About Us
The EUROPEAN
FORUM OF NATIONAL LAITY COMMITTEES (EFL) is an organisation aiming
at promoting regular contacts between the national committees or
councils of the Catholic laity in Europe.
To achieve that aim, the Forum intends to facilitate
the exchange of experiences and information between its members on
questions of European importance, especially concerning the problems of
the mission of the Church in the world and its pastoral work. The EFL
organises study meetings every two years in one of the member countries,
dealing with pastoral and socio-political topics together with experts
invited to share their expertise on specific questions.
The EFL keeps contact and wants to strengthen it with
the European structures of bishops’ conferences (CCEE and COMECE) as
well as with other organisations of the Catholic Church at European
level (CCPE, UCESM and others), the Pontifical Council for the Laity,
and churches and organisations of other Christian traditions and
ecumenical movements.
The realization of the Gospel and its social ethics is
an important task for a humane future of Europe. That’s why we, the
Christian lay people, - in co-operation and shared responsibility with
the priests and other ordained people – have and will have to play a
growing role in our Church and in society.
Thus Pope John Paul II wrote in
Christifideles laici in 1989:
“It
is necessary, then, to keep a watchful eye on this our world, with its
problems and values, its unrest and hopes, its defeats and triumphs: a
world whose economic, social, political and cultural affairs pose
problems and grave difficulties in light of the description provided by
the Council in the Pastoral Constitution,
Gaudium et Spes (7).
This, then, is the
vineyard; this is the
field in which the faithful are called to fulfil their mission. Jesus
wants them, as he wants all his disciples, to be the "salt of the earth"
and the "light of the world" (cf.
Mt 5:13-14).
We are convinced that due to our frequent contacts we
will be capable of offering proposals for solutions in our more and more
globalised world.
We also wish to encourage other national lay committees
by means of our joint activities to take up their responsibilities on
the national level.
It’s by respecting the specialty of everyone, who is
anchored in his/her culture, that we want to promote and make ours the
European motto “unity in diversity”.
Peter Annegarn
President
Structure of the EUROPEAN
FORUM OF NATIONAL LAY COMMITTEES:
The Statutory
Assembly and the Presidents’ Council are the only decision-taking
bodies. The
Steering Committee, consisting of 7 members including the President,
the Secretary, and the Treasurer, is the executive body (see
Constitution
and
Standing Orders).