On 19 April 1958, Pope Pius XII established the Pontifical Commission for Latin America with the purpose of evaluating and assisting with issues related to the Catholic Church in Latin America. It operates under the Congregation of Bishops.
Pope John Paul II defined the present responsibilities of the Commission in Article 83 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, Pastor Bonus, as “to be available to the particular Churches in Latin America, by counsel and by action, taking a keen interest in the questions that affect the life and progress of those Churches; and especially to help the Churches themselves in the solution of those questions, or to be helpful to those dicasteries of the Curia that are involved by reason of their competence.”
Some of the topics in which the Commission has been involved are priestly formation in Latin America, evangelization, immigration, poverty and globalization. The president of the Commission is the Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, presently this is Giovanni Cardinal Re.
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