EUROPE/AFRICA - The Church in Togo wants to make the nation’s difficult situation known to public opinion, it calls for help for the people in danger of losing courage: final Message issued after Meeting between Italian missionaries and local Church in Togo

Lome (Fides Service) - “The Church in Togo would like to make a gift to the Church in Italy of its festive liturgy, the vitality of its communities which strive to become self supporting, the valorisation of the laity, the ability to be patient in a situation of unemployment, poverty, disease … placing all hope in God the Father who never abandons his children. The Church in Togo asks for even more than a gesture of solidarity: for public opinion to be made aware of the situation of impasse Togo is living; help for local communities to build enough churches; help to enable the local Church to use the media as a channel of expression to counter the situation of misinformation, the lure of alienating philosophic movements and the mirage of technological progress which corrodes traditional values”.
This is part of a final message drafted by participants at a meeting promoted jointly by the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Togo and Italy and held 6-9 June at Leo XIII Spirituality Centre at Agoenyive (Lome), run by the Canossian Sisters Daughters of Charity. The meeting is the latest in a series organised by the Italian Bishops’ Office for Missionary Co-operation with various local Churches in recent years in Albania, Lebanon, Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Senegal, Kenya, Guinea Bissau, D. Congo, and Peru.
At the Togo meeting, attended by 34 Italian missionaries working in the country, gratitude was expressed to what has been done to help Togolese priests and religious study in Italy and those who have been welcomed by Institutes founded in Italy.
As the message recalls during the meeting a priest who teaches at the major seminary and the Archbishop of the capital Mgr Philippe Fanoko Kpodzro “helped the participants to appreciate the present situation in Togo” following death of president Gnassingbe Eyadema 5 February 2005 after 38 years of power. And the ensuing tension when awaited change did not come and 850 people were killed and 30,000 fled their homes. Now the political situation has stalled, with regard to its economy the country appears to be at the mercy of everyone and everything, life expectancy is no more than 47/48 years, roads are practically non existent and communications are tools of propaganda and misinformation, public order is in the hands of the army.
This difficult situation commits the Church to encourage “the hope of the people close to discouragement and desperation”. The young Church in Togo (first mass celebrated by Divine Word missionaries on the beach in 28 August1892), today has 7 dioceses, more than 400 local priests, numerous local men and women religious as well as no small number of foreign missionaries. The participants at the meeting stressed the need to strive for more inculturated evangelisation “to work for the common good, defend the freedom of the poor and promote the truth, peace and justice. Poverty and the present time of anxiety should help to strengthen the religious and spiritual life of individuals and communities, make prayer more intense and the clergy closer to the people.” Missionaries are asked to continue their efforts to help the local Church grow and to engage in dialogue with traditional African Religions and with Islam. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/6/2005 - Righe 41; Parole 576)