Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic Bishops of Venezuela are holding their 92nd Ordinary Plenary Assembly which opened on Tuesday 7 July and should close on Sunday 12 July, and will focus on issues of interest for the Church and for society. The opening session was presided by the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Venezuela (CEV), Archbishop Ubaldo Santana Sequela, and the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Giacinto Berloco. Among the questions to be discussed, first of all assessment of the recent ad limina Visit to Rome at the beginning of June. Then the Year of the Priesthood launched by Pope Benedict XVI, considered an “opportunity to rediscover the beauty and the importance of the priesthood and ordination” and for the promotion of vocations. In this regard the Bishops will have a meeting with the priests of the different ecclesiastical provinces, to share ideas, proposals and initiatives to advance in efforts to continue inward renewal and personal sanctification of all the priests in the country.
Another matter on the agenda is the Continental Mission, which expresses the Church's desire to be a disciple and a missionary of Christ in order to share with others the joy of the faith in the present day process of change in society; the Bishops will also decide on the Church's position concerning proposed Bills respectively on education and gender equality. They will discuss how to give impulse to the application of the Plenary Council of Venezuela with the launching of the Conference's ad hoc Commission on Ecclesial Instances.
In his opening discourse, Archbishop Ubaldo Santana said the whole Continent is living hours of tension due to the grave situation in Honduras. The Bishops express “full solidarity with the people of that country, especially the poor, who the most affected by the crisis ”, and they pray that God “may help those involved in the conflict to put aside personal interests and promote the peace and the good of Honduras”.
The Archbishop recalled “the cries of Venezuelans asking for problems and conflict to be always resolved through dialogue and agreement”.
With regard to public debate on the possible approval by the National Assembly of new laws on education and gender equality, the president of the Bishops' Conference said these facts offer an opportunity “to re-examine in the light of the Gospel the Church's Social Doctrine and the new tendencies in our society, these issues which for the Church are of primary importance ”. And Archbishop Santana continued, “they are issues on which the Church has something to say and a message to announce”, since “they involve fundamental aspects and values of the organisation of society and human coexistence”, such as the state and the principle of subsidiarity, freedom and parent's responsibility to choose education for their children, religious instruction at school, the centrality of the family and the dignity of human life.
The president of the Bishops' Conference finally recalled the next American Mission Congress to be held in 2012, in Maracaibo, which represents a great challenge for the Pontifical Mission Societies and for the Bishops' Conference: “at this present assembly we want to lay the basis for the preparation of that Congress”. “An apostolic, priestly and missionary agenda awaits us. We are determined to continue to advance in the renewal of our Churches by means of the Continental Mission” the president of the Bishops' Conference concluded. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 10/7/2009)
