Carolina Gomez Mena
La Jornada newspaper
Monday, November 8, 2021, p. twenty
The Conference of the Mexican Episcopate (CEM) will renew 80 positions in its structure, including that of secretary general, treasurer and the ownership of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Communication (Cepcom). Today begins its 111th plenary assembly.
Due to the pandemic and since it is an elective assembly, only the 127 bishops with the right to vote, the apostolic nuncio Franco Coppola, the eight executive secretaries of the episcopal commissions and the base team of episcopal pastoral vicars were summoned.
In addition, the meeting days were reduced to three (there are always five), so it will take place from today until Wednesday at the Casa Lago Cuautitlán Izcalli headquarters. Due to the virus, last year the April plenary assembly was canceled, and those of November 2020 and April 2021 were virtual. Now, because the voting must be in person, the prelates with the right to vote were summoned. At the end of the 2018-2021 triennium, Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, Secretary General of the CEM, will leave his position, since he has already been in the position for two periods. It is the same case of Ramón Castro Castro, treasurer, who will be replaced.
The president of the CEM, Rogelio Cabrera López, can be re-elected and the vice president, Carlos Garfias Merlos, also has that possibility. He was hospitalized for two and a half months due to Covid-19. There must also be a relief in Cepcom, so the bishop of Valle de Chalco, Víctor René Rodríguez will be replaced.
In the plenary assembly, “the transversal axes and pastoral emergencies of the 2018-2021 triennium will be evaluated, the new transversal axes and pastoral priorities for the 2021-2024 triennium will be elaborated and approved; The reports of the CEM Commissions will also be rendered.
