Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - On 16 April the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Mexico began a five day plenary assembly (see Fides 12/4/2007). In the opening address, the Conference President Bishop Carlos Aguiar Retes said the main objective of the meeting was to update a Pastoral Letter issued in 2000: "From the encounter with Jesus Christ, solidarity for all ", and define the mission and service of the Bishops’ Conference in the present day context.
The Conference president, who is Bishop of Texoco, then gave a brief outline of the situation in the country to help the Bishops work out a three year pastoral programme 2006-2009. There emerged the necessity after a complex electoral process in 2006 to establish "institutional dialogue with the different instances of local and federal governments to orient the country’s priorities and address more urgent issues", including national reconciliation, state reforms and fiscal reforms. The Church is willing to contribute to the mission proper to her to announce and evangelise he recalled. "As a missionary Church - the Bishop said - we are called to recognise the challenges to new evangelisation in America presented by modernity in a complex process of globalisation."
Referring to CELAM 5 in Brazil in May, Bishop Aguiar confirmed the common wish of all the Bishops’ Conferences of America for the General Conference be a moment of grace. “We are fully aware of the difficult and challenging times and in general but we are confident that with prayer, reflection and discernment the Bishops will produce a church document rich in motivation and filled with hope for the immediate future of our peoples". We hope to see solutions for problems such as the lack of democratic stability in Latin American countries "to guarantee values fundamental for social harmony", globalisation and internationalisation of politics, the problem of migration with its many negative consequences, and the challenges it poses to the Church itself.
The Bishop concluded his address recalling the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical University of Mexico. During the opening Mass Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera Archbishop of Mexico City and the University’s Grand Chancellor said the College would "continue to form disciples who love Christ and wish to spread his Word”…it is not just an academic centre its mission is "form disciples who seek the truth the truth which makes us free ". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 17/4/2007; righe 32, parole 446)
