Yesterday, a delegation of European Bishops visited the two Portuguese villages of Pedrogão Grande and Castanheira de Pera, which were among the hardest hit by the fires last year, to “witness the closeness and communion of the European Church with the inhabitants of this area, some of whom have lost members of their family and property”. The news was announced by the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) which informed about the meeting of the CCEE Commission for Social Pastoral Care that took place in the Colégio do Ramalhão in Sintra, Portugal, yesterday. The Commission was renewed at the 2017 CCEE Plenary Assembly. In the places affected by the disaster, the Commission, chaired by its president Mgr. Giampaolo Crepaldi, Archbishop of Trieste, was able to see the “great work of the diocesan Caritas of Coimbra in the front line both in responding to emergency situations and in supporting the most needy and helping to rebuild”. In June and October 2017, Portugal was hardly hit by a series of wildfires. The fire of Pedrogão Grande (June 17-22), which soon extended to the neighboring areas of Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, and Pampilhosa da Serra, caused the death of 66 people and injured 254. The fires that occurred on October 15 devastated much of central Portugal, leaving behind 45 dead and 70 wounded. Many people have lost their home, their business, their fields, their crops, their livestock, or their firm. During the meeting, the statement from CCEE reads, the Commission assessed the work carried out in previous years and proposed initiatives for the three sections within its competence (social issues, migration, and safeguard of creation) to be submitted to the presidents of the European Churches.