Pope meets Muslim delegation in Yaounde

(March 19, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI is currently on a pastoral visit to Cameroon and Angola. The main purpose of his March 17-23 visit is to issue to the African Church the working document of the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Africa, scheduled for this October in Rome. The theme of this synod is “The Church in Africa in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.” Part of programme of Pope Benedict’s first pastoral visit to Africa was also a meeting with representatives of Cameroon’s Muslim community. The meeting took place on Thursday morning at the Apostolic Nunciature in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.
The Pope told the Muslim delegation that their encounter was a vivid sign of the desire that they share with all people of good will – in Cameroon, throughout Africa and across the globe – to seek opportunities to exchange ideas about how religion makes an essential contribution to their understanding of culture and the world, and to the peaceful coexistence of all the members of the human family. Initiatives in Cameroon illustrate how such dialogue enhances mutual understanding and assists in the building up of a stable and just political order. Cameroonian Muslims and Christians who often live, work and worship in the same neighbourhood bear witness to the fundamental values of family, social responsibility, obedience to God’s law and loving concern for the sick and suffering. By patterning their lives on these virtues and teaching them to the young, Christians and Muslims not only show how they foster the full development of the human person, but also how they forge bonds of solidarity with one’s neighbours and advance the common good. Pope Benedict said that genuine religion widens the horizon of human understanding and stands at the base of any authentically human culture. It rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism: not only on principles of faith, but also of right reason. Indeed, religion and reason mutually reinforce one another since religion is purified and structured by reason, and reason’s full potential is unleashed by revelation and faith.