Pope’s Missionary Prayer Intention for March 2010

(March 1, 2010) The Holy Father’s Missionary Prayer Intention for the month of March - that the Churches throughout Africa may be signs and instruments of reconciliation and justice. Last October when Pope Benedict XVI inaugurated the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for Africa, he described the continent as an “immense spiritual lung” breathing faith and hope into a world where faith and hope are in short supply. But to be truly effective as the standard-bearer of Christ to the world, the African Church must also be an agent of reconciliation and justice on a continent beset with violence, corruption, poverty, and disease. The countries of Africa have a long history of colonization and exploitation by outsiders who have robbed resources, subjugated peoples, and disrupted established ways of life. Much of Africa remains underdeveloped, and like the poor everywhere, African peoples have been badly hurt by the current economic crisis. Since all violence, corruption, poverty, and disease are the result of sin, the cure too must be spiritual. God’s grace is always necessary to help people to know and do the right thing. In his second encyclical, Spe Salvi, the Pope reminds us that “God is the author of justice.” Only by God’s grace can Africa discern and act to bring peace, healing, nourishment, and development. Let’s therefore join the Holy Father in praying for the local churches in the vast continent that they may be instruments of reconciliation and justice.