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March 4, 1998
U.S. Foundation Members/ CELAM/ NCCB Join Together For Discussions on Church in Latin America Santiago, Chile ----- Twenty-three foundation representatives will meet here with the President of CELAM, the Chairman of the NCCB Committee on Latin America, the Cardinal Archbishop of Santiago, and other church leaders March 9-13. The program sponsored by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, (FADICA) will discuss directions for the church in Latin America in the next century. Cardinal Carlos Oviedo, Archbishop of Santiago, will welcome the members of FADICA, guests from CELAM, and the United States to the Santiago conference. Oscar Andres Rodriguez, Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and President of CELAM, will speak on the recent International Synod on the Church in America. Bishop Roberto Gonzalez, Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas, and Chairman of the NCCB Committee on Latin America, will serve as a respondent. Other participants include Bishop Francisco Javier Errazuriz, Archbishop of Valparaiso, Chile; Msgr. Cristian Precht, Associate General Secretary of CELAM; Bishop Antonio Celso de Queiroz of Sao Paulo, Brazil; Fr. Renato Poblete, SJ, of the Centro Bellermino Center in Santiago; Fr. James Ronan of the NCCB Secretariat for Latin America, and several others. "The symposium program," according to FADICA's President, Francis J. Butler, "will help identify concrete ways that foundations can encourage the new cooperative relationships within the church in the Americas that have emerged from the recent Synod." Included in the discussions will be a specific look at new evangelization movements, the challenge of sects in Latin America, and new and emerging programs for invigorating parish life. FADICA members will also have the opportunity to meet major Latin American church donors and to exchange ideas on Catholic philanthropy. The program will also include visits to several church-sponsored projects serving the poor in Chile. |