Catholic Spiritual Enlightenment Today

ZE09100703 - 2009-10-07
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-27093?l=english
Interventions From Synod's 4th Congregation

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here are the English-language summaries provided by the Vatican press office of the interventions given Tuesday afternoon at the Fourth General Congregation of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.

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H. Exc. Mons. François Xavier MAROY RUSENGO, Archbishop of Bukavu (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)

Starting with the damage caused by wars and violence in the East of our country, the Dem. Rep of Congo, and especially in our archdiocese of Bukavu, we estimate that reconciliation can no longer be limited solely to the harmonization of interpersonal relations. It must unavoidably take into consideration the deep causes of the crisis in relations, located on the level of the country’s interests and natural resources to be exploited and managed for everyone’s good, transparently and with equanimity. Because the causes for the violence in the East of the DR of Congo are essentially its natural resources.

To this effect, we recall the work that the commission Justice and Peace is doing to break down in the archdiocese of Bukavu so that reconciliation may be achieved through community reconstruction.

The objective is to help people reconcile themselves with their history and to commit to building a new future.

Special attention is given to the young persons. For them, we propose recreational and cultural activities able to favor reconciliation at their level, thanks to the intervention of each and every one of them in the construction of their living areas.

This approach is understood as a response to the often forgotten community traumas so as to make people responsible and actors in a positive change. It needs the reinforcement of education at the base and organization of the populations in view of a better community charge. It also requires placement of the spaces and frameworks of exchange and dialogue for the effective participation of the population in the management of the wealth to be used for the reconstruction, to the development of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.

While we speak during these meetings, the pastoral agents in our archdiocese are worried about the enemies of peace. One of the parishes of our archdiocese was burnt down on Friday 2 October 2009, the priests were attacked, others taken hostage by uniformed men who demanded a very high ransom which we were forced to pay to save the lives of our priests that they threatened to massacre. Through these acts, it is the Church, remaining the only support for a terrorized, humiliated, exploited, dominated people, whom they would reduce to silence. Lord, may your will be done, may your kingdom of peace arrive (cf. Mt 10:6).

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H. Em. Card. Walter KASPER, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity (VATICAN CITY)

While there has been, thanks to God, a rapid growth of the Church in Africa, there is sadly also an increasingly deeper fragmentation among Christians. Although this situation is not unique to Africa, it is too easy to assume that these divisions are historically entrenched through the legacy of the divided Christianity that Africa received, there are today also many new divisions in Africa itself when we think on the more recent Charismatic and Pentecostal communities, the so called Independent churches and the sects. Their growth worldwide is extensive, and their vitality on the African continent is reflected in the growth of the African Independent Churches, which have now formed an official institution, the OAIC, based in Nairobi. A certain level of dialogue is currently undertaken through the Global Christian Forum, which recently met in Nairobi.

On other levels a serious dialogue with these groups is not easy if not in many cases totally impossible because of their aggressive behaviour and -- to say the least -- their low theological standard. We have to face the urgent challenge by a self-critical attitude. For it is not enough to tell, what is wrong with them, we have to ask what is wrong or what is deficient with our own pastoral work? Why so many Christians leave our Church? What they are missing with us and searching elsewhere? The PCPCU tried to provide some help by two symposiums for bishops and theologians, one held in Nairobi and one in Dakar. We are ready to help also in the future. In this context I want to mention only two important points: Ecumenical catechetical formation and building up of small Christian communities within our parishes.

Let me now come to some of the many other challenges and tasks:

1. We look now back to almost fifty years of ecumenical dialogue. Significant ecumenical progress has been made since the Second Vatican Council, but the path to full ecclesial communion remains probably still long and arduous due to the difficulties which remain in our theological dialogues. Now appropriate steps are required to engage together with our ecumenical partners in a process of reception of the fruits of the dialogues. The commitment of the Church on the universal level must be translated and received in the local churches. This has to happen in catechesis and in theological formation, on the diocesan and on the parochial levels.

2. While traditionally the Catholic Church in Africa has maintained ongoing dialogue with the historical and nowadays also with more recent Protestant traditions, the recent rapid spread of Orthodoxy across the continent makes it essential for the Catholic Church in Africa to engage also in positive dialogue and relationships also with our Orthodox brothers and sisters.

3. The Catholic Church in Africa must give impetus to ecumenical relations with the Evangelical, Charismatic and the Pentecostal movements on the African continent also because of the relevance of their indigenous expressions and their affinity with the traditional African cultural worldview. Such an ecumenical engagement calls for inspired fidelity to the Church's principles on ecumenism on the one hand (UR, 2-4), and a specific understanding of African cultural expressions on the other. Dialogue and the pursuit of unity must therefore take seriously the context of African cultural roots. Indeed, the roots of different trees standing apart in the neighbourhood will intertwine, even as they remain distinct in their struggle to access the same life-giving sources of soil and water. This intertwining is emblematic of ecumenical rapprochement, linked to the whole question of Inkulturation and contextual relevance.

4. Our search for unity in truth and love must never lose sight of the understanding that Church unity is the work and gift of God's Holy Spirit, and goes well beyond our own efforts. Therefore spiritual ecumenism, especially prayer is the very heart of ecumenical commitment (UR, 8). Yet ecumenism will not bear lasting fruits if it is not accompanied by tangible gestures of conversion, which stir the conscience and foster the healing of memories and relationships. As the Decree on Ecumenism asserts, "There can be no ecumenism worthy of the name without a change of heart [...]" (UR, 7). Such a metanoia (UR, 5-8; UUS, 15f.; 83f.) would bring us closer to God at the centre of our lives, in such a way that we too come closer to one another.
Thus the theme of the Synod offers a challenge to the Church in Africa to sharpen its ecumenical vision and to offer the pursuit of unity to the people of Africa as an authentic treasure of the Gospel. The Catholic Church in Africa is encouraged to continue building bridges of friendship and, through prayerful spiritual ecumenism and the consequent discernment of the will of God, to engage in "the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor 5:18), which has been entrusted to us through Christ. That is the underlying basis of our ecumenical commitment. The renewal of the inner life of our hearts and minds is the crux of all dialogue and reconciliation, making ecumenism a mutual commitment of understanding, respect and love, so that the world may believe.

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H. Exc. Mons. François EID, O.M.M., Bishop of Cairo of Maronite Rite (EGYPT)

In this intervention I speak for myself and refer to numbers 102, 126 and 128, which speak about relations with other religions, while insisting on going from dialogue between Cultures to a Culture of Dialogue, for the formation of future priests in Africa.

An Asian thinker said: “we need not only the knowledge of the other, but also of the other to know ourselves better.” This said, we can point out that the question of Dialogue is posed as the cultural and spiritual problematic “par excellence”, seeing as it is tied, more in the understanding of ourselves than in our attitude towards others.

History teaches us that the source of a Dynamism that renews cultural identities resides in its broad universal openness that draws it to welcome differences and create a continuously enriching osmosis; on the other hand, cultural isolation leads to the loss of identity.

The barometer of a good cultural health of a people or of a community lies in the centrality of the other in the community path. This explains the centrality of Love of the Other in Christianity which makes the Church a Diaconate at the service of man.
Thus, one of the Letters of the Oriental Catholic Patriarchs stated that “the presence of others in our life represents the voice of God and our relation with them is an essential element of our spiritual identity, because of this, we must go beyond conviviality towards a fraternal yet responsible communion.

1. I believe that the formation of future African priests to the one belonging to Our Lord Jesus, Teacher and Model, represents the only alternative to form these priests into instruments of peace and reconciliation. Thus, their mission should not be considered as the place for a competition of personal, family or tribal interests, rather, to the contrary, a place for the encounter between brothers beloved by the Lord and called upon to build together, in Charity, His Kingdom of Peace and Justice.

2. At this point, I see an urgent need for a better Priestly Formation that places, as its priority, the passage from a Dialogue between Cultures to a Culture of Dialogue. This mission will make the future African priests the Messengers of the Gospel of peace, for a New Africa, where Spiritual and Human solidarity moves, each and everyone, to carry their difficulties, suffering, hopes and challenges of the Other, who is our brother before God. Thus we move:

From marginalization to welcoming,From rejection to acceptance,
From rivalry to fraternity.

The Culture of Dialogue echoes what Saint Augustine said: “ET IN OMNIA CARITAS”.

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H. Exc. Mons. Simon NTAMWANA, Archbishop of Gitega, President of the Association of Episcopal Conferences for Central Africa (A.E.C.C.A.) (BURUNDI)

Several categories and groups, in our lower region, suffer under the weight of various evils which have just been mentioned. Families are disrupted, destabilized, impoverished. Some do not even have their own homes to live in, nor land to cultivate in order to survive, nor the means to educate their children, nor anything with which to tend to their healthcare needs, etc. Added to these types of lacking, there are phenomena such as the rape of women, the recruitment of children into armed groups, etc. If the responsibility for this situation is shared by all the elements of society, some among them are more responsible than others. We think in particular of the leading political class. In fact, one deplores, among other facts, that political men use ethnic fractures to gain and to maintain power. Some of them consider their position uniquely as a source of personal enrichment, or even that of their families and friends, thus allowing vote-seeking and tribalism to triumph over authentic values, thus seriously compromising social peace.

In this evolution, the Church has played a role, through her messages and exhortations, but also with her witness of fraternity across borders and barriers generated by armed conflicts and wars. Some of our brothers in the Episcopate even had to manage National Sovereign Conferences to ensure mediation between different elements in their countries. In addition, our “Justice and Peace” commissions were involved, in certain countries, in the preparation of elections, providing a civic and electoral education. The Caritas-Development Commissions, in these situations of war, have helped thousands of vulnerable people.

However, not only does spiritual poverty need to be healed, but the generalized impoverishment and unrestricted pauperization of ou r people must be resolved in appropriate. Indeed, it is because these populations are poor or impoverished, that they have become vulnerable. Those well off manipulate them as pleases them; and certain fishermen in troubled waters use ethnic fractures, for example, to divide peoples, in order to continue to enrich themselves in situations of conflict, where people cannot claim their rights.

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H. Exc. Mons. Martin MUNYANYI, Bishop of Gweru (ZIMBABWE)

The Church in Zimbabwe appreciates very much that the Instrumentum laboris dealt with issues which are of great concern in our country, such as poverty, violence, lack of recognition of women, children and minority groups and also issues of injustice in Church such as working conditions of Church employees.

Zimbabwe had very difficult and inhuman socio-political experiences traceable from the pre-colonial, the colonial and post-colonial eras which need to be dealt with urgently. It will be a mistake, in quest for lasting reconciliation, to simply ask people to forget the past.

Reconciliation is needed not only in the nation at large but also in the Church, for we see simmering tension in some of our parishes due to language and ethnic differences.

In Africa, when we talk of justice we certainly talk of affected parties including their families. Communities need to sit together and discuss their problems in a palaver scenario. And retributive and restorative justice should be established before the death of either party in a case.

Issues of justice in the Church are obvious in not paying our workers enough that constitutes a just wage and in the misuse of Church resources by priests at the expense of the communities. Some Church practices tend to have a bias against the girl child. For example, the girl is punished while the boy is not.

As a local Church, we have set up structures such as Commission for Justice and Peace to address negative historical aspects of our experience.

The whole undertaking should start somewhere like in the family as Pope Benedict XVI rightly stated: "The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace... because it enables its members in decisive ways to experience peace."

In the process Pope John Paul II's words should be taken seriously, namely, "No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness." This is the kingdom justice advocated in the Instrumentum laboris which sums up the Gospel message of reconciliation, justice and peace.

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H. Exc. Mons. Daniel MIZONZO, Bishop of Nkayi (REPUBLIC OF CONGO)

It would seem that the objective of this Synod is the commitment of all the Actors and Institutions to achieve a true, real and lasting peace in Africa, in other words the advent of the Kingdom of God on this continent. To reach this objective, our primary need consists in the onto-theological search of the Truth.

In fact, in almost all of our countries, in Africa, particularly those that have known or are still at war, we have had ceremonies and gestures of national reconciliation, trials for genocide in the name of justice, symbolic gestures of peace, and other initiatives. But despite all these efforts, true, real and lasting peace, while part of the order of the day, it still does not exist in Africa. Why? Because truth is missing.

“Quid est Veritas?” (Jn 18:38). Pilate’s question is still valid today in Africa. Jesus’ answers are edifying: “I am the Way; I am Truth and Life” (Jn 14:6): “I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37). In the Kingdom of God “Love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss. Truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from heaven.” (Ps 84(85):11-12)

Once again, Saint Paul underlines that Christ “is our peace” (Eph 2:14) because ontologically He is Truth.

We encourage the Institution of International Tribunals (TPI), the Commissions of Truth and Reconciliation for Peace, who did good things in South Africa: because only “the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32) and will give us a true, real, lasting peace. “Africa semper novi”.