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Zawya
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Zawya
Message of the 20th Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)
Following addresses by speakers from Africa and beyond, and fruitful deliberations, we, Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops, members of SECAM ( address this message to the Church, the Family of God in Africa and its Islands, as well as to all people of goodwill. In our Final Message of the 19th Plenary Assembly, held in Accra, Ghana, from 25 July to 1 August 2022, we recalled 'the great insecurity reigning in several regions of our continent, due to socio-political instability, violence, economic poverty, weak health structures, insurgency, terrorism, the exploitation of religion for political purposes, and the lack of respect for the environment and good governance.' These challenges persist and remain to be fully overcome, but they should not be a reason to fall into despair. For with Christ and through Him, an essential virtue can fill our hearts and allow us to look toward the future with confidence and hope. Christ is the Source of hope for Africa and its peoples. 1. Hope at the Heart of Our Lives Before returning to the Father's house, Pope Francis set the whole Church on the path of synodality. It is within this framework that our meeting this year takes place, bearing witness to our collective reflection on how we walk together over the next 25 years. As we know, synod means 'walking together.' But we can only walk together if we share a common goal. Our goal is to make Christ ever more present in our communities and in our lives. Christ is the ultimate purpose of our synodal journey; He is the foundation of our hope and the reason we carry our cross in His footsteps. He is our hope and the way (John 14:6) that leads us to the fullness of truth and abundant life (John 10:10). Christian hope is rooted in the primacy of the Kingdom of God. It is a promise of God's reign among people of goodwill. This entails a life of faith and obedience to God; a God who provides for the needs of all who trust in Him: 'Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well' (Mt. 6:33). We exhort all Christians in Africa and its Islands to open their hearts to this hope that Christ, the 'Resurrection and the Life in abundance,' offers, so they may be freed from all forms of death that confront them in daily life. It is timely to recall the prophetic words of Saint Pope John Paul II at his inauguration in Saint Peter's Square on 22 October 1978: 'Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors for Christ and His saving power. Open the boundaries of States, political and economic systems, as well as the vast fields of culture, development, and civilization. Do not be afraid!' The challenge of being the 'architects of the Africa we want' ultimately involves opening up the horizons of hope, so that we may grow into our full humanity as children of God, called to the newness of the Gospel that sets us free from all evil (cf. Instrumentum Laboris, October 2023). Christian hope is not to be confused with a mere mental projection detached from reality. It is an active commitment, a presence in the name of the Lord Jesus, alongside those who suffer, who endure injustice, and who are cast aside by the powerful of this world. Following Christ, the Church in Africa and Madagascar must embrace the preferential option for the poor, as taught by her Master. 'Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient' (2 Tim 4:2), following the example of Saint Paul, calls for bold words that challenge and disrupt the status quo. Saint John Paul II even stated that 'a sign of contradiction' could be 'a distinctive definition of Christ and His Church.' 'I am sending you out like sheep among wolves' (Mt. 10:16), Jesus warned His disciples, yet He immediately added this reassuring promise: 'And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age' (Mt. 28:20). Therefore, despite the difficulties of the mission, the presence of Jesus remains a source of hope for 'a Church that goes forth,' as Pope Francis says; a Church made up of Christians actively building a new world, a new heaven, and a new earth that has been promised to us. These are Christians who transform humanity into the Family of God and work to make it inhabit the Kingdom of God. On June 15, a young Congolese layman, Floribert Bwana Chui, was beatified in Rome. He was assassinated in 2007 in Goma for refusing to allow spoiled food products to enter the country in exchange for a bribe. Pope Francis paid tribute to this young man, recognized as a 'martyr of honesty and moral integrity.' We encourage our African youth to bear witness to Gospel values. The Kampala Document called for the creation of a new Africa: "An Africa of the baptized who are conscious that their vocation, intrinsically linked to their identity, is to cling to the person of Jesus Christ, to remain in Him, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit in the love of the Father, and to work so that the reign of God may spread more deeply within the heart of African societies' (no. 131). 2. Christ, Source of Reconciliation and Peace Interethnic and interstate tensions in various African regions result only in human impoverishment, which in turn triggers further deprivation that paralyzes the entire continent. No one truly wins in a conflict, whatever its nature. Reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace are essential elements for the development of all dimensions of human life. As Saint Paul insists: 'We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God' (2 Cor 5:20-21). Reconciliation between people, and even more so between Christians, must find its foundation in God's reconciliation with all humanity through the Lord Jesus. We, your Pastors, believe that our mission, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is to call all baptized persons in conflict to reconciliation and forgiveness, so that the harmony and peaceful coexistence established by Christ's salvific act may become a lifestyle for all. Reconciliation and peace are indeed 'a path of hope' in that they reveal the true nature of the human person as intrinsically oriented toward others. The proclamation of this message of hope is all the more urgent in light of the continued reality, tragically, where 'so many men and women, children and the elderly, are denied their dignity, their physical integrity, their freedom, including religious freedom, deprived of community solidarity and of hope for the future. Countless innocent victims bear the burden of humiliation and exclusion, of bereavement and injustice, and even the trauma of systematic persecution directed against their people and loved ones.' Peace among the sons and daughters of the Church in Africa and the Islands, baptized in Christ, must be uncompromising and unconditional. It must be rooted in the gratuitous gift of God given through Christ by the Holy Spirit. 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives,' said Jesus (John 14:27). It is in this spirit that Pope Leo XIV, on the day of his election, solemnly declared: 'It is the peace of the Risen Christ, disarming, humble, and persevering. It comes from God, who loves us all unconditionally.' The Church, as a witness to the suffering of peoples in areas plagued by armed conflict, must commit itself more vigorously to awareness-raising and concrete action for peace. Educating the younger generations in the ways of peace must be among her priorities, so that every man and woman of Africa and Madagascar may become a channel of God's peace in Christ Jesus. We seize this opportunity to appeal to all our political leaders to have at heart the wellbeing of the peoples they govern, to protect the weakest, and to promote dialogue and a better way of living together. Saint Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Populorum Progressio (1967), launched a message that remains highly relevant to our continent today: 'Development is the new name for peace.' In other words, peace is a sine qua non for the emergence of a healthy environment—one that alone can ensure the foundational elements of social and economic progress. However, this peace, which opens the way to development, can only be true if it is rooted in its Source, who is Christ. In the words of Saint Paul, and with firm conviction in our prophetic mission, we never cease to wish for our continent: 'Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ' (Eph. 6:23). 3. Walking Together as the Church-Family of God The message that SECAM seeks to place in the hearts of the sons and daughters of Africa and Madagascar at this 20th Plenary Assembly carries a twofold dimension: first, to rekindle and live out our true identity as the Church-Family of God; God as our Father, the Church as our Mother, and others as our brothers and sisters; second, to fully embrace the great mission of reconciliation. Because we are human and often wound one another, we constantly need to heal and restore our relationships. Reconciliation, whose source is Christ, enables us to mend broken bonds. Through this healing, we are called to live in justice and peace. This is the mission entrusted to us by the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops: 'The face of evangelization today takes the name of reconciliation, an indispensable condition for establishing relationships of justice among people in Africa and for building a just and lasting peace that respects each person and all peoples. It is a peace open to the contributions of all people of goodwill, beyond religious, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, and social affiliations.' (Africae Munus, no. 174) To walk and live as the Church-Family of God means to be in right relationship with God and with one another. It means recognizing God as our Father, the Church as our Mother, and ourselves as brothers and sisters. This image calls us to a life of communion, love, and mutual responsibility. Today, Christ sends us forth on mission: to renew our understanding and practice of being a Family of God, and to serve our communities and our continent with the Gospel of reconciliation, justice, and peace. In the Kampala Document of 2019, we expressed a similar vision: 'The Church is a family of people united by life, mutual acceptance, love, commitment, celebration of faith, forgiveness, joy, and sharing. It is a community for building justice, peace, solidarity, and fraternity, lived out in word and deed.' Understood in this way, the Church-Family of God becomes a true cradle for the birth and growth of hope, reconciliation, and peace. Conclusion In this Jubilee Year, we recall that the fundamental mission of all the baptized is to be messengers and builders of hope. Thus, the Church-Family of God in Africa and its Islands proposes a vision for the next 25 years, a vision rooted in Christ our Hope and structured around twelve pillars: 1. Evangelization (Catholic Education and theological tradition) 2. A self-reliant Church 3. Family model of leadership 4. Formation on missionary discipleship and synodality. 5. Care of creation 6. The youth and the renewal of the Church 7. Justice, Peace and Integral human development 8. Ecumenism and interfaith dialogue 9. Mission in the digital environment 10. The health of the people of God 11. Liturgical life of the African Church 12. Church and Politic May the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Africa, accompany the Church on our continent, so that she may bear witness to Jesus, our Peace and our Hope. Kigali, 4 th August 2025 + Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo Archbishop of Kinshasa President of SECAM Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Where does Pope Leo XIV stand on key issues facing the Catholic Church?
This morning, Australians woke to find a new pope had been elected. Just after 6pm local time, white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, as tens of thousands of Catholic faithful watched from St Peter's Square. After two days and three votes, the 133 cardinals in the conclave chose 69-year-old US-born Robert Prevost, a surprising choice to many. Prevost, who has taken the name Leo XIV, is the first ever American pope. When he greeted the masses from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, he called on the world to "come together as one people, always in peace", before paying homage to his predecessor, Pope Francis. So, where does Pope Leo XIV stand on the biggest issues facing the Catholic Church today? While he's not quite Francis 2.0, Pope Leo could be described as Francis 1.5, says Shaun Blanchard, a lecturer in theology at the University of Notre Dame. His leadership style and priorities for the church align broadly with those of his predecessor, though he is said to be more reserved than Pope Francis. Commonly called "the people's pope", Francis valued pastoral care and focused on bringing the teachings of the Church to the poor and marginalised. "I think one reason that Prevost was elected is that he's in favour of Pope Francis's policy of synodality: this idea of deliberative consultation at every level of the church," Dr Blanchard says. "I suspect what happened in the conclave is that there were enough cardinals who wanted to go in this same general direction as Pope Francis, but they perhaps also wanted a man who might be able to reach out to some of the more conservative members of the church." Born in Chicago, Pope Leo lived and worked in Peru for over 20 years and became a citizen. Dr Blanchard says this makes him likely to continue Francis' emphasis on ministering to the Global South. "They say he's the first North American Pope, which is true, but he's also really very much a Pope of the Americas," he says. "He's very much embedded in Latino culture … so I think he'll be very much a pope of the people, but it'll manifest in a different style than Francis." One of the key issues facing the Catholic Church — reportedly a key point of discussion during the conclave — is how the pontiff would mediate conflict and war, especially in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. Perhaps signalling his approach, Pope Leo used his opening address to share his vision of the church as one of "peace and justice", with a focus on "building bridges". Appointed by Pope Francis as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 2023, Pope Leo has substantial administrative experience in the Roman Curia, the Vatican's governing body. However, he has limited experience in international diplomacy. "He would be seeing the church's role as a mediating role, calling for disarmament, calling for peaceful measures to resolve these conflicts," Dr Blanchard says. "My suspicion is he's going to delegate some of this and seek advice from the people in the Vatican and the Catholic world who are on the ground." Pope Leo has previously signalled his support for Pope Francis' commitment to combating climate change. In a seminar in November 2024, Leo stressed it was time to move "from words to action" and that "dominion over nature" should not become "tyrannical". Dr Blanchard describes the new pontiff as "completely on the same page with Pope Francis" when it comes to environmentalism. Lorna Gold, the executive director of Laudato Si' Movement — a global network of Catholic organisations inspired by Pope Francis to address the climate crisis — said Pope Leo's election marked "a time of unity and bold action". "Pope Leo XIV is the pope needed at this moment: a man who stands for unity, peace, and action for our planet," she said in a statement. Pope Leo's stance on migration also aligns with that of Pope Francis, who was famously sympathetic to the cause. His long-time home, Peru, hosts the highest number of Venezuelan asylum-seekers globally. His diocese in Chiclayo in the country's north relies heavily on migrants for its agricultural industry. The new pope has previously spoken out via social media against the Trump administration's immigration policies. On X, an account under his name shared articles entitled "Why Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic" and "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others". "He's very strong on that issue, very much cut from the same cloth as Pope Francis," Dr Blanchard says. "I think this is going to be a real emphasis of his pontificate." Following the papal election, Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a statement expressing his hope that Pope Leo "becomes a great leader for migrants around the world." Pope Leo appears to be aligned with his predecessor on the role of women in the Catholic Church. During a Vatican news conference in 2023, he said that "women can add a great deal to the life of the church on many different levels", though he warned that "clericalising women" might "make a new problem". However, like Pope Francis, he affirms the church's ban on women being ordained as priests. His views on LGBTQIA+ rights may diverge from those of Pope Francis, who was relatively progressive in this space. In a 2012 address to bishops, Pope Leo reportedly accused Western media of promoting "sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel". Those beliefs included the "homosexual lifestyle" and "alternative families". During his post as bishop of Chiclayo in northwestern Peru, he opposed a government initiative to teach issues around gender identity in schools, telling local news outlets it would seek "to create genders that don't exist". Dr Blanchard says his approach to LGBTQIA+ issues will be under scrutiny. "Does he meet with gay couples? How does he speak of including gay couples in the life of a parish?" he says. "The extent to which he maps onto the path of Pope Francis or not will no doubt be watched very, very closely." On other social issues, like abortion and euthanasia, Pope Leo is likely to support the Catholic Church's firm opposition. Handling the ongoing fallout of the clerical sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church was likely a significant point of discussion during the conclave. "I can't imagine that the cardinals would elect a man who they think doesn't understand the problem or isn't willing to continue the slow but positive momentum in this area," Dr Blanchard says. Before the papal election, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released an open letter calling on the new pontiff to bring in a "truly universal zero tolerance law for sexual abuse and cover-up" by clergy. Upon Pope Leo's election, a spokesperson for the group said they were "gravely concerned" about his appointment. Like several other high-profile Catholic clergy — including Pope Francis himself — Pope Leo has faced criticism over his perceived inaction regarding child sexual abuse. Advocates say he did not do enough to support three victims of alleged abuse in his Peruvian diocese and criticise his dealings with child sex abuser Father James Ray in Chicago.
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
The New Pope Might Be Something Like the Old Pope
With the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the College of Cardinals sent a clear message of continuity with the reformist agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis. But despite Leo's reputation as having a quieter, more disciplined personality than that of Francis, the conservative ire that has roiled Catholicism during the previous pontificate is likely to continue with this first American pope. Traditionalist Catholics, especially in the United States — where much of the opposition to Francis was based — had yearned for a new pope who would rein in or even reverse changes that Francis made to foster a more inclusive church, where authority was shared and everyone could be heard. Francis' favorite vehicle for those reforms goes by a bit of church jargon: synodality. It's a term much bandied about but little understood. It refers to the gathering of church leaders and members to discuss and debate urgent issues. For Francis it meant bringing together bishops and lay people, women and young people — and yes, the pope — to speak openly and as equals about issues that would have been barred from discussion, much less consideration of solutions, in the past. Many conservatives read into how Francis conceived of synodality a veritable heresy that sowed confusion and ambiguity among the faithful. It was a manipulative way of changing the church, his critics believed. Conservatives ramped up their oratory in the days leading up to the conclave. They made it clear that if the cardinals did not produce a pope more to their liking — demands couched in euphemistic terms like a need for 'unity' and 'clarity' — a schism in the church could be the result. But the cardinals made it clear they would not give in to a heckler's veto. When Leo emerged onto the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica immediately after his election on Thursday, he told the roaring crowd in his characteristically deliberate manner that, 'We want to be a synodal church.' You could almost hear the air going out of the opposition's sails. Leo will very likely be more understated than Francis, and make every effort to reconcile with those who may disagree with him. But by all accounts he is very determined. If he does walk through the door of reform that Francis opened, then it's anyone's guess how long any reconciliation with traditionalists that he is able to establish will last. Leo has generally kept a low profile but has made it clear that reforms are at the heart of his vision of the church. 'We must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today,' he said in an interview with Vatican Media. 'The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.' He has also been active on social media, sharing an article on X with the title: 'JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.' And he took the name of Leo XIII, the pope whose teachings in the late-19th century helped establish modern Catholic teaching on social justice. The fundamental issue that lies at the heart of these tensions and has inflamed Catholic debates for the better part of the last century is change: What can change in the church, how can it change and will change destroy the deposit of faith, tearing apart the sprawling flock of nearly 1.4 billion members. Whether it is a question of who can be ordained, who can preach, who can be blessed and who can receive communion, change — or 'development,' as the church prefers to call it — underlies almost every controversy. The reality is that the church has always changed, and is always changing. Sometimes change in church positions comes to matters like slavery or religious freedom or usury. Other times it is church practices like allowing women and girls as altar servers and readers — once forbidden, now commonly practiced. But the Catholic Church puts such a premium on appearing always unchanging that it prefers to practice what the French-German church historian Michael Seewald calls the 'concealment of innovation.' Or, as Church wags like to say, when the Vatican begins a proclamation saying 'as the church has always taught,' then you know they are about to announce a change. Paradoxically, change is in fact part of continuity. 'Sometimes change is required precisely in order to remain faithful to the tradition,' the Jesuit church historian John O'Malley wrote. 'It has in that way been operative in the church from the beginning.' What Francis did was not so much change the church himself — indeed, many progressives were disappointed that his promotion of women and his welcome to gays and lesbians, among other things, did not go further. Rather, he simply acknowledged that the church has already changed and that the tensions and debates already exist. He launched the process of synodality to reconcile the reality in the parishes with the teachings set out in church documents. That process is fraught with controversy and faces many hurdles. But it is designed to outlast any single pope. The 69-year-old Leo is likely to have a fairly lengthy papacy that can further institutionalize the processes that Francis started. The Catholic right could face a long war. It doesn't have to be that way. Well-respected orthodox thinkers like Pope Benedict XVI have spoken in detail about how the church changes and reforms: through 'continuity and discontinuity at different levels,' as he put it in a 2005 address to the Roman bureaucracy. Conservatives need to learn the value of disagreement and even dissent. Under previous popes more to their liking, the Catholic right demanded that Catholics toe the line on papal pronouncements or be considered 'bad' Catholics. But now that they find themselves in a church led by popes they disagree with, they are stuck. They defined dissent as wrong, so it must be the pope who is the bad Catholic. It's an awful mess. The other lesson that conservatives can learn as they face the road ahead is the value of diversity. It's a loaded term in today's political climate but in the context of a global church of extraordinary variety and complexity, embracing it is the only way that the church can grow and remain one. 'The unity of the church is willed by Christ; a unity that does not mean uniformity but a firm and profound communion in diversity,' Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, hardly a progressive, put it this week in his homily during the Mass before the cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel to vote. That is the way, and it always has been. 'Test everything, hold fast what is good,' St. Paul told the Thessalonians. It worked for the early church, and there could be no greater witness in today's tribal and polarized world than a global church more diverse than ever in its various expressions but still united in heart and mind.
