AMERICA: VENEZUELA: MEETING OF BISHOPS FOR PASTORAL WORK

Agenzia Fides REPORT - As in the past, the Bishops in charge of the border area between Colombia and Venezuela have held a work meeting. The meeting was held on October 25 in the town of Ureña (Venezuela) and was attended by the Bishops of the dioceses of San Cristobal (Venezuela), Mgr. Mario del Valle Moronto Rodríguez; of Cucuta (Colombia), Mgr. Julio Cesar Vidal Ortiz ; of Tibu (Colombia), Mgr. Omar Alberto Sanchez Cubillos, O.P.. According to information Fides received, all the participants raised the need to develop a common pastoral plan.
"During this meeting we reviewed the work done in previous years - said Mgr. Mario Moronto, who hosted the meeting held at the Holy Trinity School in Ureña - and we made some proposals to project the future pastoral work within the border (of our dioceses), but we did not want it to be seen as a limitation, but as a region in which we pay attention to the social problems of people and their needs. To do this we should set together a pastoral frontier".
"The purpose of this joint pastoral is to offer a service to the people who live on the border between the two countries", the statement said, stating: " integration work is proposed, in respect of the autonomy of each diocese, to answer and to serve the needs of the residents of these areas".
In addition to the existing social and pastoral needs in the Dioceses of San Cristobal and Cucuta, even the Bishop of Tibu, highlighted that in this region there is need to create a pastoral that safeguards ecology and seeks to protect indigenous peoples, directly affected by multinational companies who work there. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Society of Jesus, who submitted a project to create an Apostolic Region, which would facilitate the pastoral work in the future years. At the end of the meeting the Bishops decided that the next meeting will be held in February 2013, with the participation of other border dioceses between Venezuela and Colombia.
Colombia and Venezuela share an extensive border of 2,219 km, where guerrilla groups and drug traffickers are active. The people of these places live with the terror and fear of being involved in violent actions carried out by these groups. This year alone, anti-drug police have seized more than 64 tons of cocaine and hydrochloride cocaine. Colombia is listed as the largest producer of cocaine in the world, with 350 tonnes in 2010, according to data published by the UN. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 27/10/2011)

Comments