Caribbean bishops conclude Rome meetings and adopt resolutions

Bish­ops of the An­tilles Epis­co­pal Con­fer­ence (AEC) have con­clud­ed a two-week vis­it to Rome that in­clud­ed the Ad Lim­i­na Apos­tolo­rum Vis­it and the An­nu­al Ple­nary Meet­ing of the con­fer­ence.

The vis­it took place from April 27 to May 8 and brought to­geth­er bish­ops from across the Caribbean re­gion for meet­ings with the Holy Fa­ther, Vat­i­can of­fices, work­shops, re­treats and busi­ness ses­sions.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease is­sued on Mon­day, the Ad Lim­i­na Apos­tolo­rum Vis­it was held from April 27 to May 2. Dur­ing the vis­it, the bish­ops met with the Holy Fa­ther and sev­er­al di­cas­t­er­ies and of­fices of the Holy See.

The bish­ops held dis­cus­sions with the Di­cas­t­er­ies for Laity, Fam­i­ly and Life; Cler­gy; Di­vine Wor­ship and the Dis­ci­pline of the Sacra­ments; Cul­ture and Ed­u­ca­tion; the Doc­trine of the Faith; Pro­mot­ing In­te­gral Hu­man De­vel­op­ment; and the Pro­mo­tion of Chris­t­ian Uni­ty.

Meet­ings were al­so held with the Pon­tif­i­cal Com­mis­sion for the Pro­tec­tion of Mi­nors, the Sec­re­tari­at of State and the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tari­at of the Syn­od of Bish­ops.

The bish­ops de­scribed their au­di­ence with the Holy Fa­ther as an im­por­tant part of the vis­it and said it strength­ened their com­mit­ment to evan­ge­li­sa­tion in the Caribbean.

Dur­ing the pil­grim­age, the bish­ops cel­e­brat­ed Holy Mass at four ma­jor basil­i­cas in Rome, in­clud­ing the Arch­basil­i­ca of St John Lat­er­an, the Basil­i­ca of St Mary Ma­jor and the Basil­i­cas of Saints Pe­ter and Paul.

At St Mary Ma­jor, the bish­ops prayed at the tomb of late Pope Fran­cis. They al­so re­newed their com­mit­ment to apos­tolic min­istry at the tombs of Saints Pe­ter and Paul.

The sec­ond week of ac­tiv­i­ties, from May 2 to May 8, fo­cused on for­ma­tion, re­treat and the An­nu­al Ple­nary Meet­ing.

Fr David Mc­Cal­lum fa­cil­i­tat­ed a two-day work­shop on syn­odal lead­er­ship, while Sr Julie Pe­ters di­rect­ed a re­treat and led re­flec­tions on the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of St Fran­cis of As­sisi.

The bish­ops al­so trav­elled to As­sisi, where they prayed at the tombs of St Fran­cis, St Clare and St Car­lo Acutis. The pil­grim­age end­ed at the Basil­i­ca of St Mary of the An­gels.

Dur­ing the fi­nal busi­ness ses­sions, the bish­ops dis­cussed is­sues af­fect­ing the Church in the Caribbean and adopt­ed res­o­lu­tions on evan­ge­li­sa­tion, for­ma­tion, so­cial out­reach and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Among the de­ci­sions tak­en was the an­nu­al ob­ser­vance of the “Mass for the Care of Cre­ation” on Sep­tem­ber 1, or the near­est Sun­day, across dio­ce­ses in the re­gion.