Bishops Representing Latin America, Canada, and United States Gather to Pray and Discuss Their Shared Ministry

TAMPA, Fla. – Concluding a three-day summit, officers and members of the Episcopal Conferences of the Americas met from February 26 – 28 at a retreat center to pray and discuss their shared ministry as pastors. The twelve bishops attending included bishops from El Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano y Caribeño (CELAM), the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The bishops issued the following joint statement:

“Following a tradition of meeting that began in 1959, we came to spend time together in prayer, fraternity, listening, and sharing. We talked about our mutual concerns and approaches to pastoral ministry and moral issues including euthanasia, migration, ecological threats to our common home, and the Synod.

“Pope Saint John Paul II said there was one American continent. In our time together, we see the wisdom in that statement. We share much in common and have similar pastoral and social concerns. Our time together has strengthened our bonds of fraternity in Christ and has allowed us to discern ways we can promote a more synodal and missionary Church and work together even more effectively in the vineyard of the Lord.”

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