11 Nov 2013 - Sixteen bishops representing the Eastern Churches in Austria, Belarus, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and Ukraine gathered to attend the Symposium on November 9, 2013 at the University of Vienna. The Symposium proposed the lives of the martyrs of the Eastern Churches as an answer to the question of what it means to be Christian today. The conference was organized by the Ordinariate for the Faithful of Byzantine Rite in Austria, the International Theological Institute, the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna and the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Christoph Cardinal Schönborn and Leonardo Cardinal Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, gave opening addresses and Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s address was given by the General Secretary of the Bishops’ Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Bishop Bohdan Dzyurakh. Seven speakers representing the Eastern Churches spoke about their martyrs and showed how these martyrs point the way towards answering the problems of being a Christian in today’s world. The Symposium ended with all of the bishops celebrating Divine Liturgy together in St. Stephans Cathedral beautifully accompanied by choirs from Hungary, Ukraine, Romania and Slovakia. For more news in German click here. and here