VATICAN - The Pope addresses members of the post-synodal Council for the Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops: the new chains binding the continent must be broken “a joint effort must be made by all the forces of society, and especially those of the Church already at work with interventions at every level with abnegation and dedication ”.

Vatican City (Fides Service) - “I called the first Special Assembly the "Synod of resurrection and hope" (Ecclesia in Africa, 13) and it was true because already, here and there, we see the first signs of this new blooming. Nevertheless there appears to be neither pause nor lasting peace for this continent.” Pope John Paul II said this on June 15 when he received in audience participants at the meeting of the Post-Synodal Council of the Special Assembly for Bishops for Africa of the General Secretariat of Synod of Bishops.
“Besides international conflicts, endemic seedbeds of strife sow terror and devastation among these peoples who ask only to live in serenity finally re-discovered. In addition to this, other scourges strike Africa and Africans: poverty, deriving from an impaired economy as well as from difficult conditions in sectors of education and healthcare. In this regard, how can we fail to mention the social drama of AIDS; insecurity due to conflicts in course or latent and, lastly, corruption still present at too many levels of civil society? This closes the vicious circle which causes this young body full of vigour to develop gangrene.”
The Pope underlined that “to break these new chains a joint effort must be made by all the forces of society and especially those of the Church already at work with interventions at every level with abnegation and dedication”. The universal Church has already reminded world leaders of the five priorities for restoring to Africans that of which they have been robbed often with violence: respect for life and religious differences, elimination of poverty, the end of arms trafficking, the solution of conflicts and action for development motivated by solidarity.
The Special Synod for Africa highlighted the family dimension of the Church, insisting on the notion of Church-Family-of-God and in this framework of the ‘family’, the Holy Father stressed “the necessity of authentic fraternal reconciliation after the wounds inflicted by conflicts which continue to poison relations, inter-personal, inter-ethnic, and inter-in various regions of Africa.”
“Is it not time, as called for by many African Bishops, to deepen this African synodal experience? The exceptional growth of the Church Africa, the rapid changing of Bishops, the new challenges facing the continent demand answers which only the continuation of the effort required to implement Ecclesia in Africa can offer, giving thus new vigour and stronger hope to this continent in difficulty.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/6/2004 - Righe 31; Parole 416)