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Rome (Agenzia Fides) - The Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL), which was created by Pope Pius XII on April 21, 1958, celebrated its 50th anniversary on Friday, May 9 with an Conference at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. The event was presided by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and was attended by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima, Archbishop Octavio Ruiz, Vice-President of the CAL, Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida and President of CELAM, and Bishop Victor Sanchez, Secretary General of CELAM.
In his opening remarks, Cardinal Re recalled that during these 50 years, the CAL has tried to support the Church in Latin America, with the joint effort of its 22 Bishops’ Conferences. It has also made an effort to promote the new evangelization and currently seeks to uphold the commitment to be disciples and missionaries of Christ.
In following, the Commission’s Vice-President spoke on the history of the Pontifical Commission’s 50 years, its early days, and the various eras that it has passed since it began. He pointed out that “from the moment that Latin American nations began to be formed, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Holy See showed a deep pastoral concern for the Church in that continent,” as is evident in the foundation of the “Colegio Pio Latino Americano,” by Pius IX, or the celebration of the Latin American Plenary Council called by Pope Leo XIII, which took place in Rome and that was the first of its kind in the Church’s modern-day history. With time, “the awareness of the weakness of the Catholic faith in Latin America coupled with the old and new challenges that the Church was facing in her pastoral activity, led the Roman Curia to continue elaborating on the idea to begin an organized movement that would take up the defense of Latin American Catholicism and could support the efforts of the Continent’s Bishops in the arduous task of regaining what the Church had lost in the various sectors of society.” The result of these reflections was the celebration of the First General Conference of Latin American Bishops in Rio de Janeiro in 1955, the creation of CELAM (also in 1955), and finally, the institution of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 1958. The CAL became “the vessel of the Holy See for development and in finding the best use of the Church’s strengths in Latin America, and for coordinating the help that, in a provisional yet necessary phase, the Latin American Catholic Church would need from other countries.”
Archbishop Ruiz especially emphasized the relationship of pastoral coordination that exists between the Commission and CELAM and the collaboration that is given in the Commission in favor of the Church in the Latin American continent.
Before ending his talk, Archbishop Octavio Ruiz presented the book entitled, “Aparecida 2007, luces para América Latina” (Aparecida 2007, lights for Latin America), which is a collection of various articles on the event of the Fifth Conference held in Aparecida. It was compiled by the Commission in order to commemorate the first anniversary of the Aparecida Conference.
Following Archbishop Ruiz’s talk, the floor was taken by Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, Archbishop of Lima, who spoke on the figure of Saint Toribio of Mogrovejo, Patron of the Latin American Bishops, on the 25th anniversary of his being declared patron by Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Cipriani pointed out the outstanding virtues of this saint who was the second Bishop of Lima, not only in his spiritual life, but also in his role as pastor and jurist. With that in mind, he highlighted the Councils that had been fruit of his labor, as well as three synods which took place in his Archdiocese, that had an influence in the ecclesial life of almost the entire Continent of South America for a little over three centuries, until the celebration of the Latin American Plenary Council held in Rome in 1899. The Archbishop of Lima pointed out his pastoral zeal, evident in his long pastoral journeys throughout his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which extended from Nicaragua to Argentina, and in his delicacy in evangelizing the native peoples in their own language.
The Conference ended with remarks from the President of CELAM, Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis, who spoke of the close collaborative relationship that has been maintained over the course of the past 50 years between the Pontifical Commission and CELAM, an effort that has been especially fruitful in the last General Conferences.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of CAL, a Mass was presided by Cardinal Re on the afternoon of May 9, in the Roman parish church of Santa Anastasia, the only Church in Rome with an altar dedicated to Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo. In his homily, recalling the figure of this great Pastor 25 years after his proclamation as Patron of the Latin American Bishops, Cardinal Re described him above all as “a missionary with a zealous spirit, a fundamental figure in the history of evangelization in the New World and a great defender of the native peoples.” With that in mind, he presented him as the “authentic model of a disciple and missionary of Jesus Christ, according to the spirit of the Aparecida Conference.” He concluded his homily expressing his wish that “the testimony of the extraordinary life of this Bishop may continue lighting the path in Latin America and in the entire Catholic Church,” and invoked the intercession of Saint Toribio to help the Church in America to “be faithful to this Catholic identity that characterizes it and for which Saint Toribio worked so tirelessly.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 12/5/2008; righe 72, parole 946)
