“We would like to support the Churches in different countries across the world in their reconciliation efforts”, reads a joint declaration released by the German and Polish Bishops to mark the 50^th anniversary of the exchange of letters of mutual reconciliation between the Churches of the two countries following the Second World War (18 November 1965). The document was signed on Sunday, 22^nd November, at the Shrine of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, Poland, by the Archbishop of Poznan and President of the Polish Bishops Stanislaw Gadecki, and by the President of the German Bishops Card. Reinhard Marx. The Bishops of Poland and Germany define themselves as “Christian, Polish and German, and together European”, stressing that the Church in both their countries is entrusted with the “mission of building the future in a spirit of reconciliation”. “As a Church, we would like to be actively involved in the process of building a united Europe based on Christianity”, the Bishops said, announcing contacts “especially with the Churches in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in other parts of former Yugoslavia as well as with Eastern European Churches”. “Today too, our two Churches – the document reads – should bear witness to their faith in Europe”. Finally, both Bishops’ Conferences reaffirmed their conviction that “it is only when the dignity of every person will be seen as a gift from God that our civilisation will be able to defend itself against the false and misleading ideas of self-determination and condescension”.