AMERICA/URUGUAY - A call to all Catholics: may Lent be a time for increasing awareness and participation in view of 5th General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conferences in May 2007

Tuesday, 7 March 2006

Minas (Fides Service) - Bishop Francisco D. Barbosa of Minas, national co-ordinator for unified Lenten Pastoral 2006, has called on Uruguayan Catholics to work to increase awareness and involvement in view of the 5th CELAM General Conference in this Season of Lent “ a good time for encouraging participation of the whole Church”.
“As the Church in Uruguay - says Bishop Barbosa - we are committed in the year 2006 to increasing our participation and co-responsibility in view of this major event in the life and activity of our Churches”. The Bishop says that participation is a major challenge, participation in the path of diocesan pastoral, in the pastoral guidelines issued by the Bishops’ Conference of Uruguay and preparation for CELAM 5 which will be held on May 2007 at the national Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida, in Aparecida Brazil with the slogan “Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ that our countries may have life in Him”.
This participation, the Bishop continues, demands decision making, reflection, elaboration and looking at reality in order to analyse it. To do this people must be motivated, and have creative enthusiasm “which must be cultivated as a community … Lent is a good time to promote this sensitisation”. Bishop Barbosa underlines that conversion cannot be merely individual, it must have a community, ecclesial dimension, therefore “as an ecclesial community we must ask ourselves where are we and where are we going in order to be a living Church the visible face of the Risen Lord”.
The Bishop suggests that in the Season of Lent, at Sunday Masses prayers of the faithful should include a special intention for the preparation of COMLA 5 and symbols and signs referring to the important Church event should be used at all Sunday Masses. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 7/3/2006 - righe 24, parole 309)


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