From January 27 to 31, 2025, an important meeting was held at the headquarters of CELAM (Latin American Episcopal Council) in Bogotá, Colombia, in which the CEAMA (Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon) was officially presented to the Organization of Seminars of Latin America and the Caribbean (OSLAM). The main objective of the event was to plan courses for seminary trainers in Latin America, in dialogue with CELAM and under a synodal approach, promoting a common and unified vision for priestly education in the region.
The meeting was headed by the president of OSLAM, Fr. Dionicio Roberto Gómez Sánchez, Rector of the Diocesan Seminary of Toluca, Mexico, and had the participation of the vice president, Fr. Mauricio Damián Larrosa, Rector of the San José de Morón Seminary, Argentina, as well as several members from different areas of Latin America, such as Pbro. Vagner João Pacheco de Moraes from Brazil, Pbro. Manuel Penagos Plazas de Colombia, Pbro. Eric Wilson Cosme Tavárez from the Dominican Republic, and Pbro. Omar Arturo Carrera Campos of Guatemala. During the meeting, the importance of strengthening priestly formation throughout the region, adapted to contemporary challenges and in harmony with the synodal process proposed by Pope Francis, was highlighted.
Marcelo Lemos, executive secretary of CEAMA, took advantage of this opportunity to share the particular needs of the Amazon territory, especially in relation to the formation of future priests. Lemos highlighted the importance of developing a simple vision adapted to the reality of the Amazon for the training of seminarians, and how OSLAM can play a key role in this process, offering training proposals that respond to the specific challenges of the territory.
The members of OSLAM agreed on the need to strengthen formative accompaniment in the region and committed to planning courses and activities for seminary trainers, maintaining a pastoral perspective adapted to local realities and the specific challenges of each territory.
This meeting marks an important step in the collaboration between the different instances of ecclesiastical formation in Latin America, with a renewed approach that, in the words of Marcelo Lemos, “responds to the urgency of a pastoral perspective adapted to the concrete challenges of the Amazon.” .