_WORLD WATCH______________________________
________________Brazil_______________
Reforms for bishops’ conference
Response to Vatican directive
The Brazilian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CNBB) has announced plans to enact wide-ranging reforms, to bring the conference into compliance with guidelines provided in the Vatican document Apostolos Suos.
Bishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis, secretary general of the bishops’ conference, announced that the bishops will meet in July for a final vote on the slate of reforms. Bishop Assis said the changes would include the elimination of the Bishops’ Pastoral Commission (CEP), because that group “had an undefined competence.” In practice the CEP had guided the activities of the Brazilian bishops’ conference for the past 30 years. Apostolos Suos had emphasized that bishops must not cede their authority to conference officials.
The CEP will be replaced by a smaller executive council, Bishop Assis said. He explained: “The idea of the reform is to reduce the power of the CNBB and increase the authority of the bishop as the one who is responsible for the pastoral ministry within his diocese.”