AMERICA - From the first Latin American Church Assembly to the Synod, for a greater capacity for evangelization

Bogotà (Agenzia Fides) - A year ago, from 21 to 28 November 2021, the first Church Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean was held in Mexico City (see Fides 29/11/2021; 24/2/2022 ), linked to the Synod of Bishops on synodality and the "bet" of an entirely synodal Church.
A year after the holding of this First Ecclesial Assembly, unprecedented in Latin America and the Caribbean, and at the level of the universal Church, preceded by extensive prior consultation with a view to listening, we reaffirm that the process which took place to honor the "debts" to the Conference of Aparecida allowed us to "walk together", having as a fundamental criterion the ecclesiology of the people of God", declares Msgr. Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, president of CELAM, in the latest issue of the magazine "Misión Celam", dedicated to those who build synodality from their place of mission and evangelization. "We want to be artisans of synodality, and for this we work day after day in the common path... insofar as we all feel ourselves to be Church and work in a synodal way, we will have a greater capacity for evangelization", underlines the archbishop. "We now live with a renewed hope, the continental phase of the synod on synodality, a process in which, as a pilgrim Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, we want to continue to offer our contribution to the universal Church".
Recounting the impressions of some participants in this unprecedented and unique event for the Latin American Church a year ago, the magazine quotes the words of Juan José Morán, a layman from the Archdiocese of Panama, according to whom "what we liked the most is to be able to go to the different parishes and communities to bring this message of the new role that the Church asks of the laity". The Assembly was "a vital contribution to the current synodal journey and to being able to become a better Church, turned to the most deprived, a Church centered on Christ". Evy Muñoz Reyes, who lives in the city of Cadama, in northern Chile, underlined, about the indigenous peoples, that "we must accompany them in their way of living their faith, highlighting what they do with the land, respecting their culture". This aspect, at least in Chile, has not yet been touched, he stresses.
From Paraná, Argentina, Pablo Cassano talks about two contrasting feelings he experiences: on the one hand an immense joy to participate in this event, and on the other "the worry that the words remain on the paper, because we still have to go beyond the core of Christians, ordinary Catholics". This is why he trusts in "the Holy Spirit to guide us on this journey".
Guatemalan Cardinal Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri, inviting us to "keep walking", reminds us that "events can be judged from an immediate, present perspective, and from another that connects them to the past. That's how it is. We are immersed in time and that means: living in the present without forgetting the past. Undoubtedly, the other temporary category is the future, which pushes us to make the decisions that we consider best and most convenient on the path that the Church is taking in the midst of this humanity". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 7/12/2022)

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