Speech to Members of the Special Council for the Synod for Africa
March 19, 2009 Apostolic Nunciature Yaoundé, Cameroon
Dear Cardinals, Dear
Brother Bishops, It is with deep joy that I greet all of you here in Africa.
A First Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops was convoked for Africa in 1994 by
my venerable predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II, as a sign of his pastoral
solicitude for this continent so rich both in promise and in pressing human, cultural
and spiritual needs. This morning I called Africa “the continent of hope”. I recall
with gratitude the signing of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa
here at the Apostolic Nunciature fourteen years ago on the Feast of the Exaltation
of the Cross, 14 September 1995. My thanks go to Archbishop Nikola Eterović, Secretary
General of the Synod of Bishops, for the words which he addressed to me in your name,
as he introduced this meeting on African soil with you, dear members of the Special
Council for Africa. The whole Church looks to our meeting today in anticipation of
the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, which, God willing,
will be celebrated next October, on the theme: “The Church in Africa in Service to
Reconciliation, Justice and Peace: ‘You are the Salt of the Earth … You are the Light
of the World’ (Mt 5:13-14)”. I sincerely thank the Cardinals, the Archbishops
and Bishops who are members of the Special Council for Africa for their expert collaboration
in the drawing up of the Lineamenta and the Instrumentum Laboris. I am grateful to
you, dear Brothers in the Episcopate, for having also presented in your contributions
several important aspects of the present ecclesial and social situation in your countries
of origin and in the region. In this way you have emphasized the great dynamism of
the Church in Africa, but you have also evoked the challenges which the Synod needs
to examine, so that the growth of the Church in Africa will be not only quantitative
but qualitative as well. Dear friends, at the beginning of my address, I consider
it important to stress that your continent has been blessed by our Lord Jesus himself.
At the dawn of his earthly life, sad circumstances led him to set foot on African
soil. God chose your continent to become the dwelling-place of his Son. In Jesus,
God drew near to all men and women, of course, but also, in a particular way, to the
men and women of Africa. Africa is where the Son of God was weaned, where he was
offered effective sanctuary. In Jesus, some two thousand years ago, God himself brought
salt and light to Africa. From that time on, the seed of his presence was buried
deep within the hearts of this dear continent, and it has blossomed gradually, beyond
and within the vicissitudes of its human history. As a result of the coming of Christ
who blessed it with his physical presence, Africa has received a particular vocation
to know Christ. Let Africans be proud of this! In meditating upon, and in coming
to a deeper spiritual and theological appreciation of this first stage of the kenosis,
Africa will be able to find the strength needed to face its sometimes difficult daily
existence, and thus it will be able to discover immense spaces of faith and hope which
will help it to grow in God. The intimate bond existing between Africa and Christianity
from the beginning can be illustrated by recalling some significant moments in the
Christian history of this continent. According to the venerable patristic tradition,
the Evangelist Saint Mark, who “handed down in writing the preaching of Peter” (Irenaeus,
Adversus Haereses III, I, 1), came to Alexandria to give new life to the seed planted
by the Lord. This Evangelist bore witness in Africa to the death of the Son of God
on the Cross – the final moment of the kenosis – and of his sovereign exaltation,
in order that “every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). The Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God
spread rapidly in North Africa, where it raised up distinguished martyrs and saints,
and produced outstanding theologians. Christianity lasted for almost a millennium
in the north-eastern part of your continent, after being put to the test by the vicissitudes
of history. With the arrival of Europeans seeking the passage to the Indies in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the sub-Saharan peoples encountered Christ. The
coastal peoples were the first to receive Baptism. In the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, sub-Saharan Africa saw the arrival of missionaries, men and women from
throughout the West, from Latin America and even from Asia. I wish to pay homage
to the generosity of their unconditional response to the Lord’s call, and to their
ardent apostolic zeal. Here, I would also like to speak of the African catechists,
the inseparable companions of the missionaries in evangelization. God prepared the
hearts of certain African lay persons, men and women, young and old alike, to receive
his gifts and to bring the light of his word to their brothers and sisters. Laity
in the midst of laity, they were able to find in their ancestral languages the words
of God which would touch the hearts of their brothers and sisters. They were able
to share the savour of the salt of the word and to give splendour to the light of
the sacraments which they proclaimed. They accompanied families in their spiritual
growth, they encouraged priestly and religious vocations, and they served as a link
between their communities and the priests and Bishops. Quite naturally, they brought
about a successful inculturation which yielded wondrous fruit (cf. Mk 4:20). The
catechists allowed their “light to shine before others” (Mt 5:16), for in seeing the
good they did, entire peoples were able to give glory to Our Father in heaven. This
was a case of Africans evangelizing other Africans. In evoking their glorious memory,
I greet and encourage their worthy successors who work today with the same selflessness,
the same apostolic courage and the same faith as their predecessors. May God bless
them generously! During this period, Africa was also blessed with numerous saints.
I will content myself with naming the martyrs of Uganda, the great missionaries Anne-Marie
Javouhey and Daniele Comboni, as well as Sister Anuarite Nengapeta and the catechist
Isidore Bakanja, without forgetting the humble Josephine Bakhita. We find ourselves
presently at a historical moment which coincides from the civil standpoint with regained
independence and from the ecclesial standpoint with the Second Vatican Council. During
this time the Church in Africa contributed to and accompanied the building of new
national identities and, at the same time, sought to translate the identity of Christ
along its own ways. As the hierarchy became increasingly African following Pope Pius
XII’s ordination of Bishops from your continent, theological reflection began to ferment
quickly. It would be well for your theologians today to continue to probe the depth
of the Trinitarian mystery and its meaning for everyday African life. This century
will perhaps permit, by God’s grace, the rebirth, on your continent, albeit certainly
under a different and new form, of the prestigious School of Alexandria. Why could
we not hope that Africans today and the universal Church might thereby be furnished
with great theologians and spiritual masters capable of contributing to the sanctification
of those who dwell in this continent and throughout the Church? The First Special
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops helped to point out the directions to be taken, and
it brought out, among other things, the need to appreciate more deeply and to incarnate
the mystery of the Church-as-Family. I would now like to suggest some reflections
about the specific theme of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of
Bishops, namely: reconciliation, justice and peace. According to the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, “the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament – a sign
and instrument of communion with God and of unity among all men and women” (Lumen
Gentium, 1). To carry out her mission well, the Church must be a community of persons
reconciled with God and among themselves. In this way, she can proclaim the Good
News of reconciliation to contemporary society, which unfortunately experiences in
many places conflicts, acts of violence, war and hatred. Your continent, sadly, has
not been spared, and it has been and continues to be a theatre of grave tragedies
which cry out for true reconciliation between peoples, ethnic groups and individuals.
For us Christians, this reconciliation is rooted in the merciful love of God the Father,
and it is accomplished through the person of Christ Jesus who, in the Holy Spirit,
has offered the grace of reconciliation to all. Its consequences will be shown, then,
in the justice and peace which are indispensable for building a better world. Truly,
what is more dramatic, in the present socio-political and economic context of the
African continent, than the often savage conflicts between ethnic groups or peoples
bound by brotherhood? And if the Synod of 1994 insisted on the Church as Family of
God, what can this year’s Synod contribute to the building up of Africa, thirsting
for reconciliation and in pursuit of justice and peace? The local or regional wars,
massacres and genocides perpetrated on the continent must challenge us in a special
way: if it is true that in Jesus Christ we belong to the same family and share the
same life – since in our veins there flows the Blood of Christ himself, who has made
us children of God, members of God’s Family – there must no longer be hatred, injustice
and internecine war. Cognizant of the growth of violence and the emergence of
selfishness in Africa, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of venerable memory called in 1988
for a theology of fraternity as a response to the pressing appeals of the poor and
the little ones (L’Osservatore Romano, French edition, 12 April 1988, pp. 4-5). Perhaps
he had in mind the words of the African Lactantius, written at the dawn of the fourth
century: “The first duty of justice is to recognize others as brothers and sisters.
Indeed, if the same God created us and gave us birth in the same condition, in view
of righteousness and life eternal, we are surely united by bonds of brotherhood: whoever
does not acknowledge those bonds is unjust” (Divine Institutions 54, 4-5: S.C. 335,
p. 210). The Church, as the Family of God in Africa, made a preferential option for
the poor at the First Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. In this way she showed
that the situation of dehumanization and oppression afflicting the African peoples
is not irreversible; on the contrary, she set before everyone a challenge: that of
conversion, holiness and integrity. The Son, through whom God speaks to us, is
himself the Word made flesh. This was the subject of the discussions at the recent
Twelfth General Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Having become flesh, this
Word is at the origin of all that we are and all that we do; he is the foundation
of every life. It is therefore on the basis of this Word that we need to enhance
African traditions, and to correct and perfect their concept of life, humanity and
the family. Christ Jesus, the Word of life, is the source and fulfilment of all our
lives, for the Lord Jesus is the one mediator and redeemer. It is urgent that
Christian communities increasingly become places of profound listening to the word
of God and meditative reading of sacred Scripture. It is through such meditative
and communitarian reading in the Church that every Christian encounters the Risen
Christ, who speaks to him and offers renewed hope in the fullness of life which he
gives to the world. As for the Eucharist, it makes the Lord truly present in history.
Through the reality of his Body and his Blood, the whole Christ makes himself substantially
present in our lives. He is with us always, until the end of time (cf. Mt 28:20)
and he sends us back to our daily lives so that we can fill them with his presence.
In the Eucharist, it becomes clearly evident that our life is a relationship of communion
with God, with our brothers and sisters, and with all creation. The Eucharist is
the source of a unity reconciled in peace. The word of life and the Bread of life
offer light and nourishment as medicine and food for our journey in fidelity to the
Teacher and Shepherd of our souls, so that the Church in Africa can carry out the
service of reconciliation, justice and peace, in accordance with the programme of
life provided by the Lord himself: “You are the salt of the earth … You are the light
of the world” (Mt 5:13-14). If they are truly to be this, the faithful must undergo
conversion and follow Jesus Christ; they must become his disciples in order to be
witnesses of his saving power. During his earthly life, Jesus was “mighty in deed
and word” (Lk 24:19). By his resurrection, he has subjected to himself every authority
and power (cf. Col 2:15), every power of evil, in order to set free those who are
baptized in his name. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). The Christian
vocation consists in letting oneself be freed by Jesus Christ. He has conquered sin
and death and he offers to all the fullness of life. In the Lord Jesus there is no
more Jew or Gentile, man or woman (cf. Gal 3:28). In his flesh he has reconciled
all peoples. In the power of the Holy Spirit, I appeal to everyone: “Be reconciled
to God!” (2 Cor 5:20). No ethnic or cultural difference, no difference of race, sex
or religion must become a cause for dispute among you. You are all children of the
one God, our Father, who is in heaven. With this conviction, it will then be possible
to build a more just and peaceful Africa, an Africa worthy of the legitimate expectations
of all its children. In conclusion, I invite you to advance the preparation of
the Synodal event by reciting, together with the faithful, the prayer found at the
end of the Instrumentum Laboris which I presented to you this morning, a prayer for
the successful outcome of the Synodal Assembly. Together, my brothers, let us pray: “Holy
Mary, Mother of God, Protectress of Africa, you have given the world its true light,
Jesus Christ. By your obedience to the Father and by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
you have given us the source of our reconciliation and our joy. Mother of tenderness
and wisdom, show us Jesus, your Son and the Son of God, sustain our journey of conversion,
so that Jesus may enlighten us with his Glory in all the settings of our personal,
family and social life. Mother full of Mercy and Justice, by your docility to
the Spirit, the Comforter, obtain for us the grace to be witnesses of the Risen Lord,
so that we may become ever more fully the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Mother
of Perpetual Succour, to your maternal intercession we entrust the preparation and
the fruits of the Second Synod for Africa. Queen of Peace, pray for us! Our Lady
of Africa, pray for us!”