AFRICAE MUNUS Evangelization, Justice and Peace and Reconciliation in Africa

XAVERIAN MISSION CONFERENCE Tavernerio July 2012

ECCLESIA IN AFRICA

Our common interest unites us in welcoming the concerns expressed by the Second Synod of Bishops for Africa in Africae Munus, by Pope Benedict XVI (delivered at Ouidah, in Bénin, on 9 November 2011). In Ecclesia in Africa, by Pope John Paul II (delivered at Yaoundé, in Cameroon, on 14 September 1995) the Church of God that is in Africa gave voice to its hunger for justice, peace and reconciliation. Africae Munus continues to search for this justice and reconciliation that are still unfulfilled. Some local conflicts have reached unexpected proportions. The world knows only too well the torments of the wars between 1914 and 1945. I suggest that we read Africae Munus in the light of documents such as Caritas in Veritate (2009); Ecclesia in Africa (1995); Redemptoris Missio (1991); Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987); Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975); Populorum Progressio (1967); Gaudium et Spes (1965); Pacem in Terris (1963) to consider the world political and economical, philosophical and theological influences that give rise to the conflicts in Africa, making the Africans incapable of solving their conflicts at a strictly local level. A careful analysis of the wars in Africa leads us to situate the search for Justice and Peace and Reconciliation in Africa at world level on the political stage, and at a universal level on the ecclesial stage. In fact, the global geopolitics and the world economic system have a tragic influence on the African situation; the great powers incite, exploit and maintain the hotbeds of war in order to assure the possession of natural resources, and perpetuate their military, political and economic supremacy in the world.