Mexico City (Fides Service) - The 5th General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the theme “Disciples of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church for New Evangelisation in Latin America and the Caribbean” will focus on the changes in the world today particularly in America in order to identify the challenges which every baptised person, newly aware of his or her Catholic identity, is called to meet. The CELAM presidency promoter of the event is organising a series of regional meetings to foster active involvement of all the Bishops’ Conferences in preparation for this great Conference of the Latin American Bishops which will take place in February 2007.
“To respond to the present day challenges the disciple of Jesus Christ, called and sent to be an apostle, must encounter Jesus and identify himself with Him: only then will be able to take a more active part in the life of the ecclesial community working to transform society by building the Kingdom of God, the fullness of which is the definitive encounter with Christ”: the bishops write in a statement issued at the end of a Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Mexico and Central America, 30 September and 1st October in Mexico City at the head offices of the Mexican Bishops Conference. The next Regional meeting will be for the Bishops’ Conferences of the Caribbean and the Antilles followed by those for the Conferences of the Regional of Bolivia and the Southern Horn. The statement issued by the Central American Bishops closes with a call to the universal Church to pray that the work of preparation will be fruitful leading to initiatives and programmes to meet the expectations of the peoples of Latin America(RZ) (Agenzia Fides 5/10/2004; Righe 20; Parole 267)