AFRICA/DR CONGO - The death of Cardinal Monsengwo: the Apostle of pastoral care in the political world

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) - "We mourn Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who was and will forever remain a prophetic force for the Church in Africa, especially in the political commitment for the triumph of justice, truth and peace", writes to Fides Fr. Donald Zagore, priest of the Society for African Missions, on the death of the Archbishop Emeritus of Kinshasa on Sunday, July 11 in Versailles, France. The Cardinal had been ill for some time and had been hospitalized for a few days. "With figures like Tchibango, Archbishop Joseph Albert Malula, venerated as one of the founding fathers of African Churches, especially that of Kinshasa, and now Monsengwo, it cannot be said that the Church in Africa did not have great prophets. The Congo in fact - explains the Ivorian theologian - can be considered not only the ecological lung of Africa, but also its spiritual lung for the prophets it has given to the local Church". Cardinal Malula is considered the African apostle of inculturation. "His great desire was to have a Congolese Church in a Congolese State. Seeing Christ incarnate, alive in the Congolese reality was the driving force behind his pastoral action. A fight he fought until the end of his life". As Malula did with inculturation, Cardinal Monsengwo opened for African man in general and for the Church in Africa, a fundamental pastoral field with his political struggle. The Cardinal is in fact considered to be the apostle of pastoral care in the political world. "Monsengwo immediately understood that the political sphere cannot be foreign to the Church - concludes Fr. Zagore -. Salvation is a complete reality and must be extended to all spheres of African society, especially to areas where there is greater suffering". (DZ/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 13/7/2021)


Share: