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Africa: Pope Urges African Churches to Revise Evangelization
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Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Bagamoyo
The Catholic Church in Africa should find new and effective ways of presenting the gospel and preserving the great cultural values of the continent, Pope Benedict has said.
In a message to African bishops and experts gathered here for a key conference, Benedict pointed out that evangelizing the cultures and inculturating the Gospel "is an old yet ever new mission" of the Church.
He urged the participants to find "new and effective ways to present the immutable truth of the Gospel and, especially, the values of the joy of life and of respect for the unborn child, the important role of the family, and a profound sense of communion and solidarity which are present in African cultures".
The 4-day conference, which opened Wednesday, is an initiative of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Its theme is, 'Pastoral Prospects for the New Evangelisation in the Context of Globalisation and its Effects on African Cultures'.
Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, opened the function. Fr Bernard Ardura, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, read the pope's message.
The president of the Council, Archbishop Giancarlo Ravasi, was scheduled to deliver the opening address but was unable to attend.
Among the challenges facing the continent, according to Archbishop Ravasi, are "oblivion to the common good, social behaviour guided by the logic of the market, the destruction of models of life transmitted by family, school and parish, and the exaltation of individualism".
The poorest countries are most exposed to the dangers of a poorly-understood globalisation which leads to "the destruction of the values handed down by ancestral cultural traditions, the undermining of consciences, and the cultural uprooting of entire generations which are drawn into a spiral that leads to poverty and misery".
Yet, the archbishop said, in a context of globalised secularisation the Church has the chance to make "Christian humanism" flower, "re-proposing the great moral values" and proclaiming "the Word of God, which is capable of making deserts of indifference and superficiality bear fruit".
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The conference, which ends Saturday, is being held at the Catholic Cultural Centre Bagamoyo, run by the Spiritan Fathers. The participants include African members and consulters of the Pontifical Council for Culture and bishops in charge of culture in national Episcopal conferences.
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