Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Laity Doing It For Themselves - Uruguay

Lay faithful are taking the lead in ground-breaking initiatives to spread the Gospel in one of Latin America’s most secular countries – Uruguay.

Facing an acute shortage of priests, Bishop Luis del Castillo of Melo in north-east Uruguay, told how lay catechists and parish leaders were at the forefront of a plan to revitalise the faith in a country where 75 per cent were baptised but only five per cent were regular Mass-goers.

The bishop explained that the Church faced a tough mission in Uruguay whose long history of anti-clericalism meant that the country was almost as secular as Cuba.

Separation between Church and State goes back as far as 1908 and no religious education takes place in publicly-funded schools.

And secularisation has gathered pace with globalisation transforming the Uruguay economy.
Links with Western countries, always far stronger than those of most other Latin American countries, have strengthened, especially ties with France and Germany.

In an interview with Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop del Castillo explained how the lay faithful were increasingly taking their place alongside the clergy in developing programmes of outreach and evangelisation.

The bishop said the role of lay leaders was becoming crucial, saying that in his diocese 135,000 people were served by just 18 priests – most of them foreign missionaries.

In response, lay Catholics in rural areas were leading simple 'Liturgy of the Word' prayer services, training catechists, producing religious education literature and appearing on the radio.
Mgr del Castillo, who is General Secretary of Uruguay’s Catholic Bishops’ Conference, explained how lay religious movements such as ‘Concilio’ and ‘Marriage Encounter’ were holding retreats and other gatherings.

Describing those returning to the Church as 'recovered Christians', the bishop went on: 'We encourage them to be missionaries and to accompany the priests in their visits to rural areas.'
Stressing that the initiatives were 'small steps in the right direction,' the bishop said: 'We are still fishers of men but unfortunately we cannot cast out our nets in the hope of getting a big catch. We have to go to people one by one.'

With baptism still popular, the bishop is encouraging lay people to catechise new parents, giving them leaflets, booklets, pictures and posters for use with their children.

'After they have had their children baptised,' said the bishop, 'parents are reluctant to come to church. We want to teach parents the Faith so that their homes can become the "Domestic Church".'

Bishop del Castillo thanked Aid to the Church in Need, for providing crucial help for Christians across Uruguay especially support for priests, seminarians and the distribution of ACN’s Child’s Bible.

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