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The Pope has indicated that the ecclesial community “is given to all” for that reason he has asked for a Church “without enlightened elites” in which everyone participates equally and “without exclusion” in a video message sent to the Latin American Episcopal Council, Celam, this Weekend.
Francisco has sent this message on the occasion of the presentation of the first Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is taking place from the Basilica of Guadalupe, within the framework of Sunday of the Word and the 55th World Day of Social Communications .
“Out of the people of God, the enlightened elites emerge,” the Pope said, recalling that “the Church gives itself by breaking bread.” “The Church is with everyone, without exclusion. And an Ecclesial Assembly is a sign of this, a Church without exclusion,” he added.
In his recorded address, published on the YouTube channel of Celam, the Pope praised the itinerary that the Church is beginning in Latin America while urging all its members to carry on with courage in this process: “The Ecclesial Assembly is The first time it is held, it is not a conference of the Latin American Episcopate as it was done in the previous ones – the last one in Aparecida – from which we still have to learn a lot. No. It is something else, it is a meeting of the people of God lay women, laity, consecrated women, consecrated priests, bishops, all the people of God who are walking. They pray, speak, think, discuss, seek the will of God. ”
According to Celam, the objectives of this ecclesial Assembly are: to contemplate the reality of our peoples, to deepen the challenges of the continent, to revive the pastoral commitment and to seek new paths in a synodal key.
14 years after the V General Conference of the Episcopate in Aparecida (Brazil), the meeting, which is structured under the title ‘We are all outgoing missionary disciples’, will serve to reflect on its fruits and challenges, commemorating the anniversary of an event that it marked the history of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.