AMERICA/BOLIVIA - Priests: a sign of unity, which inspires solidarity among the people of God and attention to fundamental rights

Tuesday, 9 July 2019 priests   local churches   social situation   politics   human rights   missionary animation   environment  

Villa Montes (Agenzia Fides) - "The market economy is causing the so-called economic deceleration that is being experienced in Latin America and our country, generating unemployment and the return to poverty of the most vulnerable groups. Clarity and responsibility are requested with information that avoids mistrust and any attitude against the less privileged. Those in charge of the economy propose humanizing solutions. They respond with adequate attention towards migrants who question us in our experience of faith. Personal, family and community expenses and, above all, public spending give priority to basic services: health, education, decent work and housing".
Thus the diocesan priests of Bolivia write in their message to the people of God at the end of their National Assembly of the Bolivian Conference of Diocesan Clergy (CBCD), celebrated at Villa Montes. In their annual meeting, the gathered priests experience God's grace and blessing, and without a doubt, even the challenges, is what is written in the text sent to Fides. "In the electoral context in which the Country lives, the priest is called to be a sign of unity and to inspire solidarity and the search to cultivate the fundamental rights of democracy in the People of God".
The Fifth American Missionary Congress, CAM V, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, "gave a great impulse to our missionary vocation", write the priests, noting that this ecclesial event "is a gift that continues to bear fruit, arousing greater prophetic, missionary commitment and reconciliation in our local Churches. It is up to us, People of God and priests, to continue to proclaim with joy".
Another theme cited in the message concerns the deterioration of the environment and the effects we are undergoing: "The Bolivian Amazon basin is inhabited by the native peoples of the plains who, faced with the advance of uncontrolled deforestation, depredation and destruction of their habitat, want to preserve their lifestyle, their customs, their culture and their territory". This is why they invite "to listen to Jesus and the pleading voice of so many communities living in the Amazon".
"If our communities, priests and the Holy People faithful to God walk by recognizing Jesus who is the good Shepherd - is what is written in the conclusion -, then we can dream that there will be nothing - neither the politics of the parties nor the evils of the disintegrating economy of families or the depredation of the environment due to ambition, nor the evil of abuse - which can separate us from the Life that the Lord offers us in his Son Jesus, as Saint Paul says, 'nothing will separate us from the Love of God' (cf Rom 8:35)". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 9/7/2019)


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