Participants at the virtual conversation that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM) explored the topic, “The Synodal Missionary Face of the Church Family of God in Africa”.
It was the second in a series of weekly conversations that the two entities have organized. Participants spoke of how the Church in Africa as a family of God is “coming of age”, and singled out African values that are enriching the synodal conversations.
In his input, Cardinal Napier said that Africa has a lot to teach the rest of the world what it means to be a family of God.
He challenged those representing the Church in Africa in the second session of the Synod on Synodality to show others what it means to be full members of the Family of God, “precisely because they are from Africa.”
“If there is anything which I would love to see the African members and delegates at the Synod doing, it is that they take every opportunity to be radical images of God, who mirror God to others, by reflecting what it means to be full members of the Family of God, precisely because they are from Africa,” the 83-year-old Cardinal said.
He added, “Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict made a special point of underlining the fact that the two sessions of the Synod for Africa were occasions when the whole Church was engaged in prayerful reflection on what the Church in Africa is able to contribute most effectively, namely, how to be the Family of God at a time when the Family of Man is in deep crisis!”
He said that the weekly PACTPAN palaver series that is set to conclude on September 6 had already raised fond memories he has of the two Special Sessions of the Synod of Bishops for Africa in 1994 and in 2009.
“Those Synods left an indelible mark on the mind and heart of most participants,” Cardinal Napier recounted, adding that the two Popes involved, St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, “often made fond references to the Church in Africa coming of age in itself and holding out the torch of hope to the universal Church.”
“For me those two Synods marked the coming of age of many African Church leaders themselves, especially in the courage which they showed by defining the Church which they were leading in a way that show how it would reflect their dreams and aspirations, but also the realities from which that Church was emerging in the different countries and peoples in which it was increasingly a force for good, not only for Africa but in the world,” he said.
He also clarified the meaning of the phrase “Church in Africa” saying, “Note that it is the Church in Africa, not the Church of Africa or the African Church, as if the Church which we are is confined to Africa! No!”
