COTONOU, Benin (CNS): On a three-day visit to Benin, Pope Benedict XVI urged African Catholics to witness the hope of the Gospel in their daily lives and make the Church a model of reconciliation for the entire continent.
In a particular way, the Church must be “attentive to the cry of the poor, the weak, the outcast”, the Pope said at a Mass on November 20 for more than 50,000 people who filled a stadium in Cotonou.
The Pope stressed the urgency of evangelising and said the Church must make a special effort to reach those “whose faith is weak” and who think selfish satisfaction and easy gain is the goal of human life.
“The Church in Benin has received much from her missionaries; she must in turn carry this message of hope to people who do not know or who no longer know the Lord Jesus,” he said.
The Pope’s message was aimed beyond the borders of Benin, a small West African country with a population of nearly three million Catholics out of a total population of nearly nine million.
He came to Africa to unveil a document, Africae Munus (“The Commitment of Africa”), that outlined pastoral strategies and urged Catholics to become “apostles of reconciliation, justice and peace” across the troubled continent.
One of the most animated public events saw the Pope surrounded by several hundred schoolchildren, who accompanied him in a rhythmic procession and cheered him inside a parish church.
In a talk, the Pope told the children to ask their parents to pray with them.
“Sometimes you may even have to push them a little. But do not hesitate to do so. God is that important,” he said.
On November 19, the Pope travelled to the coastal city of Ouidah, a former slave trading post on the Atlantic, to sign his follow-up document to the 2009 Synod of Bishops for Africa.
The 138-page text said the Church should lead the way in promoting respect for human dignity and life at every stage, fighting against economic imbalance and environmental degradation, providing health care to those with AIDS and other diseases, educating the young and reconciling human hearts in places of ethnic tension.
In a brief talk before the signing, the Pope said that in the face of Africa’s problems, “a Church reconciled within herself and among all her members can become a prophetic sign of reconciliation in society” and help guide the struggle against “every form of slavery” in the modern world.
He encouraged lay Catholics to defend the institution of the family “built according to the design of God” and the Christian understanding of marriage. Parents should transform family life through the power of prayer and by transmitting values to their children by their own example, he said.
Addressing diplomats, civil authorities and religious representatives on November 19 in Cotonou, the Pope said Africa’s challenges reflected wider issues common to all humanity, including scandals and injustice, corruption and greed, and “too much violence which leads to misery and death”.
He urged world leaders to put the common good at the centre of their policies.
“From this place, I launch an appeal to all political and economic leaders of African countries and the rest of the world. Do not deprive your peoples of hope! Do not cut them off from their future by mutilating their present,” he said.
The Pope also cautioned the international community against viewing Africa solely as a place of problems and failures.
Often this perspective was fuelled by prejudices, he said.
It is tempting to point to what does not work; it is easy to assume the judgmental tone of the moraliser or of the expert who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions,” he said.
He warned of the related risk of seeing Africa only in terms of vast resources that can be easily exploited.
