Nairobi, 19 July, 2022 / 11:11 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Francis has expressed his delight about the ongoing second biannual Pan-African Catholic Congress on Theology, Society, and Pastoral Life, which members of the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized in Nairobi, Kenya.
The vision of PACTPAN is to “bridge the gap between pastoral practice and multi-disciplinary scholarly work on the African continent by collaboratively listening to both God and our people, in order to inspire hope and transformational faith and promote and curate best practices for the betterment of Church and society.”
In a video recording played to the participants Tuesday, July 19, the first of the four-day Congress, the Holy Father said that the coming together of theologians from across Africa is “a sign of the outgoing African Church”.
“Coming together to discern what God is telling us today, not only to meet challenging needs with certainty, but also to make African dreams come true (social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial dreams) is already a sign of an outgoing African Church,” Pope Francis said in his video message published by the Holy See Press Office on July 19.
He described the Congress that is taking place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) as “a sign of hope that theologians, laity, Priests, men and women religious, Bishops have taken the initiative to walk together” to promote the Church in Africa.