AFRICA/DEMOCRATIC CONGO - FIRST PASTORAL VISIT BY CARDINAL CRESCENZIO SEPE: THE CHURCH IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO BEGS NOT TO BE FORGOTTEN

Friday, 18 July 2003

Vatican City (Fides Service) – From 7 – 13 July Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, made his first pastoral visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo during which he had meetings with the bishops, university students and teachers, religious men and women and lay Catholics. In an article published today 18 July in the Osservatore Romano, Father Gianfrance Grieco reports on the visit by the Missionary Prefect to assist and support the local Church at this crucial moment in the life of the country. Here are excerpts from the article which was in Italian.
The Cardinal had a very positive impression: < I met a dynamic, committed, mature Church which grows ever day, well organised, inserted and part of the social reality of this country. It is the only driving force also in the social field.>……The Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes one of the major Bishops’ Conferences in Africa…
At the Inter-diocesan Centre in Kinshasa the Cardinal Prefect met all the Bishops gathered in assembly. In his intervention Cardinal Sepe focused on the theme of the 2003 Plenary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples (Formation in Mission Territories) to reaffirm the urgency of the formation of future priests; the necessity of on-going formation; communion in particular Churches; formation of the laity; lay ministries…
Significant and highly constructive was the meeting with the academic authorities and the students of Kinshasa’s Catholic University which has 5 faculties…the meeting was very evocative – Cardinal Sepe said – and in his speech he spoke about the in the context of a history and a culture which need to be by the Gospel and by the testimony of the sons and daughters of the Church.
Holiness, vocation to religious life and missionary spirit: these were the main points of a consignment that the Cardinal Prefect placed in the hearts of those who profess the evangelical councils and have decided to follow Christ, poor, obedient and chaste…
Visit and blessing of a Social Centre for “children with different abilities” desired and achieved by Cardinal Etsou; solemn Eucharistic Concelebration with the priests of the Kisangani province; a meeting with the priests of Kinshasa archdiocese; Concelebration at the Notre Dame of Peace Marian shrine: these were the most significant events lived and celebrated in the sign of prayer, peace and reconciliation. SL (Fides Service 18/7/2003 EM lines 39 Words: 521)


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