As part of our preparation as a Church for the first Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by Celam for next November, on June 30 we held a conversation entitled “From Aparecida to Evangelii Gaudium”.

On November 24, 2013, at the closing of the Year of Faith announced by Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis delivered to the Church his first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. 

Two panelists who closely accompanied the construction of the Aparecida document, then led by Cardinal Joge Bergoglio (Francis) and Pope Benedict XVI, participated in the discussion.

Watch the complete event here

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m Colombia, Father Ignacio Madera made an overview of what the Episcopal Conference of Aparecida meant: “There was a real openness and a great participation”, he recalled.

On his part, Dr. Rafael Luciani made the connection between the Aparecida document and the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium, in which Francis took key concepts that occurred in the conference. Firstly, the option for the poor; then integral human promotion; and thirdly, liberation as a structuring element for change in peoples.

Panelists

Ignacio Madera

Father Ignacio Madera is doctor in Theology from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), full time professor at the Uniagustiniana of Bogotá; ex-president of CLAR (2006-2009); member of the Theological Commission of the Conference of Religious of Colombia.

Rafael Luciani

Dr. Rafael Luciani serves as an expert of Celam and member of the Theological Advisory Team of the Presidency of CLAR. He coordinates the Ibero-American Group of Theology dedicated to research on Church and synodality, and is a permanent member of the Peter & Paul Seminar for the reform of the Church. He has numerous publications in Systematic Theology, some already translated into several languages.