Per una storicizzazione di Medellin

The contribution synthesizes the problematic result of a first effort to place the Medellin Conference held in Colombia in 1968 in a historical context. After a general survey of numerous literatures devoted to theological and practical conclusions of the Conference of Latin American Bishops, the effort attempts to focus on some of the main passes and bumps of the "long" preparation of Medellin. Its major protagonist is the "Celamicos" team, a group of bishops who head the new departments established by Larrain and correspond to different pastoral sectors. Introducing lay people and establishing new structures and instruments to face the main problems of the Latin American church, they will lead the undergoing maturation of the contents discussed later in Medellin; moreover, organising a great number of meetings dealing with the different areas dealt by the secretariats and on which Vatican II had made pronouncements, they will offert the chance to implement a "collegial exercise" which precisely in Medellin will give its major results.