Brazzaville, 21 October, 2021 / 8:35 pm (ACI Africa).
At the anniversary marking 50 years since the creation of the Episcopal Conference of Congo-Brazzaville (CEC), Catholic Bishops in the Central African nation have outlined gains and prospects for the Church.
In their Tuesday, October 19 message at the end of their 50th Plenary Assembly, CEC members give thanks to God “for the 50 years of our existence and for having accompanied our steps and supported our ministry as Bishops and Pastors, gathered in the Episcopal Conference, in a true spirit of fraternity, communion and collegiality.”
In marking the Golden Jubilee of CEC, the Catholic Bishops say, “we salute with gratitude the memory of our predecessors, our elders in the faith, who, under the impulse of the missionary renewal desired by the Second Vatican Council, decided to meet for the first time in Plenary Assembly, in Brazzaville, from 8 to 11 February 1971.”
“In fifty years, in spite of the change of persons and periods, our thought has remained constant and dynamic, always in the logic of continuity, in communion with the magisterium of the universal Church and in harmony with the Holy Tradition of the Church,” CEC members further say.
They recall their Episcopal ministry saying, “Being together, we relive in our daily lives the missionary mandate entrusted to the Apostles and therefore to every baptized person that we are, but more particularly to us, your Bishops and Fathers, who have received in a very special way the mission to teach, sanctify and govern.”
