Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Defending the right to life, struggling against poverty and social inequality, the challenge posed by hedonistic secularism, the formation of Catholics so that they may participate more and more in the missionary commitment of the Church. These are the themes that Benedict XVI will give “strong messages” about when he goes on his trip to Brazil – from tomorrow to 14 May. His words will be aimed not only at local Churches but also at the ruling classes of the region, dubbed by John Paul II as “the Continent of hope”, a hope described by Pope Ratzinger on Sunday as one “that regards not only the Church but all America and the rest of the world.”

His journey will be marked by an address he is due to give at the opening of the V General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate and the Caribbean at the Marian shrine of Aparecida. He will be the third pope after Paul VI (Medellin, in Colombia, in 1968) and John Paul II (Puebla, in Mexico, in 1979) to open such an assembly, confirming the importance vested in Latin America – home to half the global Catholic population – by the entire Catholic Church.

In some way or another, Benedict XVI has already taken up the themes he will tackle on his upcoming trip, mainly on two occasions: the first was on 20 January, when he talked to the Pontifical Commission for Latin America about the “enormous challenges” that the Church must face, indicating “the cultural change generated by social communication that shapes the ways of thinking and customs of millions of people”; “migratory fluxes”; “globalization, secularization, growing poverty and environmental degradation especially in big cities, as well as violence and trafficking in narcotics.” And a month later, on 17 February, when addressing 20 Apostolic Nuncios of the region, he underlined in particular the full recognition of religious freedom and denounced “the pressure of lobbies capable of influencing legislative processes” against the family and the negative influence of “post-modern hedonist secularism”.

In the background, in the place where it emerged, there is also the development of liberation theology, which appears in Catholic thought in several poor countries worldwide. The pope himself, when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, indicated both positive aspects and unacceptable affirmations of this theology.

Apart from the main objective, the assembly of bishops, there will be more to accomplish throughout the journey, linked to the host country: Benedict XVI will visit the diocese of St Paul – where he will have a meeting with youth – and Aparecida, and he will canonize Frei Galvao, the first saint born in Brazil.

Photo: Credit CPP