The second plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) 2006 will take place in Calabar, Cross River State, from 11 to 16 September 2006.

|TOP|The meeting will begin with an Opening Mass on 10 September and will be followed immediately by the official opening session, CBCN said in a statement to CISA.

At the meeting, which will be presided over by the President of the Bishops' Conference Archbishop Felix Alaba Job of Ibadan, the bishops will discuss matters relating to the Catholic Church within and outside Nigeria. They will also review the general situation in the country.

All the bishops of the 51 dioceses and archdioceses in the country and the retired bishops are expected at the meeting.

A closing mass will be held at St Bernard's Catholic Church on 15 September 2006.

Preceding the bishops' plenary is the monthly Catholic Secretariat Forum, usually held on the second Sunday of every month.

The forum is an informative and educative gathering of people, where there is intellectual discussion on the social teachings of the Catholic Church in relation to the Nigerian society, reports the All Africa news agency.

This month's forum will be held under the theme, '2007: Towards a Real Change in Nigerian Politics'.