NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — African Catholic leaders called for peace, dialogue and reconciliation amid persistent violent conflict on the continent at the 20th meeting of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences in Africa and Madagascar from July 30 to Aug. 4.
Over 250 bishops, 13 cardinals and more than 200 priests attended the meeting in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. The overarching forum of Catholic leaders in Africa considered the future of the church under the theme “Christ of hope, reconciliation and peace: The vision of the church family of God for the next 25 years.”
An estimated 280 million Catholics live in Africa, according to Vatican data. As the bishops spoke, more than 35 violent conflicts were unfolding on the continent.
“Interethnic and interstate tensions in various African regions result only in human impoverishment, which in turn triggers further deprivation that paralyzes the entire continent,” said Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, and SECAM president, in the meeting’s final public statement that summarized talks, outcomes and calls to action from the gathering.
The bishops released their statement at a closing Mass in Kibeho, a lush and mountainous village in southern Rwanda where alleged supernatural Marian apparitions came to three young women between 1981 and 1989, which the Catholic Church declared authentic.
The statement called for “uncompromising and unconditional” peace among the continent’s Christians.
“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,” Besungu said.
SECAM was born out of a desire by African bishops during the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s to establish a forum through which they could speak with one voice on issues of concern for the Catholic Church in Africa. Pope Paul VI launched the forum in Kampala, Uganda on July 28, 1969, during his first visit to Africa. The 19th plenary was held in 2022 in Accra, Ghana.
Many conflicts on the continent involve various armed groups fighting against governments or each other, including in countries with large Catholic populations such as Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mozambique.
In Congo, the country with the largest number of Catholics in Africa, militia violence fueled mainly by mineral wealth has occurred for decades. Last week, at least 43 people died when the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State-affiliated group, attacked a Catholic church, Parish of Blessed Anuarite, in the Ituri province.
Besungu said of the violence, “So many men and women, children and the elderly were denied their dignity, their physical integrity, their freedom, including religious freedom, (and) deprived of community solidarity and hope for the future.”
The statement urged the church to commit to concrete actions that can help lead to peace and to vigorously raise awareness of conflict-plagued areas.
“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,” Besungu said. “We seize this opportunity to appeal to all our political leaders to have at heart the well-being of the peoples they govern, to protect the weakest, and to promote dialogue and a better way of living together.”
At the same time, the cardinal told people not to despair. Despite the persisting challenges that need solutions, people must look into the future with confidence and hope, he said.
He also encouraged youth to bear witness to gospel values, while highlighting Floribert Bwana Chui, a Congolese Catholic customs officer who was beatified as a martyr of honesty and moral integrity in Rome on June 15. Chui was killed in 2007, in Goma, Congo, after he refused to take a bribe to entice him to allow spoiled food and goods to enter the country.
SECAM’s 12-point vision plan was unveiled at the meeting to guide the church in Africa for the next 25 years. The top priorities were evangelization, building a self-reliant church and family model of leadership, missionary discipleship, synodality and care for creation.
Besungu said the church in Africa will move forward together in the next 25 years within the framework of synodality, the collaborative path Pope Francis set for the Catholic Church.
“We can only walk together if we share a common goal,” Besungu said.
