Latin American Episcopal Conference

CELAM is the abbreviation for Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (Spanish for Latin American Bishops, in the German language area usually referred to as Latin American Episcopal Conference ). In the CELAM all Catholic bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean are represented. It was founded by Pope Pius XII ..

Headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Organization is the Colombian capital Bogota. At the top of the board is an elected president for four years. Since 2011, this is the Archbishop of Tlalnepantla, Carlos Aguiar Retes.

History

The establishment of the CELAM reflected a conscious perception of social issues of individual circles of the Catholic Church in Latin America since the 1930s. Progressive bishops Hélder Câmara demanded as a coalescence of strongly nationally oriented Latin American Church. This change in thinking was manifested for the first time on the First General Conference of CELAM 1955 in Rio de Janeiro, where the official foundation took place. Individual bishops sat there for social reforms. This development was reinforced by the Second Vatican Council and the papal social encyclicals.

The Second General Conference 1968 in Medellín exerted a profound influence on the development of liberation theology. The final documents of the conference were designed by theologians such as Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Lucio Gera, who served as theological consultant to the assembled bishops. In the years after Medellín CELAM, and in particular its affiliated Latin American Pastoral Institute IPLA ( directed by Segundo Galilea ), as the center of the deliverance theologically oriented Catholicism in Latin America and the Caribbean was.

1972 Alfonso López Trujillo with the choice to CELAM General Secretary, won conservative bishops to influence. López Trujillo tried to push back by statute changes and restructuring in the institutes of the CELAM liberation theology. With Bonaventura Kloppenburg he appointed a sharp critic of liberation theology head of the IPLA. The III. General Conference 1979 in Puebla was determined in advance of conflicts between liberation theology and conservative bishops and theologians. The final documents of Puebla is one weakened line liberation theology prevailed; However, the Latin American church in them for the first time explicitly committed to the option for the poor.

President

General conferences

• I. General Conference 1955 in Rio de Janeiro: Wearing Dom Hélder Câmara figures were from Brazil, Bishop Manuel Larraín of Chile and Archbishop Antonio Samore, Nuncio in Colombia.
• Second General Conference 1968 in Medellín
• III. General Conference 1979 in Puebla
• IV General Conference in 1992 in Santo Domingo
• Fifth General Conference 2007 in Aparecida

Current officials

Officials are (as of March 2013):

• President: Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes, Archbishop of Tlalnepantla (Mexico)
• First Vice President: Archbishop Rubén Salazar Gómez, Archbishop of Bogotá ( Colombia)
• Second Vice President: Archbishop Dimas Lara Barbosa, Archbishop of Campo Grande ( Brazil)
• General Secretary: Bishop Santiago Silva Retamales, Auxiliary Bishop of Valparaíso ( Chile)