AFRICA, THE WORLD’S SPIRITUAL LUNG

Pope Benedict XVI spent a couple of days in Benin,  Africa in a very symbolic and important journey for the Church of Africa, and for us all. Benedict XVI’s visit to Benin and the apostolic exhortation, Africae Munus, which he signed in Ouidah make an important contribution to world coexistence and offer real support for the Catholic Church’s commitment. A commitment which is not foreign to the continent that provided exile to the Holy Family fleeing persecution and where Christianity has very ancient roots. A history which the Pope underscored several times, recalling the importance of the school of Alexandria, evoking the ancient African Christian writers in Latin and especially repeating, again to journalists on the airplane to Cotonou, that in the 21st century the announcement of the Gospel on the continent should not seem like a difficult and European system, but be expressed in a universal message, at once simple and profound, “that God knows us and loves us and that concrete religion provokes collaboration and fraternity.”

Why couldn’t an African country show the way to the rest of the world? Benedict XVI left Benin with a question which involves more than just that continent which he visited for the second time in less than three years. Clarifying that it is a way of living in authentic fraternity, founded on the family and work, the Pope’s final speech in Benin served to strongly encourage Africa and admonish those who continue to exploit it through ill-concealed forms of neocolonialism.

Let’s pray for our African brothers and sisters and the power of the Church there which is providing vocations where other places are not.