A missão nas Conferências Gerais do CELAM

Resumo

Resumo: O artigo, depois de uma sintética apresentação da missão na América
latina na era colonial, aborda o tema nas Conferências de Medellin, Puebla e
Santo Domingo, mostrando os aspectos característicos de cada uma. Medellin
prioriza os pobres: a missão é o serviço que a Igreja é chamada a prestarlhes
para a sua libertação. A dimensão universal “ad gentes” fica em segundo
plano. Puebla lança o apelo: “Chegou a hora” de suas Igrejas “se projetarem
para além de suas próprias fronteiras”: “devemos dar de nossa pobreza”. A
evangelização deve ser “libertadora”, e a Igreja deve descobrir e valorizar “o
potencial evangelizador dos pobres”. Enfim, em Santo Domingo, a novidade
é a “evangelização inculturada”, embora com medos e contradições.

Abstract: The article begins with the presentation of a synthetic view of the
Church’s missionary activity in Latin America, during the colonial period. The
main section deals with the themes developed in the Conference in Medellin,
Puebla, and Santo Domingo, highlighting the characteristic aspects of each.
Thus, Medellin paid special attention to the poor, to whom the Church was
called to be of service and to marshal the forces of all the faithful so as to
achieve their liberation. The universal dimension “ad gentes” occupies a
secondary position. Puebla makes an appeal to the local Churches to transcend
their frontiers by sharing their needs with those lying at the doorsteps of
humanity. By spreading the Good News of Christ, liberation will follow in its trail,
which the Church should endorse as the method of applying the universal
design of God for the salvation of the human race, beginning with the poor.
Santo Domingo proclaims something new as regards the spreading of Christian
faith by the method of “acculturation” of its themes to be used of the human
mind in a specific environment, in spite of apprehensions and contradictions.