Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port Harcourt (Agenzia Fides) - While the Church has contributed immensely to human development and nation-building through theological education, evident in the establishment of schools, seminaries, special institutes for theological studies, vocational institutes; centers of religious formation for lay people and chaplaincy services, there are still gaps in the development. This is according to a statement from the Catholic Institute of West Africa.
“This is substantiated by the fact that the continent is still plagued by indices of underdevelopment such as ignorance, poverty, institutional corruption, unjust inter-personal relationships, massive unemployment and a teeming population of unemployable people and the different shades of neo-colonialism. These challenges are partly the effects of the inadequacies of theological education,” the statement affirms.
Recalling the words of John Paul II who called the family “the first and fundamental school of social living” (Familiaris Consortio, 37), the theologians reiterated that the family is the most important social unit in human development where effective training or education begins.
The Catholic Institute of West Africa recognized the efforts and sacrifices made by parents in the upbringing of their children and called for more sustained efforts in making the family a domestic school where God is experienced, where the sense of fairness and justice is taught, where respect for the human person is imparted and where honesty and hard work are lived out.
The scholars challenged African theologians to develop new theological methodologies and language best suited for addressing anew the complex realities of our multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious contexts. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 26/4/2010)
