Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Aparecida (Agenzia Fides) - Bishop Horacio Valenzuela of Talca, Chile, spoke about the importance of the witness of the saints for the Church and especially for the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Bishops said "this host of witnesses is a precious fruit of the evangelisation of our Latin American continent”, men and women "heroic disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ who promoted his New Life". He said the saints can be seen as "God's intervention in the concrete history of peoples" and that in pastoral work the saints must be given importance and they must be incorporated into the spiritual and pastoral life to foster new friendship with them.
For Bishop Valenzuela "theology and our own pastoral experience teach that the place of the saints is not 'optative' in Christian life they reveal the concrete character of revelation; especially those closest to us in time and culture renew the revelation of God in history, giving flesh and blood to the Gospel". The Bishops said Catholics must learn to view life with a vision of faith keeping in mind that the goal of the Church is supernatural and implies "insuperable disproportion between the Church's mission and our capacities".
Mentioning the Chilean saint Alberto Hurtado, canonised by Benedict XVI in 2005, the Bishop said “we must work at the rhythm of God in perfect harmony with the will of the Father, neither faster nor slower, since our work would be harmful if it broke unity with God”. He concluded stressing the need to entrust the Church to Holy Mary so venerated in Latin America, so that the Church may always follow the example of Mary who "offered herself unconditionally so God could work great things in her ".
Cardinal Juan Sandoval, Archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico, said in his intervention "in the central theme of mission the accent must be on Witness. Witness is a way of speaking mission: 'You will receive the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses". He also said that the "martyr is the best disciple because he goes with Christ to the Cross and the most credible missionary because he seals what he announces with his blood ". (FP/RG) (Agenzia Fides 24/5/2007; righe 29, parole 421)
