CELAM welcomes new President and Vice Presidents

By Vatican News

The new president of the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops' Council (CELAM) is Brazilian Archbishop Jaime Spengler, Archbishop of Porto Alegre and recently elected president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB).

According to CELAM's official website, the new president "assumes the appointment of the CELAM Assembly in a spirit of obedience, but also guided by faith."

Archbishop Spengler also insisted that CELAM is "a council of bishops, and as a council, it has the mission to promote the evangelising journey of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean."

Archbishop Jaime Spengler is new president of CELAM

He expressed his aspiration that "hopefully together, in communion with our brothers and sisters, in a spirit of faith, we will be attentive to what is today's world, and attentive to the needs of our brothers and sisters, attentive to what is today the orientation of the Magisterium, but also to the signs of the times, to the challenges that today's culture imposes on us, we can correspond to what the assembly is asking of us as the presidency of CELAM," calling on all to "walk at the height of the present times."

For the first vice-presidency, the Bishops have elected Venezuelan Archbishop José Luis Azuaje Ayala, and for the second vice-presidency, the Panamanian Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta, OSA.

After the election of the president and the two vice-presidents, they also elected the president of Economic Affairs and the secretary general, all for the four-year term 2023-2027. The new president of the Council for Economic Affairs is Bishop Santiago Rodríguez Rodríguez, originally from the Dominican Republic; while the general secretariat of CELAM will be assumed by the Peruvian Bishop Lizardo Estrada Herrera, OSA.

These elections complete the Presidency of CELAM for the four-year period 2023-2027.