From 8-10 October, some 600 people from all over Chile gathered in Santiago to discern the changes in the Chilean Church, in what was called the Third National Ecclesial Assembly.
In this assembly, the participants were distributed into 60 communities in which they were able to discern the themes that emerged strongly in the diocesan reports for the Synod of Synodality called by Pope Francis.
in this way, the assembly sought to deepen the national process of discernment that had begun in 2018, when the crisis in the church regarding ecclesiastical abuses erupted.
This special moment was accompanied by the report of Bishop Sergio Pérez de Arce, who highlighted how "our process of ecclesial discernment has been strongly linked to the crisis of sexual abuse in the Church. We have been called to follow Jesus, servant of mercy and gentleness who does not extinguish the smoldering wick or break the broken reed, as the prophet Isaiah had foretold. However, this wick was extinguished, and we did not see it, we did not hear it, we did not denounce it and the lives of many were broken".
Alex Vigueras, who actively participated in the organisation of this Third National Ecclesial Assembly, pointed out that "an important element was to give priority to the communities, seeing them as the basic and fundamental space for the assembly. Communities had already began to meet prior to the days of the face-to-face assembly.
They had had two meetings and then came together for the assembly. Thus was a road already travelled, one of knowledge, of trust, and this allowed the participants to delve deeper into the issues".
10/14/2022