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Zambia: Message of Amecea Bishops' Plenary Assembly
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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
DOCUMENT
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 10 July 2008
Lusaka
Full text of a statement issued at the end of the AMECEA 16th Plenary Assembly of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA), held here from June 27 to July 7:
"You are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world.." Matthew 5:13:14
1. Greetings
To our dear catholic faithful and all people of good will. We, the catholic Bishops of AMECEA Region (Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and the affiliated members of Djibouti and Somalia) greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be with you!
Concerned with the situation in our region, namely, the Darfur region and Southern Sudan, the conflict in Northern Uganda, the unprecedented crisis following the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2007 in Kenya, the recent tensions between Djibouti and Eritrea, the continuous crisis I Somalia, the political impasse in Malawi and the tensions existing between Eritrea and Ethiopia, we, the bishops meeting in Lusaka for the 16the plenary assembly from June 27 to July 7 2008, prayed together and discussed our present day circumstances in the region under the theme: "reconciliation through justice and peace", in view of offering pastoral guidance3 to God's people whom we are privileged to shepherd.
Although not in AMECEA region, we are greatly concerned with the crisis in Zimbabwe. Our hearts go out to the people of Zimbabwe who are facing hard times. We remain united with them in our prayers.
2. Evangelisation
We realize the challenges the Church in the AMECEA region is facing in its evangelizing mission. This is especially in bringing about reconciliation through justice and peace. The church does not have all the means to solve conflicts and tensions. However, we believe that in the midst of violent contexts referred to above, the church should continue to be prophetic, that is, an agent of justice forgiveness and reconciliation. As a prophetic voice the church will be vigilant, outspoken, informed by gospel values and the social teaching of the church. We challenge our theologians to develop a theology of truth and reconciliation that will enable the church to address and foster reconciliation through justice and peace.
3. Reconciliation from the heart
As shepherd, we believe reconciliation should be at the center of what the church does and should start from the heart of each person. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus set out his plan of action found in Luke 4: 18-19 which reads:
"The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor. He sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
As Christians we are all called upon to announce the Good News of Christ and denounce injustice wherever we are.
4. Mechanics for monitoring and evaluation of church performance
The Catholic Church in the AMECEA region acknowledges the ever changing socio-economic and political world. We therefore call upon catholic institutions in AMECEA region to develop workable strategies and mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of our pastoral programmes.
We also call upon our catholic lay professionals laity to rise to the occasion and live their Christian identity and witness in society. We call upon them to provide competent analytical data in order to help the church make informed and timely interventions.
5. Entrenchment of poverty in Africa
The gap between the rich and the poor is ever increasing. There are several factors that lead to high poverty levels in the countries of AMECEA. While we acknowledge the external factors such as unfair trade pacts with western and emerging Asian economies we also recognize local causes of this such as misplaced priorities, inequitable distribution of resources, bad governance, corruption and conflicts and scourge of HIV and AIDS.
We take note of and appreciate the efforts of some of our government that uphold the rule of law and principles of good governance. We further commend those governments that have resolved their conflicts through peaceful reconciliation.
6. Advocacy
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Having deliberated on the need to accompany our parliamentary representatives in AMECEA region, we encourage our National conferences, where this is not yet done, to establish parliamentary liaison offices. These offices will be a means for permanent and constant dialogue between the church and parliamentarians, and will reduce the representational gaps and let the church contribute positively on constitutional and legislative issues.
Who participated in this so called pastoral meeting/conference anyways. It is laughable such evil bishops who are not ashamed to rape young boys pretend and print press release proclaiming they are shepherds. Whose shepherds? You know what... it is written "Evert sin except one that is committed in his name is forgivable" and I wonder how our "shepherds" fail to note that and lie to themselves.
If they were indeed real bishops, they would say what has to be said (the truth) in clear terms. Instead of quoting Bush's words and say Somalia Crises, they would say Ethiopia's (with the... [Read Full Text]
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