(Bishop of Bururi, Burundi)
1. The Church: as the Family of God (cf. Instrumentum Laboris, n.25)
1.1 This image of the Church, based on the reference of the Word of God and which finds anthropological resonance in the African culture must first of all make people understand that everybody who is baptised (born anew, cf. Jn. 3) now form a new family of whom God is the Father and Supreme Ancestor. In this view of the Church, the ultimate and absolute reference of the African Christian - instead of being his tribe and ideologised and absolute ethnic group by politics - will always and everywhere be "the only God and Father of everybody who is in everybody" (Eph. 4,6).
1.2 The second consequence of the view of the Church as the family of God, is the sense of co-responsibility in evangelisation and as witness of evangelical life.
In the African mentality when one belongs to the same family, one feels tied by the same solidarity of fate. In a Christian sense, we would say tied by the same vocation, call to life by the same Father and Providence.
Hence contributing to the success of a member of the family become the success and pride of everybody, whereas being the cause of failure of a member of the family is failure and shame of all the members.
1.3 The privileged bond from where this sense of co-responsibility must stem: In the conception of the Church as Family of God, the privileged place from where this sense of co-responsibility blooms is the nuclear family, the neighbourhood, the professional environment where living ecclesial communities are formed an act called in our language: "imibanorukristi".
1.4 To avoid complementarity and co-responsibility in the "living ecclesial communities" from creating confusion, it would be useful to recall that even in traditional African communities the roles and sharing out were done according to specific accepted rules.
It is important in "living ecclesial communities" - in a natural environment of life - for non-ordained ministries are recognised and envisaged and the mandates specified.
2. The school
Instrumentum Laboris, as "relatio ante disceptationem" do not mention anything about the State school as it is also a place of evangelic witness and has evangelisation agents, such as teachers, students, publics and schools children.
This oversight has its note when one knows that in all countries State schools are attended mostly by Christians in relation to Catholic schools. One must not ignore that many States in Africa accept Christian education or teaching of religious trends in schools. It is also to be noted that in many States in Africa there are movements and teaching associations involved in bringing the Gospel in the schools as ferment and way of transforming the school and society.
Original text: French
