Dom João Justino de Medeiros Silva opens Conselho Episcopal Pastoral meeting

Dom João Justino de Medeiros Silva, the archbishop of Goiânia and first vice-president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), opened the meeting of the Episcopal Pastoral Council on Tuesday, September 22. He presided over the first day of the gathering because Cardinal Jaime Spengler attended the funeral of the former archbishop of Porto Alegre, Dom Dadeus Grings.

The meeting included bishops from the CNBB presidency, commission presidents, advisors, and representatives from various pastoral and ecclesial institutions. Participants reviewed two situational analyses, one covering sociocultural issues regarding artificial intelligence and another addressing ecclesial communion within plural environments.

During his opening, Dom João Justino read a passage from a letter by Pope Leo XIV to the bishops of Latin America. The text, written for the 300th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Toribio de Mogrovejo, discusses the vocation of bishops and the ritual of a bishop arriving at a diocese. The Pope noted that the ritual of using holy water at the cathedral reminds the bishop of his baptism and his identity as a disciple before he serves as a pastor.