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Two important reports were read at the first general congregation of the Synodal assembly for Africa:

- REPORT BY THE GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS, MONS. NIKOLA ETEROVIĆ (VATICAN CITY)
- REPORT BEFORE THE DISCUSSION BY THE GENERAL 'RELATOR', CARDINAL PETER KODWO APPIAH TURKSON, ARCHBISHOP OF CAPE COAST (GHANA)

both of them chock-full of information about the Church in Africa, the work that faces this assembly, and the work that has been done since the first assembly for Africa in 1994.

These reports may be read in English on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b04_02.html#REPORT_BY_THE_GENERAL_SECRETARY_BY_THE_SYNOD_OF_BISHOPS,_HIS_EXC._MOST_REV._MONS._NIKOLA_ETEROVIĆ_(VATIC...


John Allen reports the highlights of Cardinal Turkson's report:


Africa’s dynamism real
but also deceptive,
Cardinal Turkson says

by John L Allen Jr




Cardinal Turkson at the Synodal Assembly, and at a news conference on Monday, Oct. 5.


ROME - African Catholicism’s explosive growth and vitality are real, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana said this morning during the opening session of the second Synod for Africa, but also in a sense deceptive.

Turkson, the relator, or general secretary, of the synod, pointed to four specific challenges:

• The fact that the c\church “hardly exists in large parts north of the equator,” meaning that it’s largely concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa; [But of course! North Africa is Muslim, from Morocco eastward to Egypt, passing through Libya and Algeria!]
• “The fidelity and commitment of some clergy and religious to their vocations,” perhaps a veiled reference to scandals such the one that erupted last May in the Central African Republic, when Archbishop Paulin Pomodimo resigned after a Vatican investigation revealed that several priests were living more or less openly with women and the children they had fathered;
• “The loss of members to new religious movements and sects” – which, in today’s Africa, is likely a reference to the rapid expansion of Christian Pentecostalism – as well as a tendency for young Africans to lose their faith when they relocate to Europe and North America;
• Need for “a conversion that is deep and permanent.”

Speaking in English, Turkson delivered the relatio ante disceptationem, or “report before the discussion,” intended to set the table for the deliberations to follow. The Synod for Africa will meet Oct. 4-25 in Rome.

In many ways, Africa was the greatest missionary success story for Roman Catholicism in the twentieth century. The Catholic population shot up from 1.9 million in 1900 to almost 165 million today. More than forty percent of the adult baptisms in the world take place in Africa, considered one of the most reliable indicators of missionary success.

All that’s been celebrated for some time, but Turkson said this morning that there are other encouraging signs that Catholicism is maturing and taking root on the continent.

Among other things, he said that Africans are taking leadership positions within missionary congregations, local churches are aggressively pursuing financial self-reliance, and Catholic institutions such as universities and centers for formation are developing.

Turning to the broader social and political scene, Turkson pointed to several signs of hope in Africa:

• Out of 48 nations in sub-Saharan Africa, only four are presently at war: Somalia, Sudan, Niger and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. “Indeed, there are fewer wars in Africa than in Asia,” Turkson said.
• Public officials responsible for war crimes are being held accountable in international courts, including, Turkson said, Charles Taylor of Liberia.
• Africa represents the second most important emerging market in the world after China, Turkson said, pointing to a recent G8 summit that defined Africa as “a continent of opportunities.” He cited India and China in particular as countries eager to developing economic relationships with Africa.
• African leaders have created a framework for promoting integral development and good governance, in the form of the “New Partnership for Africa’s Development,” or NEPAD.

All that, Turkson argued, suggests that international discussion of Africa should focus not merely on its difficulties, but also its accomplishments.

“The truth is that Africa has been burdened for too long by the media with everything that is loathsome to humankind,” he said. “It is time to shift gears and have the truth about Africa told with love.”

Yet Turkson also described several socio-political challenges facing Africa, which, he suggested, the synod must consider. They included:

• Ethnic conflict;
• Migration of Africans to Europe, America and the Far East, who often end up living in “servile conditions” that Turkson compared to the slave trade;
• Corruption and bad governance;
• The need for economic models emphasizing trade rather than aid;
• Attacks on marriage and the family;
• Drug trafficking and the arms trade;
• The environment and climate change.

“Africa’s emergence should be the work of Africans and be spearheaded by them,” Turkson said. “Hearts must be converted and eyes healed to appreciate new ways of administering public wealth for the common well-being.”

Promoting that aim, Turkson said, amounts to “the remit of the evangelizing mission of the church on the continent and the islands.”

A scripture scholar who holds a doctorate from the prestigious Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Turkson devoted a considerable chunk of his address to exploring the Biblical roots of the concept of reconciliation, which is the synod’s central theme.

Among other things, Turkson asserted that the “spirit of capitalism” isn’t adequate to capture the Biblical sense of justice. Capitalism, Turkson argued, tends to see justice in terms of the fulfillment of contracts, while the Biblical understanding sees justice in terms of “the right order of things and fulfillment of the just demands of relationships.”

As it does each morning, the synod opened today with a brief prayer service. The custom is for the bishops to take turns delivering a brief spiritual meditation, and this morning a special bishop indeed kicked things off: Pope Benedict XVI, who delivered an impromptu reflection in Italian lasting almost twenty minutes.

Seated at the center of the dais in the synod hall, and struggling with a hoarse throat for much of his talk, Benedict XVI told the bishops that while it’s important “to know the empirical reality” of Africa today, that sort of “horizontal analysis” isn’t enough.

“Our first relationship, the foundational relationship, is with God,” Benedict said. “At the bottom of injustice and corruption is a heart that’s not right, that’s closed to God.”

“If our relationship with God isn’t correct, all the rest isn’t correctable,” the pope said. “When we talk about development, we must also talk about this interior development.”

Benedict thus urged the bishops to ensure that their primary concern is to “testify to the goodness of God” and to “evangelize.”

By presenting the “universal and concrete” character of Christian charity, Benedict XVI said, the church in Africa can help the continent overcome its divisions based on “tribe, ethnicity and religion.”

There are 244 bishops taking part in the Synod for Africa, which includes 33 cardinals, 79 archbishops and 156 bishops. Of that number, 197 are Africans, and the rest represent countries that either have important populations of people of African descent, or countries that provide significant assistance to the church in Africa.

All African cardinals, all presidents of African bishops’ conferences, and the heads of the Eastern rite Ethiopian and Coptic churches are all ex-officio members of the synod. The other members were either elected by their bishops’ conference, or appointed directly by the pope.

There are also 29 “experts” and 49 “auditors” – a mixture of both clergy and laity, men and women – as well as six delegates representing other Christian churches.


Allen wrote two other articles yesterday about Turkson,
ncronline.org/blogs/john-l-allen-jr
one as "Africa's next best hope to tbe Pope', and the other on Turkson's press conference at which his remarks on AIDS and condoms were originally misreported in the Italian press.

NB: Andrea Tornielli, in his report on Turkson's press conference, said Turkson had been tapped as a possible successor to Cardinal Raffaele Martino who is retiring soon as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, but Cardinal Turkson told the Pope he would much rather remain in Ghana.

As a result, Cardinal Theodor-Adrien Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar (Senegal), is expected to be named.

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THIRD GENERAL CONGREGATION
TUESDAY, 6 OCTOBER 2009 - MORNING




I cannot say enough to commend the Secretariat of the Bishops' Synod for the efficiency, promptness and comprehensive reporting of the synodal assembly conveninetly posted by language on their webpage
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009_index...


At 9.00 today Tuesday 6 October 2009, in memory of the monk, St. Bruno, in the presence of the Holy Father, with the Hour of Tierce, the Third General Congregation began, to vote on the Commission for the Message and to begin the interventions by the Synodal Fathers in the Hall on the Synodal theme The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace. “You are the salt of the earth ... You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13,14).

The President Delegate, His Eminence Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, OFM, Archbishop of Durban (SOUTH AFRICA) presented His Holiness Abuna Paulus, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church (ETHIOPIA)....

Then His Holiness Abuna PAULUS offered a Reflection, delivered in English:



REFLECTION BY HIS HOLINESS ABUNA PAULUS,
PATRIARCH OF THE ETHIOPIAN TEWAHEDO ORTHODOX CHURCH
Fraternal Delgate to the Synodal Assembly


In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit One God, Amen!

Dear participants of this great congress of Cardinals and Bishops.
I feel honoured and privileged to be invited to this grand Synod and deliver a brief speech about Africa and Churches in this continent.

I am especially grateful to His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, who wanted me among you today and who personally witnessed to me his love for Africa and his respect for the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, during our last fraternal meeting here in Rome last June.

Africa is the second largest continent. It is home to all kinds of people with a great variety of colours who live in harmony and equality.

This spectrum of colours is a gift from God to Africa and it adds beauty to the continent. It is furthermore the proof that Africa is a continent where all kinds of people live in equality regardless of difference in colour and race.

Anthropologists, philosophers, and academicians confirmed that Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular is indeed the cradle of mankind. And the Holy Bible confirms this profound conviction.

History, according to the Ethiopian calendar, starts from Adam and Noah. That is to say that for the Ethiopians the beginning of mankind, our present and our future is marked today and for ever by God and His salvation.

Africa, whose people’s ancient dignity is written in the stones of the Axum obelisk, Egyptian pyramids, of monuments as well as manuscripts, was not only a source of civilization.

According to the Holy Bible, Africa was also a refuge for people who were hit by hunger: this is the case of the Jews at the time of Jacob when they spent seven years in Egypt.

The Holy Bible states that the Jews and the prophet Jeremiah who suffered a lot from the aggression of the Babylonians were saved in Ethiopia and Egypt. People who were living in Middle Eastern parts of the world had been relieved from their hunger in Ethiopia and Egypt.

Jesus Christ Himself and Saint Mary were welcomed in Egypt, while fleeing the cruel threat of Herod. It is clear that Africans do care for humanity!

Africa remains a religious continent whose people have believed in the Almighty God for centuries. Queen Sheba had taught her compatriots about the Old Testament which she learnt from Israel. Since then, The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia, in the city of Axum.

The son of queen Sheba, Manlike I, had followed her example and managed to bring the Ark of the Covenant of Moses to Africa, Ethiopia. The history of the Ethiopian eunuch and the strong, well organized Law of Moses, and the religious practices and cultures in depth that exist in Ethiopia indicate that the Law of Moses used to be practiced in Ethiopia better than that of in Israel. This can still be witnessed by studying the culture and lifestyle of Ethiopians.

It is in Alexandria, Egypt, where the Holy Bible was translated into non-Hebrew languages. These African translations are known as the “Translation of the Seventy Scholars” (‘Sebeka Likawunt’)[known to the Anglophone world as the Septuagint] .

Holy Scripture indicates that like the ancient times in the Old Testament, Africans have the custom of worshiping by the law of conscience in the New Testament period.

The then Ethiopian king of kings, Emperor Bazen, was one of the kings who went to Bethlehem to worship the child Jesus.

The Gospel tells us that it was an African, a man from Libya, named Simon of Cyrene, who took upon himself the Cross of Jesus as He was going to Golgotha.

And behold, an Ethiopian eunuch had come to Jerusalem in 34 AD to worship God in accordance with the Law of Moses. By the order of the Holy Spirit, the eunuch was baptized by Philip.

Upon his return to Africa, the eunuch preached Christianity to his nation. Then Ethiopia became the second nation after Israel to believe in Christ; and the Ethiopian Church became the first Church in Africa.

Great stories of faith have marked the first centuries of Christianity in Africa because Africans have always lived a profound charity and a great devotion in the New Testament.

Africa is the region from where celebrated scholars and religious fathers, such as St. Augustinos, St. Tertulianos, St. Siprianos as well as St. Athanasius and St. Kerlos come from. These fathers are celebrated both in the continent and worldwide.

St. Yared who has composed beautiful Church hymns and whom the world recognizes for his outstanding creativity, was also originally from Africa. St. Yared is a son of Ethiopia. St. Yared’s hymns are among the wonders of the world for which Ethiopia is known to the world. The deeds of all these Fathers characterize Africa.

According to scholars it is in Africa that the first Canon of the Holy Bible was defined. History also reminds us of the martyrdom of Christians in North Africa when, their kind, a non-believer, raised the sword against them in the effort of completely destroy Christianity.

At the same time Christians who were mistreated and persecuted in different parts of the world came to Africa, especially to Ethiopia and have lived in peace in the region.

Devoted Ethiopians have also demonstrated their outstanding hospitality to the nine Saints and other tens of thousands of Christians who were persecuted from Eastern Europe and came to Africa in groups. The residences and the tombs of those persecuted Christians have been kept as sacred shrines in various parts of Ethiopia.

In Africa and in Ethiopia we have pieces of the Holy Cross. The right part of the Cross has been kept in Ethiopia, in a place called Goshen Mountain.

The Cross of Christ was carried also by the Christians of Africa. I am thinking about my Church that recently suffered a hard persecution during the communist dictatorship, with many new martyrs among whom the Patriarch Theophilos, and before him, Abuna Petros, during the colonial period.

I myself, then a bishop, spent long years in jail before being exiled. When I became Patriarch, after the end of communism, there was much to be rebuilt. This has been our work, through the help of God, the prayer of our monks and the generosity of the faithful.

Africa is a potentially wealthy continent, with fertile soil, natural resources, and a variety of plants and animal species. Africa has a suitable climate and possesses several precious minerals. As it has been a continent with many untapped natural resources, many still have their eyes on it.

It is also undeniable that the civilization gains in other parts of the world is the result of labour and resource from Africa.
Africans have done such blessed works for the world. What has the world done for them?

Africa had been badly colonized and its resources have been exploited. The rich nations who developed exploiting African resources remember Africa only when they need something from it. They haven’t supported the continent in its struggle for the development at all.

Each and every nation of the continent has various problems and challenges. The problem could be social, political, economic, as well as spiritual.

While the living standard of the African peoples is lower than that of the rest of the world, there are some reasons why such poor living standards get worse and expand all over the continent.

The lack of access to education is the major problem in which the youth as a result fail to get enough education. No country and people can achieve development and prosperity without education and knowledge.

As we all are well aware, the HIV/AIDS pandemic could not be averted despite relentless efforts. However, we should encourage all those experiences that show us how to heal and resist evil, to give hope by creating synergy and by providing to Africa the same treatments Europe itself has received.

At the same time other kinds of diseases are currently threatening badly. We call the world to work in harmony in this regard. The Council of All African Churches is exerting efforts to curb the problems being occurred in the continent especially the chaos which extremists are creating. Religious leaders of Christianity and the faithful in general should join hands in this endeavour.

Africa is enchained by heavy global debts that both the current generation nor the future ones can bear.

In what way should we condemn the civil war that is usually fought by child soldiers who are also the victims of these tragic violent acts. How to condemn the overt and covert displacement and migration of people?

The International Human Rights Law clearly states that any person under the age of 18 cannot be a member of any fighting group because he is a ‘child’. However, some countries are currently forcing children under 18 into military service. This is a clear violation of human rights. Therefore, it is mandatory for leaders of African Churches to cry out as one voice that these behaviours have to stop at once.

I would like to use the floor to urge all religious leaders to work for peace and protect the natural resources God gave us, and defend the life and innocence of children.

In a significant number of African countries, basic necessities such as food and potable water and shelter couldn’t be realized. Generally speaking, most Africans live in a situation where there is a shortage of most of the basic human necessities and services.

Though Africa declared its freedom from colonialism long ago, there are still many circumstances which make it dependent on the rich countries. The enormous debt, the exploitation of its natural resources by few, the traditional agricultural practice and unsatisfactory introduction of modern agricultural systems, the dependency of its people on rain which impacted negatively in ensuring food security, migration and brain drain of its people greatly affecting the continent.

I am hopeful that as their Graces, the African cardinals and bishops, had discussed this issue previously, today this great synod would discuss the issue and propose possible solutions.

I believe that we, religious leaders and Heads of Churches, have a very unique task and responsibility: to acknowledge and sustain, when we deem it necessary, the suggestions that come from the people, as, on the contrary, to reject them when they contradict the respect and love for Man, that has its roots in the Gospel.

Christians are expected to be messengers of change in bringing justice, peace, reconciliation and development. It is what I saw pursued with determination and humility by the Community of Sant’Egidio in all of Africa: fruits of peace and healing are possible, and they undermine all forms of violence, with the strength and the Christian intelligence of love.

African religious leaders not only have to worry about the social works but also answer to the great spiritual needs of the women and men of Africa.

Apostleship and social works cannot be treated separately. Social work is the meaning of apostleship. Every word has to be translated in practice. Hence, after every word and promise, practical actions need to follow.

Religious fathers are also expected to enhance the awareness of the public to honour human right, peace and justice. Society needs the teachings of their religious fathers in a bid to help them solve their problems in unity and to free themselves from being the target of a problem.

Thus leaders of African Churches, with the power of the Almighty God and the Holy Spirit, need to voice the language of the Church. It is also necessary to realize when, how and to whom to speak. This should be done for the safety of the Churches.

I am really very happy to participate to this Synod of the Catholic Church on Africa. I am an African. My Church is the oldest of Africa: a Church of Martyrs, Saints and monks. I carry my support as a friend and a brother to this endeavour of the Catholic Church for Africa.

I thank His Holiness for the invitation and I wish him a long life and a fruitful ministry.

Let us speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heart of the Africans and Jesus will return to Africa, as he did when he was a child together with the Virgin Mary. And peace, mercy and justice will come together with Jesus!

May God bless the Churches in Africa and their pastors! Amen!



The Holy Father Benedict XVI responded to the Patriarch:



BENEDICT XVI'S RESPONSE
TO PATRIARCH PAULUS



Your Holiness, I thank you wholeheartedly for your thoughtful presentation and for accepting my invitation to take part in the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. I am sure that my gratitude and appreciation are shared by all the members of the Assembly.

Your presence bears eloquent witness to the antiquity and rich traditions of the Church in Africa. From apostolic times, among the many people yearning to hear Christ's message of salvation were those coming from Ethiopia (cf. Acts 8:26-40).

Your people's fidelity to the Gospel continues to be shown not only by their obedience to his law of love, but also, as you have reminded us, by perseverance amid persecution and the supreme sacrifice of martyrdom for the name of Christ.

Your Holiness has recalled that the proclamation of the Gospel cannot be separated from the commitment to build a society which conforms to God's will, respects the blessings of his creation and protects the dignity and innocence of all his children.

In Christ we know that reconciliation is possible, justice can prevail, peace can endure! This is the message of hope which we are called to proclaim. This is the promise which the people of Africa long to see fulfilled in our day.

Let us pray, then, that our Churches may draw closer in the unity which is the Holy Spirit's gift, and bear common witness to the hope brought by the Gospel.

Let us continue to work for the integral development of all Africa's peoples, strengthening the families which are the bulwark of African society, educating the young who are Africa's future, and contributing to the building of societies marked by honesty, integrity and solidarity.

May our deliberations during these weeks help Christ's followers throughout the continent to be convincing examples of righteousness, mercy and peace, and a light to guide the path of coming generations.

Your Holiness, once again I thank you for your presence and your valued reflections. May your participation in this Synod be a blessing for our Churches.



After the mid-morning break, the first ballots for the election of the Commission for the Message were cast, presided by pontifical nomination by H. Exc. Mons. John Olorunfemi ONAIYEKAN, Archbishop of Abuja (NIGERIA) and Vice President H. Exc. Mons. Youssef Ibrahim SARRAF, Bishop of Cairo of Chaldean Rite (EGYPT). The voting took place electronically.

After the reflection of the Patriarch the following Fathers intervened:
- Cardinal Angelo SODANO, Head of the College of Cardinals (VATICAN CITY)
- Cardinal Polycarp PENGO, Archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (S.E.C.A.M.) (TANZANIA)
- Mons. Lucas ABADAMLOORA, Bishop of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, President of the Episcopal Conference (GHANA)
- Mons. Fidèle AGBATCHI, Archbishop of Parakou (BENIN)
- Cardinal Franc RODÉ, C.M., Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Maroun Elias LAHHAM, Bishop of Tunis (TUNIS)
- Mons. Simon-Victor TONYÉ BAKOT, Archbishop of Yaoundé, President of the Episcopal Conference (CAMEROON)

The summaries of the interventions are published on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b06...

At this General Congregation, which ended at 12.30 with the prayer Angelus Domini, 226 Fathers were present.

The second set of interventions was by the ff bishops:
- Cardinal Zenon GROCHOLEWSKI, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education 9VATICAN CITY)
- Cardinal Emmanuel WAMALA, Emeritus Archbishop of Kampala(UGANDA)
- Mons. Vincent LANDEL, S.C.I. of Beth., Archbishop of Rabat (MOROCCO), and president of the Northern Regional Bishops' Conference of Africa (CERNA)
- Mons. Jean-Noël DIOUF, Bishop of Tambacounda, President of the Episcoal Conference of SENEGAL
- Mons. Giorgio BERTIN, O.F.M., Bishop of Djibouti, Apostolic Administrator of\i Mogadishu (SOMALIA)
- Mons. Michael Dixon BHASERA, Bishop of Masvingo (ZIMBABWE)
- Mons. Sithembele Anton SIPUKA, Bishop of Umtata (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Mons. Jean MBARGA, Bishop of Ebolowa (CAMEROON)
- Mons. Thomas KABORÉ, Bishop of Kaya (BURKINA FASO)



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CNA has a good brief round-up of the second working day.


Bishops' assemly listens to bishops
of other continents describe
relating to Africa's problems





Vatican City, Oct 6, 2009 (CNA).- The Synod for Africa commenced with its second full session on Monday afternoon, listening to how the synod's theme (The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace: "You are the salt of the earth. ... You are the light of the world") is understood in South America, North America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

The afternoon session was attended by Pope Benedict XVI and began at 4:30 p.m. in the Synod Hall.

Delegates from the continents of South America, North America, Asia, Europe and Oceania presented the gathering with a variety of ways that their local Churches can help the African Church live out the synod's theme. Some representatives also reflected on how the theme of the synod can be implemented on their respective continents.

The presentations were followed by a report from Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya on the impact of Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, which was that fruit of the first Synod for Africa, held in 1994.

The first prelate to give his observations was Archbishop Raymundo Damasceno Assis of Aparecida, Brazil. He offered to share the "great wealth" of his episcopal conference's 54 years of existence as well as the resources of Latin American seminaries to help form priests and seminarians.

Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta spoke next, saying that the Church in the United States continues "to benefit from those people from Africa who recently have come as visitors and new residents to our shores." In particular, Archbishop Gregory found that, "Many of these new peoples bring with them a profound and dynamic Catholic faith with its rich spiritual heritage. These wonderful people challenge us to rediscover our own spiritual traditions that so often are set aside because of the influence of our secular pursuits."

Speaking for the continent of Asia, Archbishop Orlando Quevedo compared his continent with Africa. "The Church in Africa and the Church in Asia bear similar experiences of sorrow and joy. Sorrow at the many forces of a culture of death ... such as the increasing poverty and marginalization of our peoples; ... injustices against women and. children; ... our inability to compete with the powerful in a global economic order unguided by juridical and moral norms; religious intolerance instead of a dialogue of reason and faith.

"On the other hand," noted Archbishop Quevedo, "we experience great joy and hope in movements of justice and peace, ... in the solidarity of people of good will from different social classes and religious traditions to work for a more just, more peaceful, more fraternal social order."

The continent of Oceania's representative, Archbishop Peter William Ingham, said that the Church in his region shares a rich history of martyrs with the African Church. He also observed that, "In both Oceania and Africa, great work is being done by the Church and its agencies to help people recover their equilibrium in their communities and to manage risks that could arise from natural disasters."

Echoing a similar theme, was Europe's delegate, Cardinal Peter Erdö of Budapest. "We European Catholics have learned from our own history closely to follow the fate of African Christians, and we have also learned to respect your faithfulness, your witness, and the African martyrs who give their lives - year after year in worryingly-large numbers - for Christ and for His Church, and in the same way also for us. The Church in Africa has earned our gratitude and our profound respect," the cardinal said.

The second full assembly came to a close with a report from Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Archbishop Pasinya explained to the gathering how the Church in Africa took up the recommendations of the first Synod for Africa with vigor. The first synod, he said, gave "fresh impulse to the life and mission of the Church in Africa."

On Tuesday morning, the Synod for Africa began its third full session with an address from His Holiness Abuna Paulos, patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The patriarch reminded the synod that in striving to meet the spiritual needs of the African faithful, "apostleship and social works cannot be treated separately."

Pope Benedict responded to the patriarch's words by thanking him for his presence, and saying, "In Christ we know that reconciliation is possible, justice can prevail, peace can endure! This is the message of hope which we are called to proclaim. This is the promise which the people of Africa long to see fulfilled in our day."

The synod fathers continued their speeches, warning against abuses across the continent. Archbishop Polycarp Pengo said that the Church in Africa must be willing to root out corruption and even to the point of denouncing clergy who abuse the role and practice of authority, resort to tribalism and ethnocentrism and act in a politically partisan manner.

Bishop Maroun Elias Lahham of Tunis, Tunisia closed out the session by calling for the North African Church to share their experiences with Islam in the upcoming Synod for the Middle East and for an opportunity for the the Church in Africa to share its experience of Islam "from Tunis to Johannesburg."


African cardinal says anti-retroviral drugs
better than condoms at fighting AIDS




Vatican City, Oct 7, 2009 CNA) - The Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana has said that resources intended to fight HIV/AIDS should be directed towards anti-retroviral drugs instead of condoms, explaining that prophylactics vary in quality and give the poor a “false sense of security” which facilitates the spread of the disease.

Speaking at a press conference, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson said that if resources presently put into condom production instead subsidized anti-retroviral drugs, “I think we would be happier, in Africa, for the availability of the retroviral drugs then.”

“The ordinary use of condoms, just TO stop AIDS, is not the appreciable resort in our case,” said the cardinal, who is the relator-general or general secretary of the current Synod of Bishops for Africa.

“We are talking about a factory product and there are different qualities. There are condoms which arrive in Ghana where in the heat they burst during sex, and when that is the case, then it gives the poor a false sense of security which rather facilitates the spread of HIV/AIDS,” he added, according to the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA).

Cardinal Turkson called for abstinence and fidelity, saying they are the key to fighting the epidemic. He also said those who are infected should refrain from sexual relations.

The Ghanaian cardinal's comments mirror the findings of AIDS experts on how to combat the spread of the disease in Africa.

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US bishops clarify statement
on Catholic-Jewish dialogue




WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (CNS) -- Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and four other bishops issued a "Statement of Principles for Catholic-Jewish Dialogue" Oct. 5.

The cardinal and bishops also said in a letter to Jewish leaders released the same day that a June 18 document titled "A Note on Ambiguities Contained in 'Reflections on Covenant and Mission'" would be amended by removing two sentences that might lead to misunderstanding about the purpose of inter-religious dialogue.

The June note addressed issues related to evangelization and the Jewish covenant that were discussed in an article written in 2002 by a group of Catholic scholars who were consultants to the USCCB and the National Council of Synagogues.

Intended "as a clarification of church teaching primarily for Catholics," the note "led to misunderstanding and feelings of hurt among members of the Jewish community," the bishops said in their Oct. 5 statement.

"Because we are dialogue partners, this hurt is ours as well," they said.

In addition to announcing the revision, the bishops also issued a "Statement With Six Principles for Catholic-Jewish Dialogue" that draws on church teaching and Catholic understanding of the dialogue process.

Among the principles is the acknowledgment that "Jewish covenantal life endures till the present day as a vital witness to God's saving will for his people Israel and for all of humanity."

The bishops also affirmed the responsibility of Catholics to bear witness to Christ as "the unique savior of humankind." At the same time, they noted that "lived context shapes the form of that witness."

The Oct. 5 statement of principles was sent in response to an Aug. 18 letter from Rabbi Gary Greenebaum, the American Jewish Committee; Rabbi Eric Greenberg, the Anti-Defamation League; Rabbi Gilbert Rosenthal, the National Council of Synagogues; professor Lawrence Schiffman, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, Orthodox Union; and Rabbi David Berger, the Rabbinical Council of America.

The Jewish leaders wrote to express their concern that Paragraph 7 of "A Note on Ambiguities Contained in 'Reflections on Covenant and Mission'" had formally characterized Catholic-Jewish dialogue as an invitation, either explicit or implicit, to Jews to abandon their faith in order to embrace Christianity.

The bishops in their statement of principles said that Catholic-Jewish dialogue "has never been and never will be used by the Catholic Church as a means of proselytism," nor is it "a disguised invitation to baptism."

The bishops also said they sought to reaffirm Catholic commitment to a dialogue in which Jewish self-identity is respected and "deeper bonds of friendship and mutual understanding between the members of our two communities" is promoted.

"In sitting at the table, we expect to encounter Jews who are faithful to the Mosaic covenant, just as we insist that only Catholics committed to the teachings of the church encounter them in our dialogues," it said.

In addition to Cardinal George, the bishops who signed the statement and letter were: Cardinal William H. Keeler, retired archbishop of Baltimore and the USCCB's liaison to the Jewish community; Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta, chairman of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs; Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., chairman of the Committee on Doctrine; and Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., co-chair of the USCCB-Orthodox Union/Rabbinical Council of America Consultation.


The full statement can be found online at www.usccb.org/seia/StatementofPrinciples.pdf;
the bishops' letter can be found online at www.usccb.org/seia/ResponsetoRabbis.pdf.

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Vatican ruling on disputed
Medjugorje shrine expected soon

by Adam Tanner

Oxt. 7, 2009


Has the Virgin Mary been appearing daily for many years in the once obscure Bosnian village of Medjugorje to share religious messages with a few local believers? Is the site visited by over 30 million pilgrims a hoax?

The question has long divided Catholics who have debated whether the visions are a modern-day miracle, wishful thinking or the result of an elaborate fraud.

After observing events sceptically for many years, the Vatican may soon issue firmer guidance for Catholics on the claim that the mother of Jesus has been visiting the Balkans, Cardinal Vinko Puljic, head of the bishops’ conference in Bosnia, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

That guidance, if it clearly expresses the scepticism the official Church has long shown towards the Medjugorje phenomenon, could deal a serious blow to a site some Catholics see as a “new Lourdes.”

“We are now awaiting a new directive on this issue,” said Puljic, the Sarajevo archbishop who survived the city’s long wartime siege in the 1990s. “I don’t think we must wait for a long time, I think it will be this year, but that is not clear… I am going to Rome in November and we must discuss this.”

Official Church scepticsm about Medjugorje has become more public in recent months. In June, Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar, the nearest city in Bosnia, warned Catholics against uncritical belief in Medjugorje and issued a series of restrictions on the parish.

“Brothers and sisters, let us not act as if these ‘apparitions’ were recognised and worthy of faith,” he said in a sermon (full text here in Italian translation).

Then in July, Pope Benedict defrocked Rev. Tomislav Vlasic, the former “spiritual director” to the six visionaries, after a year-long probe into charges he exaggerated the apparitions and had fathered a child with a nun.

The investigation, according to a Catholic News Service report, focused on alleged “dubious doctrine, the manipulation of consciences, suspect mysticism and disobedience towards legitimately issued orders.”

One account of his story called him “a modern-day Rasputin with a taste for sex and séances” and another placed the Medjugorje story in the context of anti-communism and Croatian nationalism.

Six children first reported visions of the Virgin Mary in 1981 in a scenario reminiscent of famous apparitions in the French town of Lourdes and Fatima in Portugal.

In the following years, the Bosnian village became a major pilgrimage site, giving many visitors a renewed sense of spirituality and locals a steady source of much-needed revenue.

It also became the focus of controversy as local Franciscan priests running the site promoted their claims in such open defiance of warnings from the Vatican that 10 of them were expelled from the order and the local bishop called them schismatic.

The 1992-95 Bosnian war disrupted the flow of pilgrims, but with three now middle-aged locals still reporting visions, thousands still flock to the Bosnian town every year.

One of the visionaries, Ivan Dragicevic, says on the Medjugorje website that he has received nine out of ten secrets from the Virgin Mary, another element reminiscent of Fatima.

He now spends half the year in Medjugorje and the other half in the United States, stopping off in places such as Canada and Peru as well to give lectures on his experiences.

Puljic declined to give his own views on the events of Medjugorje. “People have the right to pray everywhere, including in Medjugorje,” he said.

“It is not a sin to pray, it’s not a sin to hear confessions, it is not a sin to give penance, this is a good climate. But this phenomena, apparitions or visions, falls to the (Vatican) commission,” said the cardinal. “It is a very delicate question.”


I posted a recent backgrounder on Medjugorje in the ISSUES thread
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=872...



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Sandro Magister comments today on Archbishop Chaput's article in Il Foglio yesterday rebutting a retired cardinal's article last April praising Obama for his Notre Dame appearance - I posted the article in NOTABLES.
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd...
I think Magister's title is overblown, as Archbishop Chaput is always firm but never mean. But even Il Foglio used the hatchet metaphor because the archbishop happens to have American Indian ancestry.




The bishop's ax falls on Obama

In a bombshell article published in Rome, the bishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, criticizes the American president
and the churchmen who praise him - Cardinal Cottier first among them. But the Vatican secretariat of state is also under fire





ROME, October 8, 2009 – "I will always forcefully defend the right of the bishops to criticize me," Barack Obama pledged just before his meeting with Benedict XVI last July 10.

Indeed. About 80 of the Catholic bishops of the United States are in open disagreement with him on crucial questions, in primis the defense of life. Among these is Cardinal Francis George, president of the bishops' conference and archbishop of Chicago, Obama's city.



And there's also the bishop of Denver, Charles J. Chaput, 65, member of a Native American tribe and a Capuchin Franciscan. Last year, he published a book that starts getting its point across right from the title: Render unto Caesar. Serving the Nation by Living Our Catholic Beliefs in Political Life.

It is right to give Caesar that which belongs to him. But one serves the nation by living one's own Catholic faith in political life.

Chaput does not like the fact that in Rome, at the Vatican, they turn a deaf ear to the criticisms of Obama made by the American Church. He especially didn't like the effusive praise heaped on the American president last July – in conjunction with Obama's meeting with the pope – by a venerated cardinal of the curia, Georges Cottier of Switzerland, theologian emeritus of the pontifical household, in an article published in the magazine 30 Giorni.

This is a magazine of ecclesiastical geopolitics that is widely read in the Roman curia. It is published and edited by the most "curial" of Italy's veteran Catholic politicians, senator for life Giulio Andreotti.

Published in six languages, it reaches all the dioceses of the world, and fully reflects the realist politics of Vatican diplomacy [i.e., the Secretariat of State].

After Cardinal Cottier's enthusiastic article – enthusiastic above all about Obama's speech at the Catholic university of Notre Dame – and before this, an editorial in L'Osservatore Romano that was also highly congratulatory of the first hundred days of the American president, Chaput felt compelled to reply.

He put pen to paper and responded point by point. To Obama, to Cardinal Cottier, and to the Vatican secretariat of state. And not in an American newspaper, but in a newspaper printed in Rome, so that the Vatican would see it.

His reply was published on October 6 in Il Foglio, the daily newspaper edited by Giuliano Ferrara. It is not Catholic, but is very attentive to the public role of religion, and has a definite "Ratzingerian" slant.

The article by the bishop of Denver filled the entire third page, beneath the title: L'ascia del vescovo pellerossa – Charles J. Chaput contro Notre Dame e l'illustre cardinale sedotto dall'abortista Obama [The hatchet of the redskin cardinal – Charles J. Chaput against Notre Dame and the illustrious cardinal seduced by the pro-abortion Obama]."

The text is reproduced below, with its original title.

Also on October 6, on the front page, Il Foglio published an interview with Cardinal George, who was in Rome at the time to present his new book entitled: The Difference God Makes – A Catholic Vision of Faith, Communion, and Culture.

In the interview, among other things the cardinal said:

"Today the greatest difficulty we have as a Church is that of communicating to society that there is a hierarchy of values. Let's take the question of abortion and of life in general. The Church's voice is listened to in the United States, but it also faces a lot of hostility. And the criticisms of the Church take place for one reason: because our society maintains that individualism and freedom of choice are the most important value to protect. Free will today is valued more highly than life."

And again:

"The Church's morality on certain issues has never changed. L'Osservatore Romano, it is true, may have written a dozen lines in favor of Obama, some cardinal may have spoken in enthusiastic terms of the current American administration, but beyond the journalistic hype one point remains: the Church cannot betray itself."


[I still have to look up Cardinal George's interview and will certainly translate it.]

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10/7/09 SUMMARY

- THE POPE ENTRUSTS THE SYNOD FOR AFRICA TO THE MADONNA OF THE ROSARY
- A DELEGATION OF SYNODAL FATHERS VISITS THE CAPITOL
- WORKING GROUPS - FIRST SESSION (WEDNESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2009 - MORNING)
- FIFTH GENERAL CONGREGATION (WEDNESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2009 - AFTERNOON)
- NOTICES


THE POPE ENTRUSTS THE SYNOD FOR AFRICA
TO THE MADONNA OF THE ROSARY


Speaking in Polish this morning during the General Audience in Saint Peter’s Square, the Holy Father Benedict XVI entrusted the work of the Synod to the Madonna of the Rosary: “The work of the Synod for Africa is in progress. Join me in entrusting this important event in the life of the Church to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary. Through the ministry of the Church may the people of Africa recover the paths that lead to reconciliation, justice and peace”.



A DELEGATION OF SYNODAL FATHERS
VISITS THE ROMAN CAPITOL


This morning, a delegation of the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops met with the Mayor of Rome at the Capitol.

At the core of the discussion were the themes of cooperation in development, the OGM, regulating migratory flows, welcoming political refugees and Rome’s contribution in light of the FAO’s summit in November.

They also spoke about the rally organized by the Municipality of Rome for Africa scheduled for October 19th on the theme “Africa: What type of partnership for reconciliation, justice and peace?”.

The group of Synod Fathers, led by the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, Mons. Nikola Eterovic, gathered in prayer in the Basilica of Saint Mary in Ara Coeli, before the meeting.

The Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops commented on Vatican Radio:

We are grateful to the Honourable Gianni Alemanno for the invitation he extended to the presidency of the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to visit his offices and to exchange greetings.

Every year the city of Rome welcomes millions of pilgrims; many of these come from Africa and Rome does everything possible to make them feel at home. This is a universal vocation of Rome.

On the other hand, the representative bishops of 244 Synod Fathers, all Africans, wished to thank the mayor and exchange some opinions on themes close to their hearts: collaboration between Africa and Europe, how to improve it, political refugees, immigration and also the possible and hoped for development of agricultural production in Africa.


The Mayor of Rome commented:

We have emphasized that the city of Rome is closely following the Synod for Africa, because we expect clear messages from this Synod for relaunching cooperation and development between Europe and Africa.

This is for two reasons: the first is to achieve a balanced development of this continent and that it definitely progresses from a state of underdevelopment.

The second concerns the possible regulation of migratory flows, in such a manner that each person may choose whether to live in their own country or to migrate to Europe according to legal and regular flows which must be supported as an alternative to illegal immigration.



WORKING GROUPS - FIRST SESSION
(Wednesday morning, 10/7/09)


This morning, Wednesday, 7 October 2009, on the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary, the task of the Working Groups of the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops began.

224 Synodal Fathers were present, for the election of the Moderators and the Relators of the Working Groups and for the beginning of the discussion on the Synodal theme.

Moderators and the Relators of the Working Groups were elected.


FIFTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
(Wenesday afternoon, 10/7/09)


Today, Wednesday, 7 October 2009, at 16:30, with the Prayer for the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops prayer, in the presence of the Holy Father, the Fifth General Congregation began, with more interventions by the Synodal Fathers:

- Cardinal Jean-Louis TAURAN, President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Tarcisius Gervazio ZIYAYE, Archbishop of Blantyre (MALAWI), President of the Episcopal Conference, President of the Association of Members of Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (A.M.E.C.E.A.)
- Mons. Robert SARAH, Archbishop Emeritus of Conakry, Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (VATICAN CITY)
- Rev. Raymond Bernard GOUDJO, Secretary of the Commission "Justitia et Pax" of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Francophone Africa (CERAO), Ivory Coast (BENIN)
- Mons. Ambroise OUÉDRAOGO, Bishop of Maradi (BURKINA FASO)
- CardINAL Francis ARINZE, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacrements (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Adriano LANGA, O.F.M., Bishop of Inhambane (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Francisco João SILOTA, M. Afr., Bishop of Chimoio (MOZAMBIQUE), Second Vice-President of the Symposium of EpiscopaL Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (S.C.E.A.M.)
- Mons. Fulgence RABEMAHAFALY, Archbishop of Fianarantsoa, President of the Episcopal Conference (MADAGASCAR)
- Mons. Louis PORTELLA MBUYU, Bishop of Kinkala, President of the Episcopal Conference (REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Maurice PIAT, C.S.Sp., Bishop of Port-Louis (MAURITIUS)
- Mons. Joseph AKÉ YAPO, Archbishop of Gagnoa, President of the Episcopal Conference (IVORY COAST)
- Mons. Fulgence MUTEBA MUGALU, Bishop of Kilwa-Kasenga (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Jean-Bosco NTEP, Bishop of Edéa (CAMEROON)
- Mons. George NKUO, Bishop of Kumbo (CAMEROON)

Summaries of their interventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b09...



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African bishops examine
'practice of power, authority'


Oct. 08, 2009


Generally speaking, Catholic debate outside of Europe and the United States is usually distinguished by its ad extra orientation, meaning that the focus is not so much insider Catholic baseball but rather the burning challenges of the broader society, and how the Catholic church can be an agent for change.

What seems to be emerging at the Oct. 4-25 Synod for Africa, however, is a conviction that for the Catholic church to be helpful in Africa ad extra, it first has some ad intra business to resolve.

Though the synod is only on its fourth working day, already a variety of speakers have suggested that various aspects of the church's internal culture handicap its effectiveness as an instrument of reconciliation, justice and peace.

This critique -- which has surfaced from some surprising sources, including a prominent Vatican official -- seems to suggest that the Synod for Africa may have something to say not just about the mote in the world's eye, but also the beam in the church's own.

To be sure, the ideas being floated at the Synod for Africa are not the usual fare for Catholic reformers in the West, who often focus on the Church's teaching on sexual morality or deconstructing the authority of the papacy.

Instead, the African reform package includes:

•Dealing with the corrosive influence of ethnicity and tribal prejudice within the church itself, including relations among priests, and how priests react to bishops from outside their own ethnic group;
•Not allowing a traditional African respect for authority to translate into an obsession with power on the part of Church leaders;
•The need for a more thoroughly "African" form of Catholicism, as a response to the mushrooming Pentecostal and Evangelical movements marching across the continent, which often attract people by drawing upon heavy doses of indigenous African religiosity;
•Doing justice to Church workers, including providing a living wage -- essential, in the eyes of some speakers, if the Church is to speak credibly about poverty and economic justice in African societies.

The point about tribalism rearing its head inside the Church has been made repeatedly, by speakers representing different regions and different points of view -- enough to suggest that it's not merely a localized or occasional problem. [It has always been a chronic endemic problem in Africa, whose tribal cultures are traditionally closed societies.]

Maronite Bishop Francois Eid of Egypt, for example, argued yesterday that the Church needs to devote greater efforts to the formation of priests -- pointedly making it clear, he said, that "their mission should not be considered as the place for a competition of personal, family or tribal interests."

Bishop Francisco João Silota, a member of the Missionaries of Africa in Mozambique, urged Africans to confront "ethnic, tribal and regional discrimination that reigns at the heart of your societies, but also in the Church."

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, a longtime Vatican heavyweight who's now retired, asked the African bishops to ensure that "ethnic belonging, language or social class do not become predominant in the assignment of work in the Church and the national episcopal conferences."

Arinze also called upon African priests to "wholeheartedly accept a new bishop appointed by the Holy Father, without organizing factions with a ‘son of the soil' myopic mentality."

The church's growing practice of appointing bishops from outside the dominant tribal group in a given area, Arinze said, amounts to "a powerful message to some African communities wounded by the politico-social virus of extreme ethnic [prejudice]."

[Not entirely in jest, I suggest a good 'rule of thumb' they might advise to all African Catholics - assuming they all share a 'continental' pride in Barack Obama - is to "Consider every African a Barack Obama!"]

Salesian Fr. Guillermo Luis Basañes, the order's general councilor for Africa and Madagascar, argued that religious congregations should not only "announce to all peoples and ethnic groups in Africa that it is possible to live together in diversity," but also show by example that "to live and work tougher is fruitful, useful, and even beautiful."

Basañes called upon religious orders to be models of "intercultural, international and inter-ethnic community."

On the subject of power, Archbishop Joseph Aké Yapo of the Ivory Coast asked rhetorically, "How can the Church in Africa be the salt of the earth and light of the world if she does not question herself about the management of the faithful and of priests, in the practice of power and authority?"

"If the Church wishes to play an effective role as an artisan of peace, reconciliation and justice," he said, "she must start by putting into practice from within what she teaches."

Bishop Adriano Langa, a Franciscan in Mozambique, said the Catholic Church must shoulder some of the blame for the phenomenal growth of the "sects," because of its failure to adopt more thoroughly African expressions of the faith.

"The African Catholic, trying to escape the European and Latin American style, and wanting to feel himself as a truly African Christian Catholic, leans towards his African brothers of other faiths and creeds and takes on their language and style," Langa said.

Langa faulted the Catholic church in Africa for "marginalizing, disparaging and even fighting African cultures; underestimating native languages; centering its evangelization more on children and less on adults, even in the recent past; forbidding the reading of the Bible, also in the not very recent past; [and] not translating the Bible into local languages."

The need for Bible translations in the native languages of Africa was a theme that also surfaced repeatedly during the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the Bible.

[I have to check literacy rates in Africa, but given that the number of people able to read is generally lower than in other continents, and the number of people willing to read anything at all perhaps far less, instead of setting sights on translating the enire Bible for Africa's hundreds of living languages [a monunental task that may well take decades), how about just starting with translating the lectionaries first in as many languages as they can???? In themselves, they provide a lifetime of directed Bible readings for anyone, including a gluttonous reader like myself! ]

One speaker, for example, noted that the Bantu linguistic group alone contains over 500 languages, and at least 250 of them have no Bible translation -- amounting to an estimated 14 million people unable to read the Bible in their native tongue.

Finally, the issue of a living wage for Church workers has surfaced several times -- and once again, it was Arinze who put the argument in its most powerful form.

"Dioceses need to take care to honor contracts with religious congregations and especially to see that consecrated men and women, catechists, parish house workers and other church-employed men and women are adequately paid," Arinze said yesterday.

Arinze put an exclamation point on the argument in his typically pithy fashion: "It is a scandal when these humble workers have only holy water to take home at the end of the month."

[Perhaps Caritas and other Church associations can work out some arrrangement where underpaid Church workers can at least take home regular rations of food and the medicines they need????]

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SIXTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Thursday morning, 10/8/09


Today, Thursday 8 October 2009, at 09:00 a.m., with the chanting of the Hour of Terce,
The Sixth General Congregation began, with the chating of Terce, followed by continuation of the interventions by the Synodal Fathers.
Cardinal Arinze presided.

The following delivered interventions:
- Cardinal Ennio ANTONELLI, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family (VATICAN CITY)
- Cardinal Péter ERDŐ, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest (HUNGARY), President of the Council of the European Episcopal Conference (C.E.E.C.)
- Rev. F. Kieran O'REILLY, S.M.A., Superior General of the Society of African Missions (UNION OF SUPERIORS- GENERAL)
- Mons. Marcel UTEMBI TAPA, Archbishop of Kisangani (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Alfred Adewale MARTINS, Bishop of Abeokuta (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Louis Ncamiso NDLOVU, O.S.M., Bishop of Manzini (SWAZILAND)
- Mons. Paul R. RUZOKA, Archbishop of Tabora (TANZANIA)
- Rev. F. Emmanuel TYPAMM, C.M., Secretary General of the "Confederation of the Conferences of Superiors Major of Africa and Madagascar" (CAMEROON)
- Mons. Martin Albert HAPPE, M. Afr., Bishop of Nouakchott (MAURITANIA)
- Mons. Vincent COULIBALY, Archbishop of Conakry, President of the Episcopal Conference (GUINEA)
- Mons. Nicolas DJOMO LOLA, Bishop of Tshumbe, President of the Episcopal Conference (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Jorge FERREIRA DA COSTA ORTIGA, Archbishop of Braga, President of tlinethe Episcopal Conference (PORTUGAL)
- Mons. Angelo AMATO, S.D.B., Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Peter Martin MUSIKUWA, Bishop of Chikwawa (MALAWI)
- Mons. Barry Alexander Anthony WOOD, O.M.I., Auxiliary Bishop of Durban (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Mons. Buti Joseph TLHAGALE, O.M.I., Archbishop of Johannesburg, President of the Episcopal Conference (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Mons. Valentin MASENGO NKINDA, Bishop of Kabinda (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. John Olorunfemi ONAIYEKAN, Archbishop of Abuja (NIGERIA)
- Cardinal Paul Josef CORDES, President of the Pontificial Council "Cor Unum" (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Cornelius Fontem ESUA, Archbishop of Bamenda (CAMEROON)
- Mons. Philippe OUÉDRAOGO, Archbishop of Ouagadougou (NIGER)
- Rev. F. Damian WEBER, C.M.M., Superior General of the Missionaries of Mariannhill (UNION OF SUPERIORS-GENERAL)

Summaries of the interventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b10...

An unusual event during the Synod affecting one of the participating bishops is made clear in the following letter of the Delegate Presidents and of the Secretary General of Synod of Byshops to His Exc. Mons Francois Haxier MAROY RUSENGO, Archbishop of Bukavu (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO), which was read and delivered at the closing of the Sixth General Congregation.

LETTER OF THE DELEGATE PRESIDENTS
AND OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL
TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF BUKAVU



Excellency,

The Bishops united in the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops under the presidency of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, have learnt that in their Archdiocese of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo there have been disorders including burnt down parishes, insults inflicted on priests taken hostage with ransoms, generating a situation such that now you are obliged to return among your faithful, preys of torment and danger.

Pertaining to this, on behalf of the Assembly, we express our fraternal solidarity in the hope that reconciliation and the Good News of the Gospel, as we are reminded during these days of Synod reflection, may be welcomed as the path shared by all to accomplish conditions of human life founded on the values of justice, reinforced by peace, which is a gift from God.

We would be obliged to you if you would express our cordial feelings of religious solidarity to all the members of the People of God who live and suffer in this Archdiocese: the priests, the religious, the deacons, the catechists, the laity and all men of good will,

At the same time, we invite the legitimate civil authorities to do everything possible to bring back order in justice to establish and guarantee peace, necessary for a normal life of the dear population.

Trusting in the mercy of God and the intercession of Mary, Queen of Africa and Queen of Peace, we assure you of our prayers for justice and peace to bring your Archdiocese, in the Great Lakes region, and all of Africa, peaceful days and a serene life.




SEVENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Thursday afternoon, 10/8/09


The Synodal Fathers met starting at 16:30 p.m., and suspended the session one hour later, in order to allow them to attend the concert "Youth against War - 1939 -2009" at Rome’s Reconciliation Auditorium, in the presence of the Holy Father Benedict XVI.

The following Fathers intervened at this congregation:
- Cardinal André VINGT-TROIS, Archbishop of Paris, President of the Episcopal Conference (FRANCE)
- Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi OKOGIE, Archbishop of Lagos (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Orlando B. QUEVEDO, O.M.I., Archbishop of Cotabato (PHILIPPINES), AND General Secretary of the Federation of Asian Episcopal Conferences (F.A.B.C.)
- Mons. Matthew Kwasi GYAMFI, Bishop of Sunyani (GHANA)
- Mons. Francisco CHIMOIO, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Maputo (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Edward HIIBORO KUSSALA, Bishop of Tombura-Yambio (SUDAN)
- Mons. John Anthony RAWSTHORNE, Bishop of Hallam, President of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (C.A.F.O.D.), from the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales
- Mons. Jude Thaddaeus RUWA'ICHI, O.F.M. Cap., Bishop of Dodoma, President of the Episcopal Conference (TANZANIA)
- Mons. Francesco COCCOPALMERIO, President of the Pontificial Council for Legislative Textes (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Edward Gabriel RISI, O.M.I., Bishop of Keimoes-Upington (SOUTH AFRICA)

Summaries of the interventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b12...


FOLLOWING THE SYNOD



I just discovered a convenient guide for following the Synodal assembly, courtesy of the English service of Vatican Radio. It's quite nifty: it shows you the program for the day at a glance, and provides the link to any intervention you might be interested in.


www.radiovaticana.org/en3/sinodo_africa_09/mappa_interat...
On the webpage, click on 'Follow the Synod'. Topics listed on the title page link to corresponding provisions found in the Synodal assembly's Instrumentum Laboris.




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The Vatican Prss office released today, 10/9/09m the text of the Holy See representative's address to the Sept. 28-Oct. 9 'human dimension implementation meeting' in Warsaw of the OSCE/ODIHR [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights] of the United Nations.

I think it is an excellent re-statement of the principle of religious freedom and its fundamental significance to all other human rights.




FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, CONSCIENCE, RELIGION OR BELIEF
by Mons. Anthony Fronteiro
Member of the Holy See Delegation

Madam Moderator,

The Delegation of the Holy See wishes to express its appreciation for the opportunity to participate in this important discussion. Today’s working session is a timely follow-up to the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting held in Vienna from 9-10 July 2009.

In her keynote address at that Meeting, Professor Ombretta Fumagalli Carulli rightly affirmed participating States’ commitment to religious liberty, as outlined in Principle VII of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, as a resounding success, in that through its subsequent elaboration by the OSCE since 1975, it has become one of the most detailed and complete provisions pertaining to religion by any international human rights instrument.

Nevertheless, as Professor Carulli also pointed out, there remain significant challenges to the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief that must be addressed.

It is clear that some of these challenges are age-old, and are manifested in acts of intolerance, violence, and discrimination, such as State interference in the ability of people to pray and worship, social hostility or stereotyping of religions, unnecessarily burdensome, restrictive or invasive registration requirements.

Other challenges have arisen in more recent times, in increasingly relativistic societies, where efforts are being made to subordinate the freedom of religion, or to eradicate it altogether, sometimes in order to advance other agendas perceived as rights.

Given these challenges, the Delegation of the Holy See would like to recall the centrality of religious freedom as evidenced in OSCE commitments, which upholds the fact that "the human person has a right to religious freedom, a right that has its foundation in the dignity and very nature of the human person, a right that reflects the fact that all men and women are endowed with reason and free will and therefore privileged to bear personal responsibility." (Vatican Council II, Dignitatis Humanae, No.2)

Religious freedom is a more fundamental and important right than the freedom of expression.

The OSCE commitment to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief clearly indicates that religious faith properly understood is not be regarded with grudging suspicion, or as a bizarre quirk or quaint relic left over from a simpler past.

Participating States are obliged to respect and to ensure to all individuals subject to their jurisdiction the right to freedom of religion or belief, recognizing religious freedom as pre-eminent among the fundamental rights and its defense as the "litmus test" for the respect of all other human rights.

The purpose of OSCE commitment to religious freedom is not to push religion to the margins in hope it will wither, but rather to shield and support it, so that it may flourish.

There must be a true distinction between the State and religion, but religion must not be separated from social and cultural life. Religion is a vital and positive contribution to our societies wherever its freedom is respected.

Indeed, the freedom of religion is seen as a fundamental, "natural" human right, which can and should co-exist with the political community’s obligation to secure public order and safety.

The vision for freedom of thought set forth by the OSCE in Helsinki did not purport to exclude religious believers and values from public life and the civic conversation. Rather, it set out to protect everyone — believers and non-believers alike — against coercion in religious matters. It is a fundamental right that protects the transcendental dimension of the human being and, therefore, his or her dignity.

To be sure, participating States’ commitment to freedom of religion protects our right to keep our faith private. It does not, however, require the privatization of faith, or require us to somehow disintegrate our lives before entering into the public square or taking up the responsibilities of citizenship.

It rather promotes the contribution that religious freedom can offer to the public sphere.

Regarding the relationship between religious freedom and freedom of speech, there is no right "not to be offended" by the expression of deeply held religious convictions.

To grant such a right would restrict the freedom of expression of individuals and groups, including religious individuals and groups, and constitute discrimination against those persons expressing a differing viewpoint through such convictions.

In 1975 in Helsinki, participating States made a strong statement, one that must be renewed in the face of contemporary challenges: religious freedom matters. These same participating States knew that unless our most sacred values are protected, including the profession and practice of faith, all our other freedoms — of the press, of speech, of conscience — are vulnerable.

A listing of concrete recommendations will be submitted to the Secretariat along with this text.

Thank you, Madam Moderator.


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UPDATE: US BISHOPS' STAND
ON HEALTH CARE REFORM



Here is the text of a letter from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to each member of the US Congress stating their primary concerns regarding the health care legislation still being drafted by the legislators:





Just for the record, I will post these comments, even though they have nothing to do with the Church, except insofar as the bill would allow mandatory funding for abortion simply by not specifically prohibiting it.

The problem in all these discussions, so far, is that the public only gets to know selected items which the chattering classes choose to discuss. out of 4-5 versions pending in the House and the one version ready to be considered by the entire Senate, and that no one has seen a full version of any of these drafts [the Senate committee clearly says it does not have a draft bill, only a draft of the principal proposals to be made in the bill].

More importantly, although President Obama has talked endlessly and incessantly about his intended legislation, he himself has presented no draft of his own. In effect, all the discussion so far has been on hypotheticals - many of them plausible, possible and probable, of course, but the hypotheses have lacked clarity and specifics on key aspects, especially how it is to be financed.

The public debate over all the major legislation advocated by the Obama administration so far has revealed the shocking fact that few legislators really bother to read the bills that they vote upon, and even now, the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives has voted down every resolution asking for any draft bill to be posted on line at least 72 hours before a vote is taken.

Considering that the major working version of the House bill on health care reform is over 1,000 pages long, 72 hours is probably just enough for a major law firm with a hotshot team to do a preliminary screen of the bill for all the traps, loopholes and often unrelated insertions routinely worked into these bills.


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EIGHTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Friday morning, 10/9/09



Today at 9.00 a.m., in memory of Saint Dionysius and companions martyrs, and of Saint Giovanni Leonardi, priest, in the presence of the Holy Father, with the recital of the Hour of Terce, the Eighth General Congregation took place.

The President-Delegate on duty was Cardinal Théodore-Adrien SARR, Archbishop of Dakar (SENEGAL).

At the opening of the Eight General Congregation, the Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops named the members elected earlier in the week for the Commission for the Message,

During the break at 10:30 a.m., the Holy Father Benedict XVI received the French Working Group A and B in audience.

At this General Congregation that ended at 12.30 with the Prayer Angelus Domini, 219 Synod Fathers were present.


The following Synodal fathers presented their interventions at this session:
- Cardinal Tarcisio BERTONE, S.D.B., Secretary of State (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Jan OZGA, Bishop of Doumé-Abong' Mbang (CAMEROON)
- Mons. Albert VANBUEL, S.D.B., Bishop of Kaga-Bandoro (CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC)
- Mons. Jean-Baptiste TIAMA, Bishop of Sikasso, President of the Episcopal Conference (MALI)
- Fr. Edouard TSIMBA, C.I.C.M., Superior General of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Missionaries of Scheut) (UNION OF THE SUPERIOR GENERAL)
- Cardinal Christian Wiyghan TUMI, Archbishop of Douala (CAMEROON)
- Mons. Claudio Maria CELLI, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Joseph KUMUONDALA MBIMBA, Archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Cardinal Renato Raffaele MARTINO, President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace (VATICAN CITY)
- Fr. Gérard CHABANON, M. Afr., Superior General of the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers) (UNION OF SUPERIORS- GENERAL)
- Mons. Joachim NTAHONDEREYE, Bishop of Muyinga (BURUNDI)
- Mons. Jean-Claude BOUCHARD, O.M.I., Bishop of Pala, President of the Episcopal Conference (CHAD)
- Fr. Francesco BARTOLONI, C.PP.S., General Moderator of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (UNION OF SUPERIORS-GENERAL)
- Mons. Robert Christopher NDLOVU, Archbishop of Harare, President of the Episcopal Conference (ZIMBABWE)
- Mons. Evaristus Thatho BITSOANE, Bishop of Qacha's Nek, President of the Episcopal Conference (LESOTHO)
- Mons. Franklyn NUBUASAH, S.V.D., Apostolic Vicar of Francistown (BOTSWANA)
- Fr. Jacob BEYA KADUMBU, C.I., Vicar General of the Belgian Josephites (UNION OF SUPERIORS-GENERAL)
- Mons. Cyprian Kizito LWANGA, Archbishop of Kampala (UGANDA)
- Mons. Jorge Enrique JIMÉNEZ CARVAJAL, C.I.M., Archbishop of Cartagena (COLOMBIA)
- Mons. Velasio DE PAOLIS, President of Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Joseph Mukasa ZUZA, Bishop of Mzuzu (MALAWI)

Interventions were also heard from 1 fraternal delegate and 4 auditors.

- Fraternal delegate His Grace Bernhard NTAHOTURI, Archbishop of the Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi (BURUNDI),:
and the following auditors:

Furthermore, the following Auditors intervened:

- Rev. Sister Felicia HARRY, N.S.A. (O.L.A.), Superior General of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles (GHANA)
- Rev. F. Seán O’LEARY, M.Afr., Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Rev. Sister Pauline ODIA BUKASA, F.M.S., Superior General of the Sisters “Ba-Maria”, Buta Uele (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Rev. Sister Geneviève UWAMARIYA, Sister of Saint Mary of Namur (RWANDA)


Summaries of their interventions may be read on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b14...



NINTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Friday afternoon, 10/9/09


At the afternoon session, the following interventions wre heard:
From the Synodal Fathers -
- Cardinal Leonardo SANDRI, Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Jean-Pierre BASSÈNE, Bishop of Kolda (SENEGAL), President of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel
- Mons. Henryk HOSER, S.A.C., Archbishop-Bishop of Warsaw-Prague (POLAND)
- CardINAL Bernard AGRÉ, Emeritus Archbishop of Abidjan (IVORY COAST)
- Fr. Pierre Noël NIAVA, National Military Chaplain (IVORY COAST)
- Mons. Denis Komivi AMUZU-DZAKPAH, Archbishop Lomé (TOGO)
- Mons. Ignatius CHAMA, Bishop of Mpika (ZAMBIA)
- Mons. Benedito Beni DOS SANTOS, Bishop of Lorena (BRAZIL)
- Mons. Peter J. KAIRO, Archbishop of Nyeri (KENYA)
- Mons. Boniface LELE, Archbishop of Mombasa (KENYA)

From a fraternal delegate -
- H.E. Barnaba EL SORYANY, Bishop of the Copt Orthodox Church in Italy

From auditors:
- Laurien NTEZIMANA, Licentiate in Theology, Diocese of Butare (RWANDA)
- Fr. Armand GARIN, Little Brothers of Jesus (FRANCE), Regional responsible for his order in North Africa (Algeria and Morocco)
- Prof. Raymond RANJEVA, former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice (The Hague) and Member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (MADAGASCAR)
- Dr. Elena GIACCHI, Gynecologist, Center for Study and Research on the Natural Regulation of Fertility, Catholic University Sacro Cuorem Rome; and president of WOOMB-Italy (National coordination of the Billings Ovulation Method)

And finally, from special guest
- H.E. Rodolhe Adada, former special representative of the joint commission of the UN and the African Union for the Sudan.

Summaries of these itnerventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/xx_plurilingue/b15_xx.html#AUDITIO_AUDITO...



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It has taken them 2-1/2 years since the Pope visited Brazil to get around to it, but Brazil with its 120 million Catholics - and if the news is right, now the master of the largest oil reserves on earth (offshore Brazil) - has virtually approved a new Concordat with the Vatican that updates a legal restatement of Church and state relations on a well-defined basis. Something the Czech Parliament has refused to do so far, and that the Vatican has been trying to work out with Israel for the past 14 years.


Brazilian Senate approves
Concordat with Vatican




Brasilia, Oct. 9 (dpa) - The Brazilian Senate approved an agreement with the Vatican that sets up a new legal framework for the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church.

The deal approved by the Senate late Wednesday is spelled out over 20 articles and gives the Roman Catholic Church fiscal benefits and state help for the maintenance of cultural assets like buildings, museums and libraries.

It also sets ups a framework for religious education, and makes Roman Catholic marriages legally equivalent to civil marriages.

The deal, which had already been approved by the lower house of the Brazilian Congress, is still pending the approval of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. It is regarded as certain that he will sign the measure into law.



Lula finalized the agreement - which is set to replace a statute that dates back to 1980 - with Pope Benedict XVI in November 2008, in a visit to the Vatican.

According to the new rules, the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church is acknowledged as a legal entity. Critics see the deal as a way to grant the Church privileges over other religious communities, and are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Despite dwindling numbers of faithful, Brazil is regarded as the country with the largest number of Roman Catholics in the world with between 125 million and 155 million adherents.


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TENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Saturday morning, 10/10/09


The Tenth General Congregation today saw the ontinuation of interventions by the Synod Fathers,

President Delegate on duty was Cardinal Wilfrid Fox NAPIER, O.F.M., Archbishop of Durban (SOUTH AFRICA).

the following Fathers intervened:

- Mons. Almachius Vincent RWEYONGEZA, Bishop of Kayanga (TANZANIA)
- Mons. Fridolin AMBONGO BESUNGU, O.F.M. Cap., Bishop of Bokungu-Ikela (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Zacchaeus OKOTH, Archbishop of Kisumu (KENYA)
- Mons. Telesphore George MPUNDU, Archbishop of Lusaka (ZAMBIA)
- Mons. Philip SULUMETI, Bishop of Kakamega (KENYA)
- Mons. Marcel MADILA BASANGUKA, Archbishop of Kananga (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Youssef Ibrahim SARRAF, Bishop of Cairo of Chaldean Rite (EGYPT)
- Mons. Gabriel MBILINGI, C.S.Sp., Archbishop Coadjutor Lubango, President of the "Inter-regional Meeting of Bishops of Southern Africa" (I.M.B.I.S.A.) (ANGOLA)
- Mons. Robert Patrick ELLISON, C.S.Sp., Bishop of Banjul
- Mons. Lucio Andrice MUANDULA, Bishop of Xai-Xai, President of the Episcopal Conference (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Gabriel 'Leke ABEGUNRIN, Bishop of Osogbo (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Joseph Effiong EKUWEM, Bishop of Uyo (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Matthias SSEKAMANYA, Bishop of Lugazi, President of the Episcopal Conference (UGANDA)
- Mons. Peter William INGHAM, Bishop of Wollongong (AUSTRALIA), President of the Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania (F.C.B.C.O.)
- Mons. Denis KIWANUKA LOTE, Archbishop of Tororo (UGANDA)
- Rev. F. Aquiléo FIORENTINI, I.M.C., Superior General of the Institute of Consolata Missionarios (UNION OF SUPERIORS-GENERAL)
- Cardinal Théodore-Adrien SARR, Archbishop of Dakar 9SENEGAL), First Vice-President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (S.C.E.A.M.)
- Mons. Valerian OKEKE, Archbishop of Onitsha (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Anthony John Valentine OBINNA, Archbishop of Owerri (NIGERIA)
- Cardinal Giovanni Battista RE, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Obiora Francis IKE, Director of the Catholic Institute for Development, Justice and Peace (CIDJAP), Enugu, Nigeria (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Séraphin François ROUAMBA, Archbishop of Koupéla, President of the Episcopal Conference (BURKINA FASO)

The following Auditors intervened:

- Prof. Edem KODJO, Secretary General Emeritus of the Organization of African Union (O.U.A.), Prime Minister Emeritus, Professor of Patrology at the Institute St. Paul of Lomé (TOGO)
- Mme. Geneviève Amalia Mathilde SANZE, Responsible of the Work of Mary - Focolari Mouvement, Abidjan (IVORY COAST)
- Rev. Sister Jacqueline MANYI ATABONG, Assistant of the Superior General of the Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus in the Diocese of Buea; Coordinator for Africa of the International Catholic Commission for Prison Pastoral Care (I.C.C.P.P.C.), Douala (CAMEROON)
- Dr. Pierre TITI NWEL, Coordinator Emeritus of the National Service Justice and Peace of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (C.E.N.C.), Yaoundé (CAMEROON)


Summaries of these interventions are on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b16...


Saturday afternoon, 10/10/2009

In the afternoon, the Synodal Fathers joined university students of Rome at the Aula Paolo VI for a praying of the Rosary 'for Africa and with Africa' with the Holy Father and university students from eight African countries linked by satellite to the Vatican event.

The prayer meeting was organized by the General Secretary of the Synod of the Bishops and by the University Pastoral Office of the Vicar of Rome, on the occasion of the Synodal Assembly for
Africa.

It was to start at 5 p.m. with a prayer vigil, and the Holy Father was scheduled to join them at 6 p.m.

Performances of sacred music and accompaniment were provided by the National Orchestra of the Conservatory of Music and of the Choirs of Italian Conservatories and Universities.


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Catholic-Orthodox dialog resumes in Cyprus
on the role of the Bishop of Rome


Oct. 12, 2009


The International Joint Commission for theological dialogue between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church as a whole will meet again in Cyprus from Oct. 16-23.

The topic chosen for the plenary session will be the continuation and an exploration of the one ended in Ravenna in 2007: “The role of the Bishop of Rome in the communion of the Church in the first millennium”.

The Joint Commission is composed of 60 members: 30 Orthodox and 30 Catholic ones and is chaired by two co-presidents: Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Papal Council for the Unity of Christians, and the Metropolitan Bishop of Pergamus, Ioannis (Ecumenical Patriarchate).

The Commission has two secretaries as well: they are Mons. Eleuterio Fortino and the Metropolitan Bishop of Sassima, Gennadios.

During the last plenary meeting of the Joint Commission for Dialogue in Ravenna in 2007, the Russian Orthodox delegation left the meeting due to the presence of the Church of Estonia, invited by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

This Church was declared independent by Constantinople, but it is not recognised as such by the Patriarchate of Moscow. This meeting in Cyprus, according to Mons. Fortino, will include the Russian members of the Joint Commission:

“There has been an explanation and an agreement between Constantinople and Moscow and the other Orthodox Churches”. Mons. Fortino said.

The rest of his statement:


The formal completeness of the representation of the Orthodox Churches is essential for the success of dialogue. Actually, for the first time in history since the split, this dialogue has taken place between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole. Sometimes, this complexity makes dialogue and its progress slower, but its purpose warrants the need for a clarification and an agreement that embrace everyone”.

Mons. Fortino goes on: “The most intensive fraternal relations between the Churches are essential for the true progress of dialogue. In the past, a lot has been rightly said about the dialogue of charity as a prerequisite of theological dialogue.

On one side, the dialogue of charity makes us see, in front of us, a brother, also inspired by faith and attentive to his own conscience, and on the other side it releases the doctrinal issues from any burden that is alien to faith.

Such an attitude is extremely necessary in the work that the Commission will carry out in Cyprus, where it will investigate the role of the Bishop of Rome in the life of the Church in the first millennium.

Over time, historical judgements and prejudices have been put into this topic, and now they must be examined with exactitude and peace of mind. And keeping an open mind on the future. It would be pointless to look for a full solution in the past.




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ELEVENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Monday morning, Oct. 12, 2009



The Eleventh General Congregation took place this morning in the presence of the Holy Father, with more interventions by the Synod Fathers in the Hall.

Presiding was Cardinal Théodore-Adrien SARR, Archbishop of Dakar (SENEGAL).

During the pause at 10:30 a.m., the Holy Father Benedict XVI received the French Working Groups C and D in audience.

The following Fathers intervened:
- Mons. George Cosmas Zumaire LUNGU, Bishop of Chipata, President of the Episcopal Conference (ZAMBIA)
- Cardinal Wilfrid Fox NAPIER, O.F.M., Archbishop of Durban (SOUTH AFRICA)
- Mons. Jean-Pierre TAFUNGA, S.D.B., Archbishop Coadjutor Lubumbashi (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Louis NZALA KIANZA, Bishop of Popokabaka (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Antonio Maria VEGLIÒ, President of the Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Luigi BRESSAN, Archbishop of Trento, President of the Episcopal Commision for the Evangelization of Peoples and Cooperation between the Churches of the Italian Episcopal Conference (ITALY)
- Card. John NJUE, Archbishop of Nairobi, President of the Episcopal Conference (KENYA)
- Mons. Gianfranco RAVASI, President of the Pontifical Council of Culture (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Joseph Edra UKPO, Archbishop of Calabar (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Gervais BANSHIMIYUBUSA, Bishop of Ngozi (BURUNDI)
- Mons. Menghisteab TESFAMARIAM, M.C.C.J., Eparch of Asmara (ERITREA)
- Mons. Martin Igwemezie UZOUKWU, Bishop of Minna (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Timothée MODIBO-NZOCKENA, Bishop of Franceville (GABON), President of the Episcopal Conference, President of the Association to the Episcopal Conference of Central Africa (A.C.E.R.A.C.)
- Mons. Augustine Obiora AKUBEZE, Bishop of Uromi (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Jaime Pedro GONÇALVES, Archbishop of Beira (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Théophile KABOY RUBONEKA, Bishop Coadjutor of Goma (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Evariste NGOYAGOYE, Archbishop of Bujumbura, President of the Episcopal Conference (BURUNDI)
- Mons. Marcel Honorat Léon AGBOTON, Archbishop of Cotonou, Vice President of the Episcopal Conference (BENIN)
- Mons. Jean-Claude MAKAYA LOEMBA, Bishop of Pointe-Noire (REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. George BIGUZZI, S.X., Bishop of Makeni, President of the Episcopal Conference (SIERRA LEONE)
- Mons. Egidio NKAIJANABWO, Bishop of Kasese (UGANDA)


Summaries of their interventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b19...


The following auditors also intervened at this session:
- Rev. Sister Bernadette GUISSOU, S.I.C.O., Superior General of the Hearth of the Inmaculate Conception, Ouagadougou (BURKINA FASO)
- Mme. Marguerite BARANKITSE, Founder of Maison Shalom, Ruyigi (BURUNDI)
- Rev. F. Speratus KAMANZI, A.J., Superior General of the Apostles of Jesus, Nairobi (KENYA)
- Dr. Elard ALUMANDO, Country Director of the DREAM Program (MALAWI)
- Prof. Alöyse Raymond NDIAYE, President of the National Committee of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Senegal, Dakar (SENEGAL)
- Assandé Martial EBA, Member of the International Foundation Our Lady of Peace, Yamoussoukro (IVORY COAST)
- Bro. André SENE, O.H., Responsible of the Pastoral of the Health in the diocese of Thies (SENEGAL)
Auditors:
- Rev. Sister Bernadette GUISSOU, S.I.C.O., Superior General of the Hearth of the Inmaculate Conception, Ouagadougou (BURKINA FASO)
- Mrs. Marguerite BARANKITSE, Founder of Maison Shalom, Ruyigi (BURUNDI)
- Rev. F. Speratus KAMANZI, A.J., Superior General of the Apostles of Jesus, Nairobi (KENYA)
- Dr. Elard ALUMANDO, Country Director of the DREAM Program (MALAWI)
- Prof. Alöyse Raymond NDIAYE, President of the National Committee of the Order of the Knights of Malta in Senegal, Dakar (SENEGAL)
- Mr. Assandé Martial EBA, Member of the International Foundation Our Lady of Peace, Yamoussoukro (IVORY COAST)
- Bro. André SENE, O.H., Responsible of the Pastoral of the Health in the diocese of Thies (SENEGAL)


Summaries of their interventions are on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b20_02.html#ELEVENTH_GENERAL_CONGREGATION_(MONDAY,_12_OCTOBER_2009_-_AF...



TWELFTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Monday afternoon, Oct. 12, 2009



At 16:30, with the prayer Pro felici Synodi, led by the Holy Father, the Twelfth General Congregation began, for the continuation of the interventions by the Synod Fathers.

Presiding was Cardinal Théodore-Adrien SARR, Archbishop of Dakar (SENEGAL).

The following Fathers intervened:
- Mons. Robert MUHIIRWA, Bishop of Fort Portal (UGANDA)
- Mons. Kyrillos WILLIAM, Bishop of Assiut of Copt Rite (EGYPT)
- Mons. Philippe RANAIVOMANANA, Bishop of Ihosy (MADAGASCAR)
- Mons. Laurent MONSENGWO PASINYA, Archbishop of Kinshasa (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO)
- Mons. Raymond Leo BURKE, Archbishop Emeritus of Saint Louis, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Tesfaselassie MEDHIN, Bishop of Adigrat (ETHIOPIA)
- Mons. Norbert Wendelin MTEGA, Archbishop of Songea (TANZANIA)
- Mons. Krikor-Okosdinos COUSSA, Bishop of Iskanderiya of the Armenians (EGYPT)
- Mons. Denis WIEHE, C.S.Sp., Bishop of Port Victoria, President of the Episcopal Conference (C.E.D.O.I.) (SEYCHELLES)
- Mons. Ludwig SCHICK, Archbishop of Bamberg, President of the Commission "Weltkirche" of the German Episcopal Conference (GERMANY)

At 18:00, the assembly president gave the floor to specially invited guest Jacques DIOUF, Director-General of FAO.

The General Congregation ended at 19.00 with the Prayer Angelus Domini.


English summaries of the afternoon interventions, including Mr. Diouf's, may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b21_02.html#INTERVENTION_OF_THE_SPECIALLY_INVITED_GUEST_DR._JACQUES_DIOUF,_DIRECTOR-GENERA...


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Vatican celebrates
the history of astronomy






VATICAN, Oct. 13 (AP) -- Rudimentary telescopes, celestial globes and original manuscripts by Galileo are going on view at the Vatican Museums as part of an exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of the astronomer's first celestial observations.



"Astrum 2009: Astronomy and Instruments" traces the history of astronomy through its tools, from a 3rd century A.D. globe of the zodiac to the increasingly complicated telescopes used in more recent times to gaze at the stars. The exhibit opens Friday and runs through Jan. 16.

At a briefing to launch the exhibit Tuesday, Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's top culture official, declined to revisit the Church's 17th century condemnation of Galileo for his discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun.

Church teaching at the time placed the Earth at the center of the universe.

Rather, Ravasi said that, while it was necessary to have the courage to admit errors when they were made, "I continue to believe that it's necessary to look more to the future."

The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest.

The ruling helped fuel accusations that the Church was hostile to science -- a reputation the Vatican has been trying to shed ever since.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

The exhibit, and other Vatican initiatives to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy, is part of the Vatican's continuing rehabilitation effort.

One of the highlights of the show is Galileo's original manuscript of "Sidereus Nuncius," the 1610 document in which he excitedly recorded his first discoveries after using his telescope.

Tommaso Maccacaro, president of Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics, said it was important to look at the instruments not just from a scientific view but from a cultural one as well, since astronomy has had such an impact on the way we perceive ourselves.

"It was astronomical observations that let us understand that Earth (and man) don't have a privileged position or role in the universe," he said in his prepared comments to the briefing. "I ask myself what tools will we use in the next 400 years, and I ask what revolutions of understanding they'll bring about, like resolving the mystery of our apparent cosmic solitude."






History of Italy's celestial studies
stars in Vatican Museums' exhibit

By Carol Glatz



VATICAN CITY, oCT. 13 (CNS) -- The Vatican and Italian observatories have teamed up to display for the first time numerous precious instruments and books documenting the birth and development of stargazing in Italy.

The Vatican Observatory, the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics and the Vatican Museums have pooled their collections of antique telescopes, astrolabes, celestial globes and manuscripts, such as Galileo Galilei's original handwritten notes detailing his observations of the moon. Many of the 130 items in the exhibit have never been displayed publicly.

The exhibit, called "Astrum 2009," runs at the Vatican Museums from Oct. 16 to Jan. 16, 2010, and commemorates the International Year of Astronomy.

The United Nations declared the special year to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first use of the telescope to observe the cosmos.

The exhibit's curator, Ileana Chinnici, told journalists during a Vatican press conference Oct. 13 that Italy's unique patrimony of astronomical instruments is the richest in the world.

Popes and the divided Italian states all supported their own observatories and amassed a large number of historical instruments and valuable documentation, she said.

Some of the unique and valuable objects on display include Galileo's handwritten notes and his publication "Starry Messenger" from 1610, both of which detailed how he perfected the telescope to magnify distant objects 30 times the size they appear to the naked eye.

There is also a replica of one of Galileo's telescopes created by Massachusetts-based craftspeople Jim and Rhonda Morris. The original is in the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy.

Also on display is the arithmometer, one of the first commercial calculating machines. Created in 1882, it helped scientists do complex additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions as well as extract square roots.

A few sections of the 130-piece exhibit are dedicated to the Vatican's history of astronomical research, including its participation in the 19th-century international "Carte du Ciel" (Map of Heaven) project to catalog and make a map of the stars.

Between 1910 and 1921, the Vatican Observatory assigned three nuns to help with the map project. These Sisters of the Child Mary measured the coordinates of tens of thousands of stars reproduced on photographic glass plates.

Also on display for the first time are photographs of a papal expedition to Russia in 1887 to witness and document a total solar eclipse. Three Italian priests made the trip, which proved unsuccessful due to poor weather and viewing conditions.

Missing from the exhibit is any mention of the church's troubled history and dealings with Galileo.

The Italian scientist was condemned for suspected heresy in 1633 for maintaining that the earth revolved around the sun. He was "rehabilitated" in 1992 by a special Vatican commission established by Pope John Paul II.

The church has made significant overtures in recent decades to show that faith and science do not conflict.

Galileo opened up a brand new way of doing science, which wasn't accepted immediately, said Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, president of the commission governing Vatican City in a written introduction to the exhibit's catalog.

These groundbreaking scientific discoveries help people better understand God's creation, he wrote, and the exhibit shows how science "is an inescapable part" of the human spirit and the whole human experience.





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THIRTEENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Tuesday, October 13, 2009



Today the Thirteenth General Congregation met for the continuation of the interventions by the Synod Fathers. Presiding was Cardinal Francis ARINZE, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (VATICAN CITY).

The following Fathers intervened:
- Mons. Ernesto MAGUENGUE, Bishop of Pemba (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Joachim KOURALEYO TAROUNGA, Bishop of Moundou (CHAD)
- Mons. Servilien NZAKAMWITA, Bishop of Byumba (RWANDA)
- Mons. Abraham DESTA, Apostolic Vicar of Meki (ETHIOPIA)
- Rev. F. Mamby Dominique BASSE, Sch. P., Superior Major of the Poor Clerks Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools in Senegal (Scolopi) (UNION OF SUPERIORS-GENERAL)
- Mons. Manuel António MENDES DOS SANTOS, C.M.F., Bishop of São Tomé e Príncipe (SÃO TOMÉ)
- Cardinal William Joseph LEVADA, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (VATICAN CITY)
- Mons. Matthias N'GARTÉRI MAYADI, Archbishop of N'Djaména (CHAD)
- Mons. Alick BANDA, Bishop of Solwezi (ZAMBIA)
- Mons. John Baptist ODAMA, Archbishop of Gulu (UGANDA)
- Mons. Martin MUSONDE KIVUVA, Bishop of Machakos (KENYA)
- Mons. Jean Claude RANDRIANARISOA, Bishop of Miarinarivo (MADAGASCAR)
- Mons. Edward Tamba CHARLES, Archbishop of Freetown and Bo (SIERRA LEONE)
- Mons. Zygmunt ZIMOWSKI, Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus of Radom, President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care (VATICAN CITY)
- Frr. Jan GEERITS, S.D.S., Apostolic Administrator of Apostolic Administration of Comoros
- Mons. Liborius Ndumbukuti NASHENDA, O.M.I., Archbishop of Windhoek, President of the Episcopal Conference (NAMIBIA)
- Mons. Filomeno DO NASCIMENTO VIEIRA DIAS, Bishop of Cabinda (ANGOLA)
- Mons. Joseph Shipandeni SHIKONGO, O.M.I., Apostolic Vicar of Rundu (NAMIBIA)
- Rev. F. Zeferino ZECA MARTINS, S.V.D., Provincial of Angola of Society of the Divine Word (ANGOLA)
- Mons. José Câmnate NA BISSIGN, Bishop of Bissau (GUINEA-BISSAU)
- Mons. Camillus Archibong ETOKUDOH, Bishop of Port Harcourt (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Germano GRACHANE, C.M., Bishop of Nacala (MOZAMBIQUE)
- Mons. Basile MVÉ ENGONE, S.D.B., Archbishop of Libreville (GABON)
- Mons. Odon Marie Arsène RAZANAKOLONA, Archbishop of Tananarive (MADAGASCAR)
- Mons. Daniel Marco Kur ADWOK, Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum (SUDAN)
- Mons. Felix Alaba Adeosin JOB, Archbishop of Ibadan, President of the Episcopal Conference (NIGERIA)
- Mons. Gerard Tlali LEROTHOLI, O.MI., Archbishop of Maseru (LESOTHO)

English summaries of their interventions may be found on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b22...




FOURTEENTH GENERAL CONGREGATION
Tuesday, Oct, 13, 2009



At 16:30 today, with the prayer Adsumus, led by the Holy Father, the Fourteenth General Congregation met and listened to the Relatio post disceptationem (Report after the Discussion), with Cardinal Arinze presiding.

The General Relator, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah TURKSON, Archbishop of Cape Coast (GHANA), read the Relatio at the conclusion of the general discussion.

He summarized the different interventions at the General Congregations so far and offered guidelines for orientation to facilitate the work of the working groups.

The full text of his Relatio in English may be read on
www.vatican.va/news_services/press/sinodo/documents/bollettino_23_ii_speciale-africa-2009/02_inglese/b23...

During the break, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience the working groups Gallicus E and Lusitanus.

This General Congregation ended at 19:00 with the prayer of the Angelus Domini. 218 Fathers were present.

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Jordanian bishop: God, not Obama,
will bring peace to the Middle East







Amman, Jordan, Oct 9, 2009 (CNA) - The Vicar of Jordan, Most Rev. Selim Sayegh, spoke to CNA in Amman last week about the tensions in the Middle East as well as the diminishing number of Christians in the area. He noted that Catholics can assist those struggling in the region by praying for peace because “true peace comes from the Lord,” not Obama, or Israeli/Palestinian leaders.

Sayegh, who has served Jordan as an auxiliary bishop for 27 years, addressed the plight of Christians in the Middle East, particularly the ones living in Iraq. He noted that the while the situation isn’t desperate, less Christians are living in the area than is considered ideal.

“Why,” the bishop asked, are not only Christians but also Muslims leaving the area? “All of them, they are looking for peace…they want peace for their children,” he answered.

“Once peace is established into these countries...no one would think about leaving.”

He zeroed in on Iraq asking why anyone would leave – it’s “one of the richest countries in the world,” however “there is no hope.”

When Iraqi Christians leave, they go to Jordan or Syria, the vicar explained. But, “for the most part, the Christians don’t intend to become established in Jordan,” but they only “stay until they can obtain a visa to the United States, Europe or Australia.”

“It’s a very sad situation,” the bishop lamented, explaining that many of the Iraqis were educated, economically well-off people in their country, but when they leave, all of a sudden, “poof, and they have nothing.”

Bishop Sayegh said that Catholics around the world can help improve the situation in the Middle East not only by being “good citizens,” but also by praying for peace.

“Pray for peace because true peace comes from the Lord, it doesn’t come from Obama or from Netanyahu or from Abu Mazen,” but rather from the “Lord of peace,” the bishop remarked.

Reflecting on Christians’ role in the peace process, Bishop Sayegh said that they have their place, but that they are called to play a role by living out the faith.

“That’s why every day in our churches we pray for peace,” since God is the only one who is “able to change the hearts” and to “arrive at peace” in the region.




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Combatting racism, sxenophobia and discrimination.
also focusing on intolerance and discrimination
against Christians and members of other religions




Here is the address delivered by Mons. Anthony Frontiero for the Holy See on Oct. 5, to a working session of the OSCE/ODIHIR Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the United Nations in Warsaw Sept. 28-Oct. 9.



Mr. Moderator,

The Delegation of the Holy See appreciates this opportunity to participate in this important discussion. Incidents of hate, discrimination, violence and intolerance against Christians and members of other religions continue to occur all too frequently in the OSCE region, and are symptomatic of the lack of peace in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI lamented this situation, saying "Speaking of Christians in particular, I must point out with pain that not only are they at times prevented from [publicly and freely professing their religious convictions]: in some States they are actually persecuted, and even recently tragic cases of ferocious violence have been recorded.

There are regimes that impose a single religion upon everyone, while secular regimes often lead not so much to violent persecution as to systematic cultural denigration of religious beliefs.

In both instances, a fundamental human right is not being respected, with serious repercussions for peaceful co-existence. This can only promote a mentality and culture that is not conducive to peace."

Authentic tolerance and respect is a civic discipline, not just a personal attitude. The objective of the OSCE commitment to combat intolerance and discrimination against Christians and members of the other religions is not to somehow "level the playing field", or indifference towards world views, but to genuinely the differences among us.

Indeed, neutrality toward world views cannot be truly tolerant and respectful. Likewise, an absence of convictions does not define tolerance; and in the absence of some compelling notion of the truth that requires us to be tolerant of those who have a different understanding of the truth of things, there is only scepticism and relativism.

An authentic notion of tolerance in pluralistic societies demands that in their dealings with unbelievers and those of different faiths, believers should grasp that they must reasonably expect that the dissent they encounter will go on existing.

At the same time, however, secular political cultures must encourage unbelievers to grasp the same point in their dealings with believers. When secularized citizens act in their role as citizens, they must to deny in principle that religious images of the world have the potential to express truth. Nor must they refuse their believing fellow citizens the right to make contributions in a religions language to public debates.

The Round Table Meeting on the theme "Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians", held in Vienna in March 2009, was a successful and hopeful event, and revealed the possibility of constructive dialogue toward mutual understanding and respect among Christians, members of other religions, and non-believers.

It is hoped that a follow-up to the Round Table will be forthcoming. In the face of ongoing incidents of intolerance, discrimination and violence against Christians and members of other religions, the Delegation of the Holy See proposes that this august body conceive of a new tolerance, not the indifferent tolerance that says, "We should be tolerant because it works better", but the true tolerance of differences engaged civilly.

In conclusion, I hold up such a notion described by Pope Benedict XVI, where he says: "Fruitful dialogue between faith and reason cannot but render the work of charity more effective within society, and it constitutes the most appropriate framework for promoting fraternal collaboration between believers and non-believers in their shared commitment to working for justice and the peace of the human family."

Respecting the order as an Other who is also a seeker of truth and goodness, enables the believer and the Other to enter into a conversation, a dialogue that leads to mutual enrichment rather than to a deeper scepticism about the very possibility of grasping the truth of things.

A listing of concrete recommendations on this Item will be furnished to the Secretariat along with the text of my remarks.

Thank you, Mr. Moderator
.



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