VATICAN CITY (CNS): Meeting the challenges of Africa – from protecting the environment to stopping the spread of AIDS – requires an individual change of heart, better education and co-operation based on respect for African and Christian values, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, said.
The cardinal, whom Pope Benedict XVI named as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on October 24, presented the 57 propositions formulated by the Synod of Bishops for Africa and offered as suggestions for a document the Pope may write about the work of the Church on the continent.
Cardinal Turkson, 61, had served as recording secretary of the October 4-25 synod.
Presenting the propositions at a press conference, Cardinal Turkson said synod members had looked at Africa’s challenges from the point of view of “the work that the Church, as the family of God, has to do”.
Concern for the family was present in many of the propositions, including one on HIV and AIDS.
The bishops said the disease cannot be handled solely as a medical problem or “solely as an issue of a change in human behaviour”, because both were necessary.
The proposition committed the bishops to working against anything “that helps the spread of the disease, such as poverty, the breakdown of family life, marital unfaithfulness, promiscuity and a lifestyle that is devoid of human values and Gospel virtues”.
One of the strongest synod propositions condemned a section of the 2003 Maputo Protocol on women’s rights in Africa for encouraging the continent’s governments to provide abortion services in cases of rape, incest or danger to a woman’s physical or mental health.
The protocol adopted by the African Union at a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, not only violated Church teaching, the bishops said, but it “is in contradiction with human rights and the right to life. It trivialises the seriousness of the crime of abortion and devalues the role of childbearing.”
While thanking international aid agencies for their assistance, the bishops also insisted that more be done to ensure that aid reached the people for whom it was intended.
The propositions spoke of the family as being of “capital importance” for protecting human life and for learning and practising forgiveness, peace, reconciliation and harmony.
Yet they also said the family was under threat because of abortion, the denigration of childbearing, “the distortion of the notion of marriage and the family itself”, and divorce.
The bishops called for better education of Catholics in the meaning of Christian marriage, improved marriage preparation programs and better support for families.
Another issue raised often during the synod was the need to defend the dignity of women and to promote their role in Church and society.
“The synod fathers condemn all acts of violence against women,” including “the battering of wives, the disinheritance of daughters, the oppression of widows in the name of tradition, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, trafficking in women and several other abuses such as sex slavery and sex tourism”, one of the propositions said.
Synod members promised to promote the education of girls and women, open shelters for those who are abused and bring women into Church decision-making structures. They also asked that a special commission on women in the Church be established within the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The synod decried the exploitation and mistreatment of too many of the continent’s children, listing “aborted babies, orphans, albinos, street children, abandoned children, child soldiers, child prisoners, physically and mentally challenged children, children accused of witchcraft (and) children sold as sex slaves”.
During the synod many bishops had condemned multinational companies for exploiting Africa’s natural resources in a way that does not benefit local populations and, in fact, leaves behind environmental destruction.
