'Great continental mission' still elusive for Latin American bishops

Published: 2007-05-23

APARECIDA, Brazil (CNS) -- More than halfway through a major meeting in which bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean are hammering out pastoral priorities, the "great continental mission" that several bishops predicted would emerge has not been a priority. "We haven't discussed it, so we don't know what it will be like or if it will be done. We haven't addressed it yet," said Archbishop Joao Braz de Aviz of Brasilia, Brazil. Instead, as the bishops met in small groups or subcommissions on different topics May 22 and 23, several issues discussed since the meeting began May 13 were missing from the outline on which their discussions were based. The outline, which will also serve as a framework for a document that will guide pastoral work in the region for the next 10 to 15 years, contains 16 topics grouped under seven major themes. The themes are broad and several observers questioned whether the time for discussion would be too short to do them justice.

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