Newly appointed archbishop says Jesus must be announced in midst of secular world

Lima, Peru, Jul 10, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The Holy Father, today, appointed Bishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi S.V.C., Auxiliary Bishop of Lima, Peru, as metropolitan Archbishop of Piura in the northern part of the country.  The Archbishop-elect said today that he would preach” the Gospel of Life” to the people of Piura.

In a statement this morning Eguren said that, "an Archbishop, as a shepherd, has the primary duty of preach the Gospel, but the Gospel we preach is, of course the Gospel of Life,"  "Jesus is the life, and we preach Him as the greatest treasure the Church has to offer to the world. But of course, Christ is not announced in the void: he is announced in the midst of a secularized world, where His presence sheds an uncomfortable light."

"Announcing the Good News to the world will always include announcing, supporting and defending God-given human dignity, from conception of life to its natural end, and defending the first natural environment of the human person: the family based on the only true marriage: one man and one woman, united for life, as Pope Benedict highlighted during the Fifth World Meeting of Families, the Archbishop-elect continued.”

The Eguren was born in Lima in 1956, he was ordained a priest for the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae 1982 and consecrated a bishop in 2002. He succeeds Archbishop Oscar Rolando Cantuarias Pastor, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.