The National Congress of the laity which ended Friday was chaired and led by Mgr. Francisco Niño, Colombian priest and Assistant Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) gathered in Port-au-Prince, for 4 days 180 committed laity coming from all dioceses in the country and some lay people from the Caribbean region.

The general objective of the Meeting hosted by the Social School of CELAM and the Haitian Church was to "Identify mission as committed to the Church and society, assume leadership in political, religious, economic and social life of the country at the base of the principles and values of the social doctrine of the Church."

The organizers wanted the lay people to know more deeply the values and principles of the Church's Social Doctrine, to identify the country's problems and causes, and to propose lines of action from the Gospel.

It was also about getting participants to discover their identity and mission in the church and in society to encourage them to participate in public life as a service to the community. In the same way, bishops, priests and religious recognize that laypeople are not second-class Christians and play an important role in the life of the Church. Finally, it was to make participants multipliers in their dioceses, experience and knowledge gained.

IH/ PI/ iciHaiti