MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Benedict XVI could visit Argentina/Chile in 2007

Pope Benedict XVI is likely to visit Argentina or Chile in 2007 when the Fifth General Conference of the Latinamerican Synod, said Vatican sources.

Chile and Argentina were proposed as host countries of the Synod during the recent assembly of the Latinamerican Episcopal Council, Celam, which took place in Lima, Peru.

"Several members of the assembly said it would be convenient that the Synod be hosted in the Southern Cone. Argentina and Chile are the candidates since they have the appropriate conditions to organize a meeting of such nature", said Monsignor Carlos Aguiar Retes, Celam vicepresident.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to attend the closing ceremony.

Monsignor Aguiar Retes said the confirmation of the trip to "continent of hope", where half of the world's Catholics live will only be known next September.

"The original plan, when Pope John Paul II, given his frail health and conditions was to be Rome. However that possibility is still feasible not because of the Pope's health but rather his age", cautioned the Mexican prelate.

If the Synod definitively takes place in Latinamerica, "we've chosen the Southern Cone because the first time was Rio (Brazil), the second Medellin (Colombia); third in Mexico and the fourth in Santo Domingo, the Caribbean".