AMERICA - 5th General CELAM Conference count down: "this event will give new impulse to the faith on our Continent"

Monday, 15 May 2006

Bogota (Fides Service) - “To take up the challenges of the third millennium in personal, family, pastoral and social life in our Latin American countries and take a step towards the encounter with the Living Jesus, we will hold the 5th General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conferences CELAM in May 2007, in Aparecida, Brazil": this was how the bishops of CELAM motivated the event in a statement issued exactly 12 month’s 13 May 2006. The statement was signed by the following bishops: Archbishop Ubaldo Ramón Santana of the diocese of Maracaibo president of the Bishops’ conference of Venezuela; Bishop José Francisco Ulloa Rossi of the diocese of Cartago, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Costa Rica; Bishop Fabián Marulanda López Emeritus of Florencia and general secretary of the Colombian Bishops’ Conference; Bishop Miguel Irizar Campos of the diocese of Callao (Peru) head of CELAM Department for Church Movements.
In the statement the Bishops recall that preparation for the CELAM 5 started in 2001. After the 28th ordinary CELAM assembly, the bishop presidents and delegates of the various Bishops’ Conferences of Latin America presented Pope John Paul II with the Convocation. Not long afterwards Pope Benedict XVI, at the beginning of his pontificate, said he was fully in agreement with the celebration of the 5th General Conference and a few days later he indicated the theme: “Disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ that our people may have Life in Him: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (Jn 14, 6).
This major event for the pilgrim Church in Latin America will “give new impulse to the faith on our continent” the Bishops write and continue “every sector, indigenous people, peasants, workers, employers, housewives, opinion leaders, politicians, among others, can make its own contribution to the life of the Church in different fields”.
Bishop Andrés Stannovnik, Bishop of Reconquista and CELAM secretary general, stressed that this “is an important time for reflection and drafting of amendments to the Working Paper in the local Churches” and he recalled numerous continental meetings and seminars, special publications on the theme of CELAM 5 which demonstrate “growing interest and commitment in many communities to share with generosity the rich experience of their own life of faith as disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/5/2006; righe 30, parole 396)


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