AMERICA - Latin America: Youth pastoral summit aims to promote youth missionary work

Thursday, 21 January 2021 celam   youth   missionary animation   bishops  

Bogota (Agenzia Fides) – At a "Latin American Summit of Youth Pastoral Care", youth pastoral workers from different countries are to meet for an exchange. The pastoral effects of the current situation and the associated challenges for the pastoral accompaniment of young people are to be explained and guidelines for action are to be developed that are aimed at missionary youth work and should correspond to the reality of the various countries on the continent.
The idea for this arose at the meeting of those responsible for youth pastoral care, where more than 70 delegates from 20 Bishops' Conferences in Latin America and the Caribbean came together in digital form. As can be seen from the note released by CELAM, sent to Fides, the bishops, national councilors, executive secretaries as well as two representatives of each of the youth groups of the countries took part.
The meeting presented the measures taken in 2020, including the difficulties raised by the spread of Covid-19 on the continent. Since it was often not possible to carry out initiatives in the presence of the participants as expected, numerous digital initiatives were launched to continue the pastoral path and to accompany young people in Latin America.
Bishop Oswaldo Escobar, responsible for the region of Mexico and Central America, urged young people not to be discouraged even in difficult situations and to continue spreading the message of the Gospel in order to contribute effectively to building the culture of love. The participants also recalled some of the considerations of the XX Latin American meeting of those responsible for youth pastoral care, which took place in Lima in 2019, and affirmed that, despite the current circumstances and the planned restructuring of CELAM, cooperation is still essential to give continuity to pastoral processes.
The proposal of the "Latin American Summit of Youth Pastoral Care" was welcomed by the national representatives of the different countries and deepened in the group work. The need to develop the Latin American youth ministry communications office and to involve a representative from each region in the work was also discussed so that measures can be expanded and the links between the regions strengthened. (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 21/1/2021)


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