POPE'S MISSION PRAYER INTENTION FOR APRIL

(April 02, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intention for the missions during this month of April is for Africa - that the risen Christ may be a sign of certain hope for the men and women of the continent. Easter is the season of hope; much so for Africa, which Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have often hailed as the continent of hope. And there’s reason for that. In modern times, the Church has grown in Africa more than anywhere else in the world. In 1900 there were two million Catholics in Africa. By 1978 the number had risen to 55 million. Today that number has tripled to 165 million. Forty-three percent of the world’s adult baptisms take place in Africa, a million a year. Nearly half of the world’s children in Catholic elementary schools live in Africa. There are more Catholic hospitals in Africa than in North and Central America combined. Since 1978 the number of African seminarians has more than quadrupled, rising to more than 24,000, with an increase of 14 percent in the last five years. But the hope that Africa represents, is threatened, however, by, corruption, injustice, conflict, poverty and exploitation. That is why the theme of the Second Special Synod of Bishops for Africa held in the Vatican in October, 2009, had been, “The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.” Let’s therefore join the Holy Father in praying that the risen Christ may be a sign of certain hope for the men and women of the African continent.