CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS IN TURKEY

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Official Website of the Catholic Church in Turkey

Since 1976, the Episcopal Conference of Turkey (CET) is the Ecclesiastical Institution of a permanent nature, erected by the Holy See on February 1st, 1978, and also the Interritual Union of Bishops and Ordinaries (Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Assyro-Chaldean) of Turkey who jointly exercise pastoral functions for the faithful entrusted to them, according to the rules of law and the statutes approved by the Holy See.

The aim of the CET is to foster ever closer and full cooperation between the Bishops of Turkey and the other Ordinaries so that the pooling of insights from their prudence, their experiences and the confrontation of their opinions, may result in a harmonious union of all energies for the common good of the Church, especially with regards to the forms and means of the apostolate adapted appropriately to the circumstances of time and place, according to law.

For a better examination of certain particular questions, the Episcopal Conference sets up special commissions made up of ordinary people or other people, i.e. laypeople. The CET Commissions are as follows: Commission for Catechesis and Catechumen, Commission for Ecumenism, Commission for Interreligious and Cultural Dialogue, Commission for the Pastoral Care of Health Services and Charities, Commission for the Laity (for youth and family), Commission for the Translation of Religious Terms in Turkish.

The various Commissions transmit their outcomes to the Episcopal Conference to which the power of decision is exclusively reserved.

The Episcopal Conference of Turkey meets twice a year in the general assembly in spring and autumn and whenever requested by at least half of its members.