Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - A Church committed to the formation of lay Catholics, young people especially, which works together with the state institutions and other religious communities in the country. This was the picture of the situation of the Catholic Church in Gabon as described by Bishop Timothée Modico-Nzockena, Bishop of Franceville and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Gabon. Fides interviewed Bishop Modico-Nzockena who is in Rome with his brother Bishops for the five yearly ad limina visit.
“The Church in Gabon lives in peace and we have established good dialogue and understanding with the State” said the president of the Bishops' Conference. “We each work in our own areas of competence. In our country there exists respect between state and Church rarely found in Africa. As we heard from the Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, in our meeting with him, this must be regarded as a Grace from God and we must pray this situation may continue. Gabon is a nation at peace, certainly there is not absolute freedom but we live in a far better situation than many other countries”.
With regard to the ecclesial situation Bishop Modico-Nzockena said “The Church works to promote vocations. Our Church was born of missionaries who came a long time ago to our country. Now the time has come for us to shoulder our responsibilities as mature Christians at the spiritual and material level. There is still much space for missionaries who help keep the faith alive. We wish to ask the missionaries to work for the future of the county, helping us to form our young people”.
“Besides formation of the clergy - Bishop Modico-Nzockena continues -another priority is to form lay adults in the faith. Another major concern is to form young people who will take the country in hand in the near future”.
With regard to interreligious dialogue the president of the Bishops of Gabon “the Catholic Church has good relations with Protestant Christians and Muslims; for example on the occasion of the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, the Gabonese delegation sent to Rome included the president of the Evangelical community and the president of the central Mosque in Libreville. Evangelical Christians and Muslims frequently take part in our celebrations. However in the country there are also certain religious sects with which dialogue is impossible”.
Bishop Modico-Nzockena said he was confident about the future of Gabon, including the economy: “One day the main resource today, the country's oil, will run dry. But there are other resources, Gabon is rich in manganese, timber and iron yet to be exploited. But I would say again the real potential of our nation, including the economic potential, are our young people: they are Gabon's future”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 26/10/2007 righe 36 parole 472)
