AMERICA/BOLIVIA - Bishops' Conference President opens plenary assembly: “Bolivia must make every effort to become a builder of peace, filled with hope, love and freedom”

Friday, 4 April 2008

Cochabamba (Agenzia Fides) - “More than ever today in the present situation of tension in our country, there resounds the promising greeting which the Risen Lord addressed to his Apostles: ‘Peace be with you'. Peace is the most precious gift which the Lord entrusts to his apostles, a new relationship between us children with God our Father, and this renders us brothers and sisters in Christ”. With these words Cardinal Julio Terrazas, Archbishop of Santa Cruz and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bolivia, opened the Bishops' Plenary Assembly being held 3 to 8 April in Cochabamba.
In his address Cardinal Terrazas mentioned first of all the appointment of a new apostolic nuncio to Bolivia, Archbishop Luciano Suriani, who will receive his Episcopal ordination on 26 April in the cathedral of Chieti (Italy). In a brief message to the assembly, read out by Fr Marco Ganci, the new Nuncio expresses his commitment “to find with you the best way to fulfil the responsibility of Papal Representative ”.
Continuing his address, the Cardinal President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Bolivia recalled celebrations in May to mark the 20th anniversary of the Pastoral Visit made by His Holiness Pope John Paul II to Bolivia. “Still vivid in our hearts are the gestures of affection and enlightened words of John Paul II, ever more relevant for the journey of our Church and our country”. Particularly vividly he recalled the Pope's farewell address, almost as a testament, in which the Pope said: “Bolivians must work tirelessly to promote harmony in justice and in freedom. In this way they will guarantee a better future not only to the present generation but also for the generations of the future. In a spirit of fraternity they must follow the path of dialogue, understanding, comprehension, thinking of the common good”.
However, as the Cardinal said, “we have still a long way to go to achieve these exhortations. If we had put them into practice we would not be suffering now in this situation of crisis”. “The social and political convulsion in which we are immersed - the Cardinal continued- has compelled the conflicting parties to ask our help to ‘facilitate’ dialogue. This we are doing with simplicity, perseverance and sincere desire to serve to our country, listening to the actors involved. However I am convinced that it is almost impossible to facilitate dialogue while reciprocal mistrust, pressure and violence”. The Archbishop of Santa Cruz then mentioned a meeting on Tuesday evening between the Bolivian president Evo Morales and the Bishops to assess and ratify a desire on the part of the central government to dialogue and resolve difficulties with the opposition peacefully. According to a presidency spokesman, the meeting with the Catholic Bishops served to express the government's desire for dialogue and its firm trust in the Church, her moral prestige and credibility, to concretise spaces of dialogue in the search for solutions.
Cardinal Terrazas also recalled some of the events on the agenda of the general assembly such as the drafting of a document “Pastoral directions and guidelines” “to orient the work of evangelisation in our communities in keeping with the vision of the Aparecida Document”; meeting with the leading members of the Bolivian Conference for Consecrated Life and leading religious from the nation's regions; a prayer-meeting with leaders of other Christian communities; celebrations for 50 years of Caritas Bolivia and preparations for the Bishops' five yearly ad limina visit to Rome this coming November.
“Peace for us as Bishops, peace for our particular Churches, peace for our regions and peace all over Bolivia, especially for those whose responsible for keeping peace in the country. May Bolivia make every effort to build peace, to be filled with hope, love and freedom” the president of the Bishops' Conference concluded. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 4/4/2008; righe 45, parole 655)


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