AMERICA/VENEZUELA - Catholic Bishops discuss situation of seminaries, Church Council of Venezuela and next year’s CELAM general conference

Friday, 7 July 2006

Caracas (Agenzia Fides) - Yesterday 6 July the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela opened its 86th ordinary assembly in Montalban, Caracas during which the Bishops will discuss various aspects of the situation of the Church in that country, said the president of the Bishops’ Conference Archbishop Ubaldo R. Santana Sequera Archbishop of Maracaibo in the opening address. The main topics of the meeting will include: situation of seminaries in Venezuela; the Council of Venezuela as experience of the whole of the local Church over the past few years, which will hold its closing session on 7 October this year; the 4th National Church Support Campaign 2006; the 5th General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conferences CELAM in May 2007 in Aparecida, Brazil, including the selection of Venezuelan delegates to CELAM 5.
The Bishops will analyse the national pastoral situation and examine a report by the Bishops’ Commission Electoral Accompaniment. “We are deeply concerned - the Archbishop said - that the National Electoral Commission has not yet issued instructions to overcome the atmosphere of confusion and stagnation in the electoral process to guarantee all Venezuelan citizens fair and transparent elections”. He said he hoped “the National Electoral Commission would receive the Bishops’ Commission to Accompany the Electoral Process".
The Assembly programme includes a visit by US Bishops Conference delegation led by Bishop Thomas Gerald Wenski Bishop of Orlando and president of the US Bishops Commission for International Policies. "The presence of this delegation from the Church in the United States is a sign of growing communion between the Bishops’ Conferences of America following the Special Synod for America held in Rome and John Paul II’s post synodal exhortation Ecclesia in America” said the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Venezuela. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 7/7/2006; righe 25, parole 311)


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