A link that needs to be strengthened

The 5th General Conference of the Latin-American Episcopate ended at Aparecida, in Brazil, on 31 May. It had begun on 13 May with the presence of and an address by Pope Benedict XVI. A final message was addressed to the peoples of the continent. For the document of the Conference, on the other hand, we will have to wait for at least a month. A delegation of European bishops participated in the assembly: namely, the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Spain and Portugal, and the President, general secretary and a bishop delegate of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE). Especially thanks to Christianity there is a close “kinship” between Europe and Latin America which needs to be strengthened. Cardinal Peter Erdö, CCEE President, in his address at Aparecida, made the point that especially the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe have experienced, and continue to experience, a situation of oppression and injustice that is akin to that of the peoples of Latin America. At the end of his intervention he invited the Presidency of CELAM to participate in the plenary of the CCEE due to be held at Fatima in early October, to discuss together forms of cooperation between European and Latin-American bishops on the basis of shared responsibility. The Church in Europe and the Church in Latin America have common challenges: both have to contend with globalization, great poverty and social injustice. But especially both are challenged by the risk of a God-less society being created, by the way of knowing and proclaiming God, by the character and role of the Church, by the formation of believers, by the significance of the preferential option for the poor, by the relation between Church and politics, and by the role of mass media. Europe can and must learn from the Church of Latin America. In spite of the great problems by which she has been and is still afflicted, she presents a lively and joyful image. She has fewer resources, but also less bureaucratisation of her pastoral mission. She suffers because Christians often reveal a superficial formation that exposes them to the risk of losing themselves in the sects or in other forms of ambiguous religiosity, yet she does not accept a world that is secularised and shorn of any reference to transcendence. The laity in Latin America are protagonists of the Church. There is a special sensitivity to the problems of life and the family, also as a result of terrible experiences of violence. At the same time Europe is called to rediscover its own genuine vocation towards Latin America. The secularization that is being experienced in Europe and the errors from which the continent is suffering do not wipe out the millenarian experience of Christian life, the great missionary tradition, the organization that permits the outreach and grassroots presence of the Church, the work of formation, the flowering of religious communities and movements, and the witness of the host of saints and martyrs. The message of Aparecida contains an appeal for a great continental evangelising mission. The experience that Europe has made in recent years with the missions in its big cities, from Rome to Paris, from Brussels to Budapest, could be a useful indication to that end. The ecumenical and interfaith experience that Europe is now trying to develop may also be important for Latin America: the ever more rapid intersection of peoples, as a result of migrations of every type, also makes these questions ever more common. Europe feels the need to embrace the priority indicated in the final message of the 5th assembly of the Latin-American bishops which opens with a proclamation of faith in the God of Jesus Christ and an appeal to become genuine and mature disciples of Jesus. That is the real priority. At the heart of this faith there is also the commitment to the poor and to the construction of a just society.