Cuban Church to focus on evangelization in new pastoral plan

Havana, Cuba, Sep 16, 2014 / 14:40 pm

The Church in Cuba recently unveiled its pastoral plan for 2014-2020, which will encourage the faithful to engage in evangelization and respond to the call of Pope Francis.
 
Entitled "On the Road to Emmaus," the plan offers a three-part reflection on the social and political reality and on the Church in the country.

The first part invites the faithful "to look beyond sociological aspects and at the life of our society and of our Church, in order to discover in both realities the calls God is making today to our work of evangelization in Cuba."
 
In the second part, the Gospel passage about the disciples on the road to Emmaus is highlighted as a source of inspiration and orientation in putting the pastoral plan into practice.
 
The third part lays out four priorities of the bishops' pastoral plan, and concludes, "We proclaim our faith that the 'conversion to Jesus Christ is our hope'."
 
In drafting their pastoral plan, the bishops said they were guided by the conclusions of the Fifth General Meeting of the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida, the message of Benedict XVI in his visit to Cuba, the document "Hope Does Not Disappoint" by the Cuban bishops, and the words and gestures of Pope Francis.
 
"We exhort every Christian to be converted to Jesus Christ and to proclaim the joy of his Gospel, so that the transforming testimony of the love and hope of our communities and families will reach all the men and women of our country," the bishops said.