Pope: Care especially for women and children on the streets
The Vatican Secretariat of State has released a Message of Pope Benedict XVI, signed
by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, for the First Integrated Meeting for the Pastoral Care
of the Road for Africa and Madagascar, taking place from September 11 – 15. The Message
was addressed to Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, the Archbishop of Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania,
where the meeting will be taking place.
The meeting, organised by the Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and the Tanzania Episcopal
Conference, aims to promote pastoral initiatives and programmes in local Churches
for the benefit for people who live on or from the road/street. This includes street
women and children, people of no fixed abode, transport workers and those responsible
for road safety.
Read the full text of Pope Benedict’s Message:
SECRETARIAT
OF STATE From the Vatican, 20 August 2012 His Eminence Cardinal Polycarp Pengo
Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam P.O. Box 167 Dar-es-Salaam Your Eminence, The
Holy Father was pleased to be informed that from 11 to 15 September 2012 the First
Integrated Meeting for the Pastoral Care of the Road for the Continent of Africa and
Madagascar will take place in Dar-es-Salaam, under the auspices of the Pontifical
Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, and the relative Episcopal
Commission of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference. He asks you kindly to convey his
greetings and prayerful good wishes to all in attendance. The theme of the Meeting,
"Jesus Himself Came Up and Walked by Their Side" (Lk 24:15), evokes the consoling
presence of the Risen Lord as he accompanied the disciples along the way to Emmaus.
Today too the Saviour continues to accompany his Church, and through her, all mankind
on the paths of life and history, opening minds and hearts to the saving truth of
the Gospel and offering encouragement and peace to all who find themselves bewildered,
lost or hurt in the midst of their earthly journey. As the Synod Fathers at the two
Special Assemblies for Africa of the Synod of Bishops prophetically acknowledged,
the Church's concern for the development of every person and the whole person, especially
of the poorest and most neglected, is at the heart of her mission of evangelization
in Africa (cf. Ecclesia in Africa, 68).
His Holiness trusts that the
present Meeting will lead to greater cooperation and coordinated efforts among the
particular Churches for the sake of safeguarding every life at risk on African streets
and roads. He asks that special attention be paid to the pastoral needs of those women
and children who find themselves on the streets, whether as a result of concrete social,
economic and political factors, or as victims of organized national and international
exploiters. He is likewise confident that the Meeting will address situations affecting
the lives of those who travel in their work and, not least, the road insecurity which
threatens the lives of millions on African soil. With these sentiments, the Holy
Father offers fervent prayers that the Meeting will confirm the Church in Africa and
Madagascar in its witness to the Gospel and its contribution to the building up of
civil society and to the forging of a new Africa (cf. Africae Munus, 30). Commending
all assembled to the maternal intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he cordially
imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in Jesus her divine Son.Yours
sincerely in Christ, Secretary of State