ROSARIO, Argentina – Across Latin America, 2022 has begun with Catholic bishops both taking the initiative by calling for peace, dignified work opportunities and intergenerational dialogue, but also reeling from external blows ranging from extortion scams in Mexico to a faltering peace process in Colombia.
CELAM rings the year calling for intergenerational dialogue
Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos of Trujillo in Peru and President of the Latin American Bishops Conference (Celam), said in his New Year’s message to the Church in the region that “the experience of dialogue has strongly marked our Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
On behalf of the bishops of the continent, Cabrejos echoed Pope Francis’ message for the 55th World Day for Peace, in which he “calls us to redouble our efforts to promote intergenerational dialogue, to care for quality education and to achieve decent work.”
Cabrejos highlighted the experience of dialogue in the Church at a continental level, citing as an example November’s Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean. He defined it as a “reference point for the Synod on Synodality, which is already in its listening phase all over the world.”
He also emphasized the need to “place our experience of listening at the service of intergenerational dialogue, to forge paths of peace that include the concerns and proposals of the various communities and cultures, where ancestral knowledge is connected…
