Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)
21 November 2008
Liverpool — About 40 participants, representatives of the Catholic Church in Africa and Europe, are meeting in Liverpool for a conference on migration.
Nine African prelates, representing the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), are attending the 5-day conference. It opened on Thursday and closes on Sunday.
The conference theme is migration as a new point of evangelisation and solidarity. The event aims to promote understanding and co-operation between the Church in Africa and Europe.
The SECAM delegates to the conference are bishops Jaca Antonio Francio of Caxito (Angola), René-Marie Ehuzu of Porto Novo (Benin), Zithulele Patrick Mvemve of Klerksdorp (South-Africa) and Alfred Leonhard Maluma of Njombe (Tanzania).
The others are archbishops Simon Ntamwana of Gitega (Burundi), Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle of Accra (Ghana), Fulgence Rabemahafaly of Fianarantsoa (Madagascar), John Onaiyekan of Abuja (Nigeria) and Cardinal Théodore-Adrien Sarr of Dakar (Senegal).
During their stay in Liverpool, the church leaders will spend time with asylum seekers and people who have recently settled in the city. Opening the conference on Thursday night, Archbishop Patrick Kelly of Liverpool said that it was particularly fitting that the conference was taking place there because of the city's role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
"Our story has had its dark days, so this is a significant movement which allows us to take hold of our history in humility and truth to go forward and find new ways of reconciliation," the archbishop said.
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, said that the conference was a way of highlighting that Africa has a great deal to offer to the world. "All attention is fixed on Africa," he said. "Economically, a lot of investment has come into Africa, intellectually the African brain is yet to be capped (but with) football and music we are there." He added that now was the time to "wake up to what the wealth of migration can be."
Archbishop Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria, who preached the homily at evening prayer in Liverpool's Metropolitan Cathedral, broadcast live by the BBC, said that: "We live in a world characterised by many international summits and high level meetings of world leaders. Our gathering here in Liverpool of Catholic bishops from Europe and Africa may seem like one more of such meetings, full of words and little action.
"The topic of our concern, migration and human mobility, has been the subject of many international meetings. If we are ready to commit our meagre resources to yet another meeting, it is because we believe that the Church, in both Europe and Africa, has a valid and valuable contribution to make."
Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said the Church was in a unique position to develop solutions. "What can we bring as Church? Let's look to the Credo: 'I believe in one, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.' If we follow this approach, I believe we can find some ways forward."
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