Lima, Peru, May 25, 2005 / 22:00 pm
The Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conference (CELAM) wrapped up its 30th Plenary Assembly by declaring to continent to be in “a state of mission” and calling on Catholics of Latin America and the Caribbean to meet the challenge of evangelizing other continents.
In the final message of the Assembly entitled, “So That Our Peoples May Have Life,” the bishops state, “With our communities we place ourselves in a ‘state of mission’ in hopes that, during this year of the Eucharist, the Lord Jesus Christ might remain with us and make us capable of communicating Him to our brethren.”
“In the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, home to the majority of Catholics in the world, there must awaken a desire to bring the Gospel to other countries and continents, to those the proclamation of Jesus Christ has not yet reached,” the bishops wrote.
They also explained that at the dawn of the new millennium, “Latin America and the Caribbean are strongly challenged by the religious, ethical and cultural changes that signify the birth pains of a new era.”