VATICAN - “A unique opportunity for getting to know one another as brothers”: Study Seminar for newly appointed Bishops of mission territories rounds the mark

Friday, 10 September 2004

Vatican City (Fides Service) - The Study Seminar organised for newly appointed Bishops of mission territories by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples is almost half way through its work. It opened on Sunday 5 September and will end on Sunday 18 September. The 118 bishops taking part come from French, Spanish and Portuguese speaking mission countries. Last year the course was organised for 169 Bishops from English speaking countries. These Seminars have proved to be an important means of helping Bishops of young Churches prepare for their ministry and above all today, help them explain to a world lacerated by divisions and tension at every level “the hope they bear in their hearts”.
The study Seminar offers new Bishops a chance to meet and get to know one another, to discuss common difficulties and live an intense experience of ecclesial communion in Rome, the City of the See of Peter. It is “a unique opportunity”, participants told Fides. For example a Bishop from Peru and a Bishop from Colombia whose dioceses have common borders have met for the first time here in Rome at the Seminar and have established fraternal dialogue, which will certainly help both in their work when they return home.
The presence of Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, the Secretary and Under Secretary of the CEP also help build relations, enables the Bishops to know more about life in different missionary Churches and to discover that cultural, social and historical differences are outnumbered by elements of unity which render the Church truly “Catholic”.
Fides spoke with some of the participants. Bishop Luigi Infanti Della Mora, Vicar Apostolic of Aysen in southern Chile, was struck by interesting elements emerging from discussion groups: “In Africa the Church is still young, only a little more than 100 years old, and it operates among peoples who have yet to encounter the Gospel. Whereas in Latin America there are Catholic communities whose history is much older. For example, part of my Vicariate was evangelised by Jesuit missionaries in 1700. Not long afterwards the Fathers had to leave the area. Although there were no priests, the people did not forget the seed of the faith sown by the Jesuits. When priests eventually returned to the area they found a native community ready to learn more about faith in Christ”.
For their part new African Bishops from Democratic Congo said they were “very happy to have the opportunity to meet other Bishops and share the joys and difficulties of our ministry. This is important because we are all newly appointed and sometimes a new bishop can feel overwhelmed and lonely. It is good for us to share our feelings and experience”.
“The Seminar is a good opportunity for us Bishops coming from continents which are so different. We are able to meet each other and together we learn more about the central institutions of the Church and experience the reality of the universal Church” Victor Agbanou, Bishop of Lokossa, in Benin told Fides. All the Bishop participating said they appreciate the fact that prefects of Vatican congregations and presidents of pontifical councils take the time to give a talk at the Seminar and also to answer any questions put forward by the ‘student’ prelates and to converse with them in a spirit of brotherhood. “The Seminar is an event of reciprocal enrichment for each and all and it enables us to realise that although we are Bishops in very different parts of the world we are part of the universal Church” Bishop Agbanou told Fides. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 10/9/2004 righe 43 parole 612)


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