(Bishop of Lokossa, Benin)
The Spirit of the Lord has reunited us around the Successor of Peter to reflect upon the problems of the Church of Christ in Africa. This Synod is a great occasion to face, within ourselves, the first annunciation of the Good News of Jesus Christ: "Convert and believe in the Gospel" (Mk 1,15).
This entails a process of "re-conversion", with the identification of our sin and the sin of our Africa on one hand, and on the other hand consideration of the evil done against Africa and the structures of sin to which she has been submitted for centuries, the tragic ransom. This implies and requires the avowal and the demand for forgiveness in a communitarian celebration.
Also, this Synod must be the occasion to free the creativity of the Church of Christ which is in Africa. In this sense, this Church must assume the risks of its own creativity in the area of theological reflection as well as on the pastoral level under the motion of the Spirit who breaths where he wills and who continues to speak to the Churches. Because for an authentic realisation of the universality of the Church, the Church needs its African harmonics.
The task is not always simple; we must be conscious of our own lacks and weaknesses doubled by the external pressures and doubts.
We are invited to reconquer our creative imagination and trust in ourselves in view of a creative action within the faithfulness of Jesus Christ and in communion with he who presides the universal "Agape".
Original text: French
