Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Aparecida (Fides Service) - 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida closed on 31 May with the approval of the Final Document with 127 votes in favour, 2 against and 1 blank vote. The 100 page document will be presented to Pope Benedict XVI on 11 June for revision and publication. During the closing session a five page Final Message was read out by the president of CELAM 5 communications commission Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, Archbishop of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.
In his last greeting to the Conference, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America said “We have had the joy of coming together as brothers in the Lord, aware of living a privileged moment of abundant grace and intense spirituality. We have worked together on a mission common to us all to be and to form disciples and missionaries of Christ that our peoples may have life in Him. The Conference has been lively, creative and deeply committed for the good of Latin America; it has acknowledged the difficulties and enormous challenges of our times but at the same time it has looked continually with missionary hope and ardour towards the future". In a world of globalisation and great challenges for Latin America at this moment in history he said, “it is necessary to have disciples of Christ, illuminated by deep faith and encouraged by great love for the Lord, credible witnesses who put God and the centre of their life and society".
The Cardinal said they were leaving Aparecida with a document but above all "with an experience of communion and certainty of the presence of the Risen Christ who walks with us and with the protection and closeness of Mary and with a great mission task: To go and announce the Gospel to all peoples, every ambit of society and all cultures. He mentioned once again the Continental Mission "which we leave in the hands of the Bishops' Conferences and the individual bishops of every diocese in Latin America and the Caribbean; it sets out ideally under the protection of Our Lady of Aparecida from this Shrine where it was born”.
The Conference officially closed with a concelebration of the Eucharist presided by CELAM president Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, Archbishop of Santiago del Chile, and one of the three presidents of the Conference. Recalling the day's feast of the Visitation in his homily the Cardinal Errázuriz spoke of Mary as a model missionary and a perfect disciple concerned with the life of persons and nations and he concluded "We leave this holy place with a promise to the Lord to work with profound ardour that those entrusted to our care by the Father never suffer from the absence of God in their lives, homes, social communications or cultures". (RG) (Agenzia Fides 1/6/2007; righe 38, parole 553)
