NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      MIAMI, 15 (NE) The Inter-American Meeting of Bishops started Sunday in Havana, Cuba, with a Eucharistic celebration presided over by Cardinal Jaime Ortega, Archbishop of Havana. The meeting, which gathers bishops from the entire American continent, is being held shortly after the first anniversary of the pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Cuba.

      Many pastoral challenges at the threshold of the third millennium will be faced during the event. Among these are the challenge of evangelization, the secularization of society, the urgency to promote priestly vocations and the problem of sects. The meeting will be held in the outskirts of the capital through February 17th.

      "If we want to preserve the richness of our diverse traditions and cultures, the new evangelization will have to promote the encounter with a living Christ," pointed out Cardinal Jaime Ortega during the inauguration Mass. "Only He can give American peoples what they intensely long for." During his homily the Archbishop of Havana stated as well that Christian love couldn't be substituted by "individualistic or collective" political ideologies.