Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Natitingou (Agenzia Fides) - Children are the centre of a reflection on Advent in a Pastoral Letter “Christmas: popular religiosity and the future of our children”, issued by Bishop Pascal N’Koué of the diocese of Natitingou, in Benin. The Bishop, who sent a copy of the Letter to Fides, says Advent is an opportune time to “strengthen family bonds with the power of the Prince of Peace. How wonderful it would be if this month were to become the time for small and great reconciliations in our families, our religious and parish communities. With the help of the Holy Family, it is possible” he writes.
To encourage reconciliation Bishop N’Koué suggests helping Holy Childhood children organise themselves in an ‘itinerant Nativity Scene to go from house to house to prepare the coming of the Lord in every family. Would this not be a good means of urging people to pray for the salvation of humanity?”.
The Bishop continues “On Christmas Eve before the Mass why not organise a Christmas play, a living Nativity Scene?” and he launches an appeal “let us open our hearts to children. Let us love them. We have many children in our villages, our classrooms, our movements of apostolate, our children’s homes and orphanages. But there are many, many more whom we never reach perhaps because their parents are extremely poor or even dead”. To help children in difficulty the Bishop calls for more sobriety and more attention for the rights of children: “Less alcohol at home and at the bar; Less expenses for the dead; Less waste at holiday time; Parents must stop sending children to earn money as servants in rich families or entrusting them away to unreliable guardians”.
The scourge of trafficking of children is widespread in Benin, Fides learns from Claude, a missionary who runs a home for street children in Cotonou, capital of Benin. Claude tells us that every year at least 4,000 children are sent to work in another country. He says Benin is a crossroads for trafficking in minors, a transmit point for children from Togo being sent to work in plantations in Cote d’Ivoire or Nigeria”.
To offer children in his diocese a better future, Bishop N’Koué intends to open more “Catholic schools to provide good quality human and Christian education. Every parish must have its own school for day pupils and for boarders. Handing on the faith to little ones, putting Jesus Christ in hearts at an early age, what a secure future for society! In no time we would transform our arid land in fertile fields, our desolate surroundings in green planes. If we really want to change our country we must work on the human resources and provide them with suitable means. We have ‘prime materials’ in abundance: our children and our young people”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 5/12/2006 righe 40 parole 510)
