Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lima (Fides Service) - During a media conference at the offices of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference in Lima at the end of the 30th plenary assembly of the Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conferences CELAM, 17 to 20 May, a group of Bishops illustrated excerpts of CELAM final message “That our people may have life” and announced that the 31st CEALM meeting will be held in Cuba.
In the message the Bishops said “At the beginning of this new millennium Pope John Paul II urged us to put out into the deep and throw out our nets to put ourselves at the service of all people in the concrete situations in which they live at this moment”. The same call was taken up by Benedict XVI at the outset of his pontificate: “Also today the Church and the successors of the apostles are called to put out into the deep in history and throw out the nets to win all men and women to the Gospel, to God, Christ and true life... We exist to show God to mankind. And only there where God is seen does real life begin”.
Therefore the Latin American Bishops confirmed their intention to embrace the challenge of evangelisation: “In the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean it is necessary to rekindle the desire to carry the Gospel to other countries and continents, to those people who have yet to hear the proclamation of Jesus Christ...we and our communities are in a state of mission… In this year of the Eucharist, may the Lord Jesus Christ stay with us so we are able to communicate him to our brothers and sisters” the Bishops said.
The Message said “Latin America and the Caribbean are challenged by religious, ethic and cultural signs which mark the travailed birth of a new epoch”, and they explained: “We will sail ever more frequently against the current but with affection for every person created in the image and likeness of God who thirsts for his paternity and humanity and fraternity”. Pastoral work will be oriented towards the conversion of men, women and young people whose convictions are shaky, but who are in search of freedom, wellbeing, happiness and beauty amidst the attraction of the means of communications which can offer seductive and misleading messages.
Emphasising the many attacks on life, the Bishops concluded that the commitment of the Church in Latin America “must be definitively marked by the culture of life: for respect for life, for the joy of transmitting life, formation of Christian families as havens of life, to guarantee social and legislative conditions to allow all, in particular the afflicted, the poor and the excluded, to lead a life worthy of their human and Christian calling.” (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 21/5/2005, righe 33, parole 475)
