Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Havana (Agenzia Fides) - The 31st Ordinary Assembly of the Council of Latin American Bishops' Conferences CELAM 9 - 14 July opens today in Havana. This is the first time the Assembly is hosted by the Church in Cuba (see Fides 27/6/2007). Bishop Juan de Dios Hernández Ruiz, delegate of the Cuban Bishops' Conference COCC to CELAM, underlined the importance of the event "which is a concrete manifestation of the unity between the pilgrim Church in Cuba and the Church in Latin America". In an interview on the COCC web site, Bishop Juan de Dios says: "We are part of the Church, we are not isolated and this is made visible with this meeting of the Ordinary Assembly of the Council of Latin American Bishops' Conferences CELAM".
The Bishop said this celebration "is a way of sustaining our Church in Cuba and giving meaning to its journeying in Cuba, and it will also help to clarify our reality". "We are new to the Latin American context because our Church evangelised in a socio-political situation different from that on the rest of the Continent. Nevertheless she has never lost the mission which cannot be renounced, the mission to evangelise. The Church in Cuba developed this mission, We are here as disciples and missionaries of the Gospel to announce Jesus Christ. We feel more than ever before in harmony with the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean " Bishop Juan de Dios concludes.
The ordinary assembly of CELAM will have three main moments: participants will elect five members of the presidency, presidents of commissions and bishop delegates; each Bishops' Conference will report on the situation in his respective country and local Church; lastly in the light of 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida in May, the participants will examine the urgent tasks facing the Catholic Bishops in this part of the world, and outline pastoral programmes and commitments in view of the Great Continental Mission. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 9/7/2007; righe 25; parole 357)
