Fr Lombardi SJ: Benedict XVI and a hope for Africa
Below is the English translation of Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ's weekly editorial.
In
his remarks ahead of the signing the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Africae
munus, Pope Benedict XVI referred to the pair of gates that stand hard by one
another on Benin’s Atlantic coast: the “Gate of no Return” and the “Gate of Salvation”.
An appalling physical reminder of the offence against human dignity that is slavery,
the Gate of no Return was the one through which slaves used to pass on their way to
the ships that would carry them into servitude. The Gate of Salvation is next to
the first. The Catholic faithful built the Gate of Salvation to commemorate the coming
of the first evangelists to those same shores – from which place they spread the Good
News of Christ’s victory over sin and death throughout the whole of west Africa. “[T]he
Church in Africa,” said Pope Benedict, “is called to promote peace and justice. The
Gate of No Return, as well as that of Salvation, remind us of this duty and impel
us to combat every form of slavery.”
Commentators not suspected of partiality
toward the Catholic Church have said that there is no clearer or more complete document
on the situation and the problems facing Africa, than the new Exhortation. It is a
document as striking for its realism as for its respect for the dignity of the African
peoples. Africae munus arises from a genuinely African way of thinking: one that is
nevertheless permeated by the Christian message and therefore at once genuinely African
and truly universal; a way of thinking that opens a horizon of commitment for the
future. A European journalist friend movingly told in me that, in Benin, he felt that
as a Catholic he really does belong to a universal community. The Pope, as representative
of Christ, is the spiritual head of Christians from every nation and every continent.
The way the Holy Father was received in Benin showed quite clearly that his visit
brought great hope to the peoples of Africa: a continent the Pope sees as a “spiritual
lung” for humanity – and perhaps this is a notion worth westerners’ attention.