Bishops urged to help Catholics experience discipleship, mission

Published: 2008-02-15

HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (CNS) -- Bishops must take the lead in a process of "pastoral conversion" to help their people experience a life of discipleship and mission in the church. That was the conclusion of the participants in the 35th meeting of the bishops of the church in America Feb. 11-13 at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington in the Rockville Centre Diocese. "I have to be a missionary where I live and where I work. I have to give testimony, to be joyful and full of faith and charity and solidarity. Then we can attract people to the church," said Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil. "We must put the structures of the church at the service of the mission of the church and not the other way around," he said in an interview with Catholic News Service. Archbishop Assis is president of the Latin American bishops' council, known by its Spanish acronym as CELAM. The meeting was devoted to a pastoral and theological discussion of the final document issued by the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place in Aparecida May 13-21, 2007.

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