Under the objective of proposing effective lines of action and proposing strategic work that allows advancing common aspirations, more than 24 women participated in the I Latin American and Caribbean Meeting: Women in Synodality, which was held from April 12 to 14 at the CELAM headquarters.

Based on the methodology of seeing, judging and acting, the meeting had three fundamental moments. The first was the meeting and communion, where the participants were able to share their experiences; In the second, they were able to analyze the realities that women experience and affect their life projects, situations that both within the Church and outside them determine, restrict or encourage them to move forward.

In the third moment, the meeting sought to establish the new perspectives that reality offers to walk together in synodality, as well as the challenges and implications of this path.

Breaking patterns

The meeting was attended by Father Luis Carlos Aguilar Badilla, representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Secretariat of Cáritas (SELACC), who, during the opening Eucharist, pointed out that it is important to “work towards interaction and the meeting of charisms, in a systemic change, aware of the importance of achieving a necessary political impact that facilitates the responsible care of the environment and the rights of future generations of women.”

In turn, Father Aguilar shared the reasons that drive him to join the commission and to work with and for women and in various aspects that allow us to build a new masculinity. "I want to be one of those men who break patterns, who attend workshops, who go to therapy for them. To be better men, better couples, better fathers, better human beings. One of those men who cry and do not feel ashamed."

Territory, pastoral activity, synodal experience

The participants in the First Latin American and Caribbean Meeting: women in synodality, represent different processes and instances.

From the territorial level there will be women from ecclesial networks such as the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), the Mesoamerican Ecological Ecclesial Network (REMAM), the Gran Chaco and Guaraní Aquifer Ecclesial Network (REGCHAG) and the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA). From the pastoral point of view, we will have representatives from the Afro-American and Caribbean Ministry, the ministry of the Garifuna people, the indigenous peoples and the youth ministry.

While from the point of view of the synodal experience, the participation of women who participated in the four regional assemblies held by Celam during the Continental Phase of the Synod is expected, that is, the region of Central America and Mexico (CAMEX), the Caribbean region, the Bolivarian countries and those of the Southern Cone.

NDP: ADN Celam