Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Cochabamba (Agenzia Fides) – The second meeting convened by the Bolivian Episcopal Conference in Cochabamba, from 14 to 18 February, managed to gather a significant number of priests and laity to work on the theme of “renewal of the parish” and through various considerations, reached concrete proposals that will advance the pastoral care work towards the meeting the plan's objectives. According to Pedro Duran, head of the catechism section of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference (BEC), this start to the process for the renewal of parishes is a new experience, and modest but ambitious because it aims at one of the most basic and fundamental structures of the Church - the parish.
“We try to bring the parish in the perspective of the permanent mission, and this task is not easy, because as an institution so consolidated, this type of work is normally a long-term process. But these first steps have already been promising,” said Duran.
The second meeting, held last week, involved priests and lay delegates, united by the awareness of an urgent need to renew the parish so that it may be thought of as a primary institution in the Church, opening it to the deep spirit of renewal proposed by the document of Aparecida. The parish renewal plan approaches three things: the parish caritas, the itineraries of faith formation and communication within the parish.
In this regard, Pedro Duran said that the issues presented give the green light to start working on this proposal, and in this sense, the pastors expressed the need for the parish to assume its commitments and open its horizons. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 25/02/2011)
