Catholics meet in Budapest for evangelization effort, City Mission

Published: 2007-09-21

BUDAPEST, Hungary (CNS) -- Hundreds of Catholics from Europe, the United States and Oceania converged on Budapest in mid-September for the Fifth International Congress for New Evangelization, which coincided with Budapest's City Mission. The congress is a five-year Catholic evangelization effort directed at large European cities; Budapest was its closing city. Budapest Cardinal Peter Erdo, welcoming delegates to the international congress, said a city "can be the symbol of the world" and "a place where people having different cultures, religions, and ideologies meet each other." On Sept. 22, the cardinal was to join a discussion with prelates of the previous four host cities: Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris; and Cardinals Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, Austria; Godfried Danneels of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium; and Jose da Cruz Policarpo, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal. "These congresses have been a wonderful outreach to urban people," one priest-delegate from England told Catholic News Service. "It's quite remarkable."

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