To Mary, the Pope wishes "to entrust the apostolic journey to Brazil, from May 9th to 14th, to attend the opening of the V General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopacy, at the sanctuary of Our Lady Aparecida, in the city of the same name. "But first recalled the Pope I will go to the nearby metropolis of Sao Paulo, where I will meet the young and the bishops of the country and I will have the joy of adding the Blessed Father Antonio di Sant’Anna Galvão to the list of the Saints". "This is my first pastoral visit to Latin America recalled Benedict XVI and I am getting spiritually ready to meet the Latin American subcontinent where nearly one half of the world’s Catholics live, many of whom are young. This is why it has been nicknamed the ‘Continent of hope’: a hope that concerns not only the Church but the whole of America and the whole world". As he renewed the invitation to "pray the Most Holy Virgin for this apostolic pilgrimage" and for the V General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopacy, "so that all the Christians of those regions will feel they are the disciples and missionaries of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. The challenges of this time are many and many-faced: this is why it is important that the Christians be prepared to be the ‘ferment’ of goodness and the ‘light’ of holiness in our world".
