Bringing the Africa Synod Home

Bishops, Caritas Consider How to Implement ’09 Resolve

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ROME, MAY 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The World Synod of Bishops special assembly for Africa concluded last October with 57 propositions. A meeting next week in Africa is to focus on ensuring the implementation of those goals.

Caritas-Africa and the Justice and Peace Department of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) are organizing a post-synodal consultation, which will be held May 23-26 in Mozambique.

“It is expected that the consultation will promote collaboration and synergy between various Church structures in Africa, in particular Caritas organizations and Justice and Peace Commissions, for a stronger and effective contribution of the Church in addressing some of the challenges identified by the synod fathers, and hence help build a continent that is reconciled with itself and with the rest of the world,” said SECAM second vice president, Bishop Francisco Silota of Chimoio, Mozambique, and Caritas-Africa President, Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga of Kampala, Uganda, in their letter of invitation to participants.

Ghana-native Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, will be the main contributor at the conference. The cardinal, who was appointed to the Roman Curia just at the end of last year’s synod, will speak on the synod as a “new Pentecost for Africa.”

Organizers are expecting 135 participants, including three cardinals and 45 bishops. The president of SECAM, Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and the secretary-general of Caritas, Lesley-Anne Knight, will also attend.

Jacques Dinan, executive secretary of Caritas-Africa, affirmed that “our greatest desire is that the 57 propositions made by the synod fathers in October of 2009, be translated into a realistic and concrete plan for the forthcoming years in order to support the process of reconciliation, promote justice and back the building of peace, essential steps in the struggle against poverty.”

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