Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Aparecida (Agenzia Fides) - "We the participants at 5th General Conference of the Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean send your Holiness affectionate filial greetings and express our gratitude for making the arduous journey to personally inaugurate our Assembly at the feet of most Holy Mary Our Lady of Aparecida, honouring us with your presence in this blessed land of Brazil”. These are the opening words of a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XVI by the participants at the Conference being held in Aparecida at the end of the first week of discussion. The participants thank the Pope for the homily at the opening Mass and inauguration address "whose contents will orient and guide our work". "We have a strong sense of the Lord's presence - the letter continues - filled with prayer and fraternity, we share work, and spiritual closeness and concern for the brothers and sisters He has entrusted to our care”. The letter ends expressing profound communion with the Successor of Peter: "we are united with Your Holiness and the whole Church especially in the daily Eucharist".
The Conference resumes work today Monday 21 May. The first week was devoted to examining the socio-political economic, cultural and religious situation Latin America. The participants listened to 22 reports from presidents of the Bishops' Conferences who also voiced the respective expectations with regard to the Conference. Bishop relators are working in groups of five to summarise this first part of the work under the heading: "The present day", according to information supplied by Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, President of the Bishops' Conference of Mexico and vice president of CELAM.
Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga, president of the Colombian Bishops' Conference listed the principal questions treated in this first part of the meeting: handing on the faith, cultural change, reappraisal of human dignity, social inequality in Latin America. Besides social inequality and many problems Latin America, Bishop Castro Quiroga said certain elements of Latin American culture must be considered most positive, one of them being respect for the value of human rights.
In the coming days the Bishops will reflect concretely on the central theme of the Conference: "Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ that our Peoples may have Life in Him ". The participants will strive to reply to various questions such as: what does it mean to be a disciple in the Church today and the world today? What does it mean to be a disciple and missionary of Jesus Christ that our people may have life in him? (RG) (Agenzia Fides 21/5/2007; righe 34, parole 465)
