AFRICA/RWANDA - CARDINAL SEPE TELLS BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE: “THE COUNTRY NEEDS PEOPLE ABLE TO BUILD PEACE AND NATIONAL UNITY ON THE FOUNDATIONS OF RECONCILIATION, FORGIVENESS AND MUTUAL LOVE”

Wednesday, 28 May 2003

Kigali (Fides Service) – “The wounds inflicted on the human and religious dignity of the Rwandan people are profound and for them to gradually heal, adequate spiritual, moral and psychological assistance is necessary…I thank you for making this indispensable commitment so that the human and spiritual trauma may be replaced by reconciliation and forgiveness”. Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, said this when he addressed the Rwandan Catholic Bishops’ Conference on 29 May in Kigali, during his first pastoral visit to Rwanda where he will remain until 31 May.
After expressing to the Bishops Pope John Paul II’s affectionate greetings (“The people of Rwanda are very dear to his heart, also because of the sad events of genocide in 1994. He accompanies you always with his prayers and apostolic blessing”), Cardinal Sepe said that the situation is returning to normal thanks also to the Church’s efforts to overcome the critical situation: “I hope this process, although still far from completion, may proceed and bear fruit ever more abundant: above all peace, freedom, social harmony among all Rwandans and the development of the country”.
Addressing the Bishops Cardinal Sepe said: “You are the builders of the new Rwandan society since on you depends to a great extent the formation of young people, the elite, Christians leaders able to assume with competence their civil responsibilities to be lived in the light of the Gospel and in faith in God”. The Cardinal then spoke at length of the subject of formation, encouraging the Bishops to develop Catholic schools and to guarantee the formation of seminarians, clergy and religious. “It is fundamental for your Church to have priests who are holy and convinced in their vocation, in their decision!” said the Cardinal stressing the need to give attention to formation “from the very first days at the seminary” and during the entire life of the priest. Lastly the Cardinal encouraged the Bishops “to remain united in collegiality and in communion with the Holy See” to face major and most difficult matters in society. “This same attitude I recommend to your priests and to all the Religious. The country needs serenity to solve its many problems, but above all it needs builders of peace and national unity on the foundations of reconciliation, forgiveness and mutual love” SL (Fides Service 28/5/2003 EM lines 29 Words: 411)


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