some cases represented or flanked by their respective Secretaries or Nunciature Councillors. During the webinars, each of the participants was invited to share his or her impressions on the service of the Papal Representations in a synodal and missionary Church: despite the exceptional variety of local situations, there was a convergence on the need to qualify in a more pastoral sense the service of the Nuncios to the local Churches and Episcopal Conferences and to enhance the style of community discernment in the work of the Nunciature.