Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, will deliver remarks on the theme of the Year of Mercy, as will Cardinal Ouellet.

The event will begin with a penitential liturgy to encourage an examination of conscience, confessions, and an opportunity for all the participants to seek mercy for themselves.

One part of the gathering will feature the saints of the Americas. The presentation will reflect on missionary saints of the evangelization, such as California missionary Junipero Serra; the saintly mystics like Rose of Lima; the saints of the defenseless like Peter Claver and Mother Cabrini; the saints of charity like Martin De Porres and Katharine Drexel; the educator saints like John Neumann; and the martyr saints like the Mexican Martyrs, Kateri Tekakwitha and Oscar Romero.

Father Eduardo Chavez, Canon of the Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, will speak on the topic “Holiness in the Time of Pope Francis.” He will draw on the example of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

A full day of the gathering will focus on the works of mercy in the Americas. A panel will discuss efforts like Hogar de Christo (Christ’s Home) in Chile, migrant assistance projects and Project Rachel, the U.S.-based project that helps women who have had abortions.

Participants in the celebration will visit places in Bogota that focus on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. They will visit some of the poorest places of the city at its “social and existential peripheries,” organizers said.

Archbishop Luis Augusto Castro Quiroga of Tunja, who heads the Colombian Bishops’ Conference, will give a joint presentation with Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles. The presentation’s theme is “Mercy as the Soul of a Culture of Encounter, Forgiveness and Reconciliation on the American Continent.”

The event’s final hours will include a Continental Rosary for Peace. Bogota’s Cardinal Salazar will celebrate the closing Mass.