portal

congregation

p.m.s.

urban college

urban web site

fides

holy see

HOME ITALIANO ESPAÑOL ENGLISH FRANÇAIS PORTUGUÉS DEUTSCH CHINESE

Gospel Saints Papal Teaching Congregation Pontifical Mission Societies Urban University Mission texts Animation Statistics From the Holy See Testimonies Martyrology Jubilee 2000 Church life Missionaries Religious institutes Movements & Associations Catholic universities Culture History Art Cinema / Photo Radio & tv Music Poetry Health Technology Geography News 360° Dossier In-depth study Interviews Stories Book review Children’s corner		"That the local Churches of Africa, in the midst of the difficult situations of the present moment may feel the urgency of announcing the Gospel coherently and courageously". Pope John Paul II's missionary prayer intention for the month of March 2003 Comment. Comment for Fides Service by Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, Archbishop of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Dar es Salaam (Fides Service) - The difficult situations facing the local Churches of Africa are very many. The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II is asking the universal Church to join him in prayer for the Local Churches of Africa because he realizes, as he himself has said it elsewhere that: "The grave challenges confronting the world at the start of this New Millennium lead us to think that only an intervention from on high... can give reason to hope for a brighter future".(cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae No.40). Unfortunately, most of the time the very task of announcing the Gospel is prevented or rendered almost impossible by the situations themselves. That is why great courage is required to carry out the task of announcing the Gospel coherently . Otherwise there is a great danger for the announcers of the Gospel to either give up the task or do it in such a way as to compromise with the hostile situations so as to minimize their opposition. Yet, such a compromising attitude would water down the whole message of the Gospel and render it totally ineffective. The task of announcing the Gospel in Africa is a very urgent one. The Gospel message is the only solution to the difficult situations which must not be allowed to continue any longer. Otherwise those situations will soon become disastrous and totally desperate. In the light of what 1 have said above, 1 would like to comment on two difficult situations facing the local Churches of Africa. The two situations are among those described in the "Message of the Catholic Bishops of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) at the Conclusion of their 14th Plenary Assembly" held in Dar es Salaam from 14-28July, 2002. In paragraph 8 of the said Message, the AMECEA Bishops say: "We strongly assert that war is the greatest threat to the realization of the Gospel values of justice and Peace... In the war-torn continent of Africa, the urgency of announcing the Gospel Message of peace should be most obvious. Continuing to wage war cannot realize the desired peace. Any continuation of war in Africa succeeds only to accentuate hatred on grounds of tribalism and ethnocentrism. It magnifies the problems of refugees and internally displaced people, and so many others. It is not easy to get across the Gospel message of Peace in Africa because there are so many people both within the continent and outside who are selfishly taking advantage of the situation of wars. Such people will do everything possible to make the wars continue. Only divine grace can touch them and render them open to the Gospel Message of peace and refrain from treating the messengers of the Gospel as enemies of their profiteering treating Another difficult situation is thus expressed by the AMECEA Bishops, We are disturbed by the ever increasing abject poverty in the Region (paragraph13). Speaking to the New Ambassador from Gabon to the Vatican on 10th October 2002 the Holy Father also lamented on poverty in Africa. He then urged the legitimate authorities of these countries to pursue the fight against al forms, of poverty that ruin the hopes of individuals and peoples, thus fueling violence and extremism of every kind." From the words of the Holy Father, it is obvious that the fight against poverty in Africa is a most urgent task. We cannot sit back and see the hopes o ever more people in Africa getting ruined and thus fuel greater violence already devastating the continent so much. When we speak about poverty in Africa we often tend to think that this situation applies to every single individual on the Continent. The matter of fact, however ,is that there are some individuals or groups of people in Africa who are so rich as to be able to compare them with the rich people of the Western World. These few rich people on the African Continent turn out to be the greatest opponents of whatever effort to fight against poverty. Anyone, therefore, trying to announce the Gospel of equitable distribution of material goods must be prepared to face great opposition and even hostility from those who are already rich. Conclusion; There are many more points that might be brought up to describe the difficult situations being faced by the local Churches of Africa at the present moment. However, the two points given above should suffice to indicate the pertinence of the Holy Father's prayer intention for the Month of March 2003 as given above. (Fides Service 27/2/2003 EM lines 50 Words: 809)

Palazzo "de Propaganda Fide" - 00120 - Città del Vaticano Tel. +39-06-69880115 - Fax. +39-06-69880107 - e-mail: fides@fides.va © AGENZIA FIDES