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At the two-day Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union (AU) that concluded Monday, February 10, the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Philippe Cardinal Nakellentuba Ouédraogo highlighted some of the challenges bedeviling the people of God on the continent and, in his prayer, implored God for forgiveness and the renewal of hope.
Ten years after the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops on the theme “The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace” during which Church leaders on the continent deliberated on, among other themes, transforming “theology into pastoral care,” a four-day Pan-African Catholic Congress on Theology, Society and Pastoral Life is set to take place in Enugu, Nigeria, under the theme, “What must we do to perform the works of God.”
As the fifth session of the Open-Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) on Transnational Corporations gets underway in Geneva, Switzerland with the aim of developing an international protocol to guide the operations of Trans-National Companies (TNCs), Catholic Bishops in the world’s second largest continent are calling on governments and the international community to ensure that TNCs respect human rights.
The challenge of xenophobia in Africa can be overcome by identifying and addressing the root causes of the menace that has affected the peaceful coexistence of people of the same race, an official of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said recently in South Africa.
When the dust around xenophobia mainly in South Africa seems to be settling amid high level interventions, members of the Standing Committee of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) have added their voice to those of the regional bodies of Bishops’ conferences, condemning xenophobic violence and reprisal attacks and called on governments and political actors to end hatred on the African continent.
During the plenary assembly celebrating its golden jubilee, the leadership organization for bishops' conferences in Africa elected Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo of Ouagadougou as its president.