Conferences

CONFERENCES. — In addition to councils, both general and particular, and to diocesan synods properly so called—public and official assemblies par excellence—the ecclesiastical order provides for other periodic meetings of the clergy, less public and solemn, for purposes of consultation and professional instruction, such as deanery or vicariate conferences and episcopal conferences (canons 131, 591, 292).

I. FORENIAL OR VICARIAL CONFERENCES

The practice of gatherings of this kind dates back to a rather ancient period. It is mentioned by s. Basil the Great (d. 377) in one of his letters to Chilone. In the West, however, the first traces of the institution appear only in the 9th century in some dioceses of southern France, among the rural clergy; Incmaro of Reims regulated these gatherings with the first laws. In the 10th century, while the same practice became more frequent in France, it was also adopted by some dioceses in England, Germany, and Italy. It cannot be said, however, that these gatherings reproduced exactly the modern conferences of the clergy, since they were in fact true local synods that exercised legislative and judicial power, regulated public penance, and imposed canonical penalties on clerics and laypeople.

The institution and initial organization of conferences of the clergy in the modern sense are due to two of the most distinguished champions of the Counter-Reformation in the 16th century, Matteo Giberti, bishop of Verona, and s. Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan. Giberti had established them in his diocese even before the Council of Trent and had regulated their functioning in his Constitutiones (tit. I, chap. 23). Following his example, of which he was a great admirer, s. Carlo introduced them into his archdiocese at the First Council of Milan in 1565, strengthening their development and completing their organization. For this purpose, he divided the archdiocese into various territorial districts, each of which was placed under a vicar forane charged with presiding over the monthly meetings and giving him an exact account of them.

The institution, encouraged by the councils and warmly recommended by the popes, soon spread widely in Italy and abroad. In the 18th century it could already be said to be general throughout Europe. It was introduced into the two Americas at the beginning of the following century. By the time the CIC came into force, it had already been established in practice throughout the universal Church. In can. 131, the CIC made it universal in law, incorporating it into the general organization of the Church.

The CIC establishes a new right in this matter, insofar as it introduces the obligation of episcopal conferences into general law and prescribes them for provincial circumscriptions. Their use, however, although in the form of national or at most regional conferences, in fact preceded codification in the fairly common practice of many nations. Episcopal conferences arose and became established spontaneously as a substitute for councils, as the latter became less frequent, owing to the need felt by the bishops of the various countries to coordinate their pastoral initiatives more frequently, outside the solemnity of the councils themselves. The favorable attitude of the Supreme Pontiffs contributed greatly to their development: they not only unconditionally approved and praised the initiative, but warmly recommended it, as is evident from the official sources, so that it might be introduced in those countries where it did not yet exist. Although examples of episcopal conferences can also be found sporadically in earlier periods, a sufficiently uniform and constant practice in this regard is encountered only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. By making them obligatory every five years for provincial circumscriptions, the canon legislator intended to respond to the vote already presented at the First Vatican Council, calling for the period for the regular convocation of the provincial council to be shortened to five years.

Episcopal conferences are prepared, convened, and presided over by the metropolitan or, in his absence, by the suffragan bishop senior by promotion. After being summoned, all those who are obliged to attend the provincial council must take part in them. They serve as a link between one provincial council and the next, supplying a more frequent convocation of the latter and reproducing certain of its features and formalities. Juridically, however, they are not councils: they have the character of friendly meetings of a purely consultative nature, and their deliberations do not assume the character of conciliar statutes, but rather that of simple agreements which each participant undertakes to execute as though he had deliberated them on his own initiative for his own territory.

The legislator provides in this matter for the possibility of a ius particulare for individual places (can. 292 § 1). In Italy, for example, the decree of the S. Congregazione Concistoriale of 22 March 1919 remains in force, prescribing annual episcopal conferences to be held not by province but by conciliar region (cf. decree of the same Congregation, 15 February 1919); indeed, by a subsequent decree of the S. Congregazione del Concilio, 21 June 1932, their deliberations must be officially transmitted to the Holy See, which subsequently communicates any observations and decisions (cf. AAS, 11 [1919], p. 175; 24 [1932], p. 242 ff.).

#### CONFERENCES OF S. VINCENZO: V. OZANAM.