Last night, the Brazilian archbishop of Aparecida, mgr. Raymundo Damasceno Assis, was appointed president of the Latin American Bishops Conference (Celam) during the 31st ordinary meeting of the body which was held for the first time in Cuba. Mgr. Damasceno Assis, 70 years old, replaces card. Francisco Xavier Errazuriz, archbishop of Santiago, Chile. The meeting will end on July 13th. The first and second deputy presidents of Celam have also been appointed: the archbishop of Merida (Venezuela), mgr. Baltazar Porras Cardozo, and the archbishop of Reconquista (Argentina), mgr. Andrés Stanovnik, respectively. Over 70 bishops from 22 Latin American countries are gathered in La Havana, an event that "is concrete evidence of the union of the pilgrim Church in Cuba with the Latin American Church”, said mgr. Juan de Dios Hernández Ruiz, the delegate of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Cuba. Every president will give a report on the general situation of their countries. With reference to the current socio-political and cultural conditions of Latin America, mgr. Andrés Stanovnik, bishop of Reconquista (Argentina), asked to "take special care of and pay special attention to the fundamental values that are at stake": "We care to emphasise that the history of man is a shared history and is not made of solitudes. Life is an alliance of love, not a simple heap of coincidences”.
