Pope Francis will receive the renewed leadership of the Spanish Episcopal Conference

This Friday, Pope Francis receives the president, vice president and general secretary of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), whose main positions were renewed in the Plenary Assembly last March.

The Archbishop of Valladolid, Mons. Luis Argüello, the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo and the Auxiliary Bishop of Toledo, Mons. César García Magán, will take place early this Friday morning.

Mons. Argüello was elected as president by 48 votes in favor of a total of 78, in the first ballot, and Cardinal Cobo obtained 39 votes to become vice president of the EEC. Both have relieved Cardinal Juan José Omella and Cardinal Carlos Osoro in their positions respectively.

For its part, the secretary general of the EEC is the only position not recently renewed. Bishop García Magán was elected in November 2022 for a five-year period, replacing Bishop Argüello, who presented his resignation upon being named Archbishop of Valladolid in June of that year.

Despite this being a “regular sight”, as the EEC describes it in a message sent to the media, it is expected that the prelates will be able to address some burning issues of the Church in Spain.

In particular, the progress regarding the renewal impulse of the seminaries after the apostolic visit carried out at the beginning of 2023 and the extraordinary meeting of the Spanish bishops in plenary session with Pope Francis in Rome in November of that year.

Likewise, it is possible that they discuss the issue of sexual abuse and the relationship with the victims, as well as the actions of the Government of Spain, criticized by the bishops for considering that it is “discriminatory”, by focusing its actions only on cases within the Catholic Church.