AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - “Get up, pick up your mat, and walk forward. Get up and vote. Get up, take an interest in your country” Southern African Bishops Conference urge people in view of elections next month

Pretoria (Fides Service) - “ Get up, roll up your mats of tiredness and disappointment. Get up and walk forward. Get up and vote. Get up, take an interest in your country.”. This was the call launched by the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference in a Pastoral Letter read out in all churches after Sunday Mass on 28 March, in view of elections in South Africa on 14 April.
. “ This election is another giant step forward on our "long walk to freedom” the Bishops write and they appeal to the youth: “go out and vote. Your voice must be heard in shaping the future. God has helped us gain our liberation - He wants us to continue this journey through the desert until all of us arrive at green pastures.”.
The prelates warn those who will be elected: “You will be elected to serve your people and not to make use of your position to enrich yourselves at the cost of the very people who have elected you and pay your salaries.… In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord we appeal to you: Let the spirit of unselfish service penetrate your hearts and minds."
The Bishops urge leaders of political parties to “listen to each other, do not regard those who have a different opinion as your enemies who should be eliminated. Get up from your mat of a vision restricted to your own party, listen to each other in order to find the way to a better life for all in our country which is tormented by HIV/AIDS, unemployment, poverty and crime.”.
“Only God can help us to become unselfish servants of each other, only He can show us the way to greener pastures, to full and total liberation from new forms of slavery such as corruption, greed, hardness of heart and disrespect for life,” the Bishops conclude. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 29/3/2004, righe 24 parole 276)