A great evangelising mission all over Latin America will begin after the V General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops (Aparecida, Brazil, 13-31 May 2007), which will be opened by Benedict XVI, 15 years after the previous Conference of Santo Domingo in 1992. It was announced today in the newsroom of the Holy See by father David Gutiérrez Gutiérrez, director of the press office of Celam, the Latin American Bishops Council that represents 22 Bishops Conferences (from 35 countries) and is based in Bogotà (Colombia). The Pope, as is the tradition of the Medellin Conference, will open the agenda with Mass in the sanctuary of the Aparecida (where the Black Virgin appeared), and in his speech he will outline the guidelines for the 176 bishops, archbishops and delegated cardinals with voting rights (including bishops from USA, Canada, Spain and Portugal) plus 24 diocesan priests, 23 priests and nuns, 4 deacons, 17 lay men and women, 6 ecumenical delegates, 5 members of humanitarian agencies working with the churches of Latin America, 15 experts in different areas. All the selected names will have to be approved by the Holy See. The preparations have long involved the roots of the Latin American Church (the parishes and the groups) that have channelled all of this into the level of their national Bishops Conferences. (to be continued)
