(Brussels) The four-day plenary meeting of the Bishops Conference of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) ended in Hamburg today. One day’s workshop was spent talking about the post-synod exhortation Amoris lætitia with the help of two theologians with a background in morality and pastoral care (Eberhard Schockenhoff from Freiburg and Andreas Wollbold from Munich) to understand “its pastoral implementation”, as explained in a release. The eight bishops also worked at the “guidelines on education to priesthood” and preparing the pilgrimage of the relics of St Therese and her parents, Zèlie and Louis Martin, in 2018. The release explains: “Carmelite spirituality is widely followed, and there are Carmelite communities of religious and lay people in all five countries”. The bishops met in Hamburg because for 50 years the Catholics of that diocese and Osnabrück, through the association Ansgarwerk, have supported the life of the Catholic Church in the Nordic countries. That’s why on April 6^th the Mariendom in Hamburg hosted a celebration officiated by the bishop of Osnabrück, Franz-Josef Bode, who recalled how living in a “diaspora is not only a challenge, but also a chance to sow”. Speaking of the challenges facing a Europe threatened by populist and nationalist trends, he emphasised the importance of the “Church as God’s people that goes beyond all borders”.