The bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Panama (CEP) expressed their desire to be the Holy Spirit – and not “human calculations” – who enlighten the voters in the conclave who will choose the successor of Pope Francis.
“Let the Holy Spirit be and not the human calculations, who inspires cardinal electors in this delicate mission of discerning the pastor that the Church and the world need at this time in history,” said the prelates in A statement of May 1, signed by Mons. José Domingo Ulloa, president of the CEP; and by Mons. Luis Enrique Saldaña, general secretary.
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With the placement today of the fireplace that will announce with the famous “White Fumata” the choice of the new Pope, everything is ready for the 133 voters cardinals – 23 of them Latin Americans – begin the conclave in the Sistine Chapel, starting on Wednesday, May 7.
The bishops specify that the pastor to be chosen must be “a Pope according to the heart of Christ, humble and close, firm in faith, server of mercy, promoter of peace and defender of the poor and discarded.”
After encouraging to pray “in communion with the whole Church” and “with subsidiary confidence”, the prelates stressed that “this is a time of grace that invites us to hope and abandonment confident in the will of God.”
After calling for unity and hope among Catholics, bishops conclude their message inviting to invoke the Holy Spirit, united to the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph, “Insurance that the Lord guides and will always hold his Church.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I am husband since 2008. With my wife we have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before birth. Since I joined ACI Press in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Colonia, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the family’s synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Sinodality, in 2023. I follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers the persecution of the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as the ecclesial news in the region.