Daniel E. Flores

You know, really the poorest area in many parts of the United States is the Rio Grande Valley.

But as my bishop, Daniel Flores, always says, La gente del valle tiene un gran corazón, you know.

There are people with a big heart, you know, and I truly believe that everybody helps, you know, no matter what, you know.

Do you feel like you were still getting that level of support five years ago when it was from city officials, from people, when there was the big surge? Was that still the same, the mentality? I think that

Organised by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, the meeting, which is taking place from the 10th to the 12th of September, is addressing issues of continent-wide import, including artificial intelligence, the social and environmental crisis, community organisation and the clean energy transition.

At a press conference on Friday discussing the Synodal Encounter, the Vice President of the U.S. Bishops Conference, Bishop Daniel Flores, spoke about why it is important for the Church to promote conversations of this sort.

As you know, the Church of the United States is a Church of great diversity itself, many different communities of faith, many different aspects, differences economically and geographically across the country.

And so we are experienced with trying to find ways to let this diversity express itself also in a way that shows the unity of the church, first of all, but the unity that we can aspire to in the larger community.

This is one of the great sort of challenges of our time.

So anytime we can do that, working together, the United States Conference of Bishops, together with Canada and Latin America, want to find ways to walk together in helping to promote this sense of dialogue that opens up spaces that can make a peaceful resolution and hopeful progress, especially for the voiceless and those who have little power in this world.

That was the Vice President of the United States Bishops Conference, Bishop Daniel Flores, speaking earlier today at a press conference in the Vatican.

Since 1991, Kenya's Koinonia community has been helping vulnerable children and young people who are living on the streets of Nairobi.