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Leaders of the Catholic Church’s principal liaison to the European Union will meet with Pope Leo XIV this Friday in what will mark their first official audience with the new Holy Father.
The audience, set for May 23 at the Vatican, will include the leadership team of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union, known as COMECE. According to a May 21 press release from the group, the meeting is an important milestone for ongoing Church engagement with European governance.
The audience will serve as a platform for the bishops and the Pope to discuss several pressing matters affecting both Church and society. According to COMECE, topics will include the current state of European integration, the EU’s role in fostering peace and integral development, the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, the challenges of migration, and environmental sustainability.
Monsignor Mariano Crociata, President of COMECE, will head the delegation, accompanied by Monsignors Antoine Hérouard, Rimantas Norvila, Nuno Brás da Silva Martins, and Czeslaw Kozon — all serving as vice presidents — as well as Father Manuel Barrios Prieto, the general secretary, and Assistant General Secretary Alessandro Calcagno.
Msgr. Crociata had previously expressed the delegation’s anticipation of the meeting in a statement released on the day of Pope Leo XIV’s election, according to the press release.
“We look forward with hope and confidence to the opportunity to meet the Holy Father, to receive from him encouragement and guidance in our mission of dialogue with the institutions of the European Union,” he wrote. “In an international context marked by a plurality of crises and common challenges, our desire is to walk a common path, to journey together, supporting the Pontiff in his work.”
Also attending will be Archbishop Bernardito Cleopas Auza, the Holy See’s newly appointed representative to the European Union. While not a formal COMECE member, the Apostolic Nuncio takes part in the Standing Committee’s sessions.
