Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cochabamba (Agenzia Fides) - During a plenary assembly 8 - 13 November the Bishops' Conference of Bolivia will reflect on the situation in the country and the Constituent Assembly in view of launching a call to national unity and solidarity among all Bolivians, Bishop Jesús Juárez, of the diocese of El Alto reported. "The voice of the Bishops could foster deeper unity in view of a growth in the fraternity desired by the people" the Bishop said
The Bishops will also reflect on the final Document of 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean as a basis for pastoral guidelines 2008-2012, and on the Bolivian Church's contribution to the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in Rome next year on the theme "The Word of God in the life and the mission of the Church "
In the opening address the president of the Bishops' Conference Cardinal Julio Terrazas, said the Aparecida was the most important event in recent years for the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, a 'new Pentecost', and that the main task of the Bishops' Assembly would be to "prepare new Pastoral Guidelines to put our local Churches in a state of mission". "It is vital for us to assume Aparecida - said the Cardinal, "in an integral form, without distortion or reductive readings or interpretations pastoral animation in our local Churches…the mission in which we are launched by Aparecida “must start from the Word of God, Word of Life, which leads to a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, and calls people to live the faith in community to be a sign of the Kingdom of God in our society ”.
In his address the Apostolic Nuncio in Bolivia, Archbishop Ivo Scapolo, said Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Brazil was a sign of communion between the Successor of Peter and the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, reflected in his addresses illuminating and encouraging for the Church in Brazil and the Churches on the entire continent. Aparecida is a tool of Church communion which must be made known, studied and assimilated by everyone, so it may be a source of pastoral orientation for the years to come, he said expressing the hope that the Bolivian government and the Constituent Assembly would take the proposal of the Catholic Church into consideration to promote respect for the fundamental human values of religious freedom, human life, marriage between a man and a woman, the family and education of children. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 9/11/2007; righe 34, parole 462)
