Quotes and news

During a two-day visit to Benin the Pope released his apostolic exhortation, Africae Munus, summarising the key insights of the second African Synod.

“Africa is led to explore its Christian vocation more deeply,” the Pope wrote.

The theme of reconciliation is strongly emphasised: “Africa’s memory is painfully scarred as a result of fratricidal conflicts between ethnic groups, the slave trade and colonisation. Today too, the continent has to cope with rivalries and with new forms of enslavement and colonisation.”

The Pope writes that “Africa is experiencing a culture shock which strikes at the age-old foundations of social life, and sometimes makes it hard to come to terms with modernity.” He describes this as an “anthropological crisis” where strong cultural traditions collide with contemporary ideas.

Africae Munus stresses the need for reconciliation to address past and present wrongs, noting that “human consciences are challenged by the grave injustices in our world as a whole and within Africa in particular.” The Pope does not offer a political solution but suggests a spiritual approach consisting of conversion, penance, and reconciliation.

“It is God’s grace that gives us a new heart and reconciles us with Him and one another,” he points out, while urging Christians to base their activities on the principles set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.

‘Jesus Christ’ banned from text messages

Pakistani authorities have included ‘Jesus Christ’ in a list of 160 words banned in text messages. Pakistan’s bishops are protesting strongly.

“The Catholic Church of Pakistan will make all necessary pressures on the government to eliminate the name of Christ from the prohibited list,” said Fr John Shakir Nadeem, secretary of the bishops’ commission for social communications.

“We understand the desire to protect young people from obscene words. But why include the name of Christ? What is obscene? Banning it is a violation of our right to evangelise and hurts the feelings of Christians. If the ban is confirmed, it would be a black page for the country, a further act of discrimination against Christians and an open violation of Pakistan’s Constitution.”

Persecution recalled in Communist Romania

Speaking to the organisation Aid to the Church in Need, BishopFlorentin Crihalmeanu of Cluj-Gherla in Romania recalled Romanian Communists’ attempts to liquidate the Easter-rite Romanian Catholic Church. He said in 1946the Communists had decreedthat all Greek Catholics had to become Orthodox and that all Greek Catholic institutions and properties be dissolved and expropriated.

The number of Romanian Catholics is close to 750,000, less than half the number in 1940.

Franciscan nun to head Liberian commission

Franciscan Sister Mary Laurene Browne was named by the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as the head of a commission to investigate recent election violence.

“Sister Browne has a deep knowledge of the country’s history, because she lived through the various stages of the civil war from within,” said Fr Mauro Armanino, a missionary priest. Liberia experienced two civil wars from 1989 to 1996 and between 1999 and 2003, that left over 350,000 dead.

Fr Mauro described the appointment as recognition of the role the Catholic Church has had, and still has in the Liberian transition.

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)