Fifty COFOA Seminar Graduates are Ready to Put Church’s Social Pastoral Message into Action

This May, fifty COFOA leaders completed a six month training program on the social doctrine of the church, moral values and PICO community organizing.

The seminar is designed to strengthen the foundation for leaders’ work in each COFOA member congregation and take action on social issues in their communities. In a 2008 COFOA meeting,  Bishop Elías Samuel Bolaños Avelar observed that, “ I toured all the churches in the diocese, and I found the majority of church ministries working hard and growing, but the least developed was the social pastoral ministry.”  On May 25, 2013, the first graduation of COFOA leaders and other parish ministers took place.  Top of Form

The graduation was hosted by Bishop Bolaños of the Diocese of Zacatecoluca, along with participating parish priests and teachers Martha Esperanza Gomez and Professor Eduardo Ramirez.  This seminar brings a successful new training tool that will build up social ministries in congregations, to be continued in 2014.