377. We disciples, who by essence are missionaries by virtue of Baptism and confirmation, are formed with a universal heart, open to all cultures and to all truths, cultivating our capacity for human contact and dialogue. With the courage given us by the Spirit, we are willing to proclaim Christ where he is not accepted, with our life, with our action, with our profession of faith, and with his Word. Emigrants are likewise disciples and missionaries and are called to be a new seed of evangelization, like the many emigrants and missionaries who brought the Christian faith to our Americas.
There is great confidence here. The Americas have been a true melting pot, north to south, bringing cultures from all over the Eastern Hemisphere to blend with peoples longer native to these continents. It provides an opportunity not to blend all colors into a seamless and bland gray or brown, but into special pieces in which we can easily find aspects to which to point, saying to others, “Behold.”
I like the confidence that Christians of the Caribbean and Latin America may well find themselves in a diaspora to continue to spread the Gospel elsewhere in the world, and to bring new blood to those cultures and aspects of human society that are already Christian.
Remember, you can reference an English translation of the 2007 document from the Aparecida Conference here.
Catholic Sensibility 