35 Years of CBF

The Catholic Biblical Federation can be regarded as a “child” of the Second Vatican Council. The idea to create such an organization for promoting the biblical apostolate was first suggested in 1950 by the Austrian canon, Pius Parsch. Bishop Emile Cekada of Skopje also made a proposal to call an organization of this kind to life on October 6, 1964 during the third session of the Second Vatican Council and this proposal was finally brought to fruition in 1968 by Cardinal Bea who called together delegates of European Catholic biblical organizations and representatives of religious publishing houses to a meeting in Rome.

Finally, on April 16, 1969, the Federation was called into existence under the auspices of Cardinal Willebrands, successor to Cardinal Bea as President of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity (now: Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity). Initially called “World Catholic Federation for the Biblical Apostolate”, its name was simplified to “Catholic Biblical Federation” (CBF) in 1990.

Statements on the 35th anniversary of CBF came from:

  • Fr. Dr. A. Peter Abir, India (English)
  • Bishop Arturo M. Bastes, svd, Philippines (English)
  • Grace Celia, Malta (English)
  • P. Ignatius Chidavaenzi, Zimbabwe/Italy (English)
  • Sr. Maura Cho, solph, Korea/USA (English)
  • Cecilia Chui, Hongkong (English)
  • Fr. Thomas D´Sa, India (English)
  • Mr. Robert Delaney, USA (English)
  • Dr. Bettina Eltrop, Deutschland (deutsch)
  • P. Dr. Ludger Feldkämper SVD, Italien (deutsch)
  • Hno. Enrique Garcia Ahumada, fsc, Chile (español)
  • Sr. Emmanuel Gunanto, osu, Indonesia (English)
  • Dr. Norbert Höslinger, Österreich (deutsch)
  • Fr. Arnold Jurgens, mhm, Netherlands (English)
  • Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, Nigeria (English)
  • Fr. Benjamin Kiriswa, Kenya (English)
  • Dr. Daniel Kosch, Schweiz (deutsch)
  • Prälat Dr. Bernhard Krautter, Deutschland (deutsch)
  • Fr. Abraham Mariaselvam, India (English)
  • P. Gerhard Mellert SVD, Westindische Inseln (deutsch)
  • Revd. Miller Milloy, Great Britain (English)
  • P. Gabriel Naranjo Salazar, cm, Colombia (español)
  • Dr. Franz-Josef Ortkemper, Deutschland (deutsch)
  • Dr. Thomas P. Osborne, Luxembourg (English)
  • Barbara Pauli, Deutschland (deutsch)
  • Fr. Paul Puthanangady, sdb, India (English)
  • Dr. Helmut Steindl, Österreich (deutsch)
  • Fr. Dr. James Swetnam, sj, Italy (English)
  • Fr. John van der Valk, Netherlands (English)
  • Heidi Wechsler, Schweiz (deutsch)
  • Fr. Wim Wijtten, svd, Belgium (English)

Here you can download the booklet with all texts.

(The contributions have been left in the original languages. They explicitly reflect the personal opinions of the individual writers.)

 

Further information can be found on the CBF website:

www.c-b-f.org

The file requires Adobe reader. Here you can download the program.