AMERICA/COLOMBIA - Consecrated Life in the Church, theme for Assembly of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Colombia, 2 to 6 July

Bogota(Agenzia Fides) - Life Consecrated to God for the Particular Church will be the central theme of the 83rd assembly of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Colombia 2-6 July in Bogota. Participants will include 90 bishops representing the country's 76 ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The Bishops' Commission for Consecrated Life and the Mixed Commission Bishops-Religious undertook to prepare the theme of great importance for the Catholic Church in Colombia.
The purpose of the Assembly is in depth reflection on the charisma of the Consecrated Life and identification of ways in which, living a spirituality of communion, consecrated persons can assume and live their vocation as disciples and missionaries of the Lord in each of the particular Churches. The Bishops of Colombia say it is necessary to intensify a spirituality of community in relations between the Bishops and persons of consecrated life in the particular Churches. Hence the need to identify the being and mission of religious life within the particular Church so these persons may render living witness to love for Jesus Christ and humanity. It is hoped that the Assembly will encourage and inspire common plans of collaboration between the bishops and the realities of consecrated life in order to respond with courage to the demands of the Gospel, to the challenges presented by the realities connected with relativism, indifference and violence and the social and political crisis in Colombia. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 27/6/2007; righe 17, parole 233)