A WORD FROM AFRICA No. 19
The eradication of extreme poverty from the world, and specifically from Africa, will be a leading topic in a series of international discussions being held this year and - if there is the political will to carry out the promises that will be made - it will go some way towards ensuring the peaceful development which this continent so badly needs. With the guidance of New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the African Union, there is hope that the distinct difficulties of the respective nations will, to some extent, be dealt with.
However, those difficulties are not only economic, and Pope John Paul’s Intentions for April to July help us to appreciate the more profound considerations which should inspire our prayer for the people of Africa.
First, there is the preserving of the special role of Sundays with its importance for family life and for the defence of Christian life, based on the power of the Eucharist, against the growing influence of Islam and of Western secularisation. Then the power of the Holy Spirit for those who are persecuted, such as those killed or driven from their homes in Sudan, or enslaved elsewhere, and for all who suffer in helping the many victims of injustice.
The May Intention - active Christian love for refugees - speaks directly to Africa, with its millions of involuntary exiles, as does that for July, that Christians everywhere be sensitive to the needs of everyone, of every race and creed - not out of passing sentimentality but because of the radical demands of our own faith in the Christ of the Gospels. Economic salvation has its place, but it is this spiritual growth which has to save Africa and our world from the less material dangers which threaten us.
James Fitzsimons