CELAM – Consejo Episcopal Latinamericano

CELAM is an organism of communion, reflection, collaboration and service as a sign and instrument of collegial affection in perfect communion with the universal Church and with its visible head, the Roman Pontiff. It was created in 1955.

As a service agency, CELAM must first and foremost be an animation and aid to the reflection and pastoral action of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean.

CELAM provides contact, communion, training, research and reflection services to the 22 Episcopal Conferences that are located from Mexico to Cape Horn, including the Caribbean and the West Indies.

CELAM is organized as follows:

The General Secretariat:
Immediate and permanent executive body of the presidency, responsible for encouraging and coordinating CELAM activities

The departments:
Ecclesial Communion and Dialogue
Mission and Spirituality
Vocations and Ministries
Family and Life
Culture and Education
Justice and Solidarity
Communication and Press

CEBITEPAL Training Center, consisting of:
Biblical school
Theological School
Social School
Editorial – CELAM

Conférence Episcopale de Haïti (C.E.H.)
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is an assembly of the hierarchy of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands who jointly exercise certain pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States. The purpose of the Conference is to promote the greater good which the Church offers humankind, especially through forms and programs of the apostolate fittingly adapted to the circumstances of time and place. This purpose is drawn from the universal law of the Church and applies to the episcopal conferences which are established all over the world for the same purpose.

The bishops themselves constitute the membership of the Conference and are served by a staff of approximately 315 lay people, priests, deacons, and religious located at the Conference headquarters in Washington, DC. There is also a small Office of Film and Broadcasting in New York City and a branch office of Migration and Refugee Services in Miami.

The Conference is organized as a corporation in the District of Columbia. Its purposes under civil law are: “To unify, coordinate, encourage, promote and carry on Catholic activities in the United States; to organize and conduct religious, charitable and social welfare work at home and abroad; to aid in education; to care for immigrants; and generally to enter into and promote by education, publication and direction the objects of its being.”