AFRICA/IVORY COAST - The National Director of the PMS: "The nation needs peace, solidarity and fraternity"

Abidjan (Agenzia Fides) - There are still many knots to be resolved on the socio-political situation in the Ivory Coast, which still remains tense after the presidential vote on 31 October. This is what Father Jean Noël Gossou, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) of the Ivory Coast told Agenzia Fides: "We believe that the situation is really worrying given the experiences already lived. Faced with this state of affairs, the Bishops of the Ivory Coast have wholeheartedly invited for peace. At the end of the plenary assembly in January 2020 they wrote a prophetic letter entitled: 'Let's avoid another war'. The bishops' appeal is a wake-up call to prevent our country from re-entering another crisis. We are praying - he concludes - for this message to be heard by all political leaders and all people of good will who care about the fate of Ivorian society".
Father Gossou refers to the growing role of the laity and talks about the most important challenges for the Ivorian Church: "In the current context of the coronavirus pandemic - explains the national director to Fides - and in the post-electoral tension phase, all the people of the Ivory Coast are called to show solidarity and fraternity. In fact, as Pope Francis says, we find ourselves 'on a boat tossed about by contrary winds and the waves of the stormy sea'. Only the impulse of solidarity and fraternity can lead us towards salvation. It is precisely in the logic of this wave of fraternity that the PMS of the Ivory Coast are working to raise awareness among Christians. Our missionary animation - he points out - wants to awaken consciences and accompany the Christian people in the Ivory Coast to a life of greater fraternity, announcing God's mercy and infinite love" .
The Director concludes: "Being Christians in the Ivory Coast today is a radical and decisive call to follow the apostles and martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the image of Christ. Each of us is invited to give his life for the salvation of his neighbor".
On the future of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the country, Fr. Gossou stresses the need to sensitize Christians "to give their heart and the means to support missionary animation through the PMS". (ES) (Agenzia Fides, 28/11/2020)

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civil society

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politics

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elections

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fraternity

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peace

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