Antananarivo, 08 September, 2019 / 4:34 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis Sunday told Catholics in Madagascar that following Jesus can be demanding, but that Christ calls his disciples to place God at the center of their lives.
“As we look around us, how many men and women, young people and children are suffering and in utter need! This is not part of God’s plan. How urgently Jesus calls us to die to our self-centredness, our individualism and our pride!” Pope Francis said during Mass Sept. 8, at the Soamandrakizay diocesan field, in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital city.
The pope celebrated Mass in Madagascar during a six-day trip to three African countries. He was in Mozambique Sept. 5-6 and will be in Mauritius Sept. 9.
The pope told Massgoers that Jesus demands that Catholics eschew tribalism.
“When ‘family’ becomes the decisive criterion for what we consider right and good, we end up justifying and even ‘consecrating’ practices that lead to the culture of privilege and exclusion: favouritism, patronage and, as a consequence, corruption. The Master demands that we see beyond this. He says this clearly: anyone incapable of seeing others as brothers or sisters, of showing sensitivity to their lives and situations regardless of their family, cultural or social background ‘cannot be my disciple.’”
