In response to cases of abuse, especially to those committed by members of the Church, it’s not enough to ask for forgiveness. Asking for forgiveness is necessary, but it is not enough. Asking for forgiveness is good for the victims, but they are the ones who have to be “at the center” of everything. Their pain and their psychological wounds can begin to heal if they find answers —if there are concrete actions to repair the horrors they have suffered and to prevent them from happening again. The Church cannot try to hide the tragedy of abuse of any kind. Nor when the abuse takes place in families, in clubs, or in other types of institutions. The Church must serve as a model to help solve the issue and bring it to light in society and in families. The Church must offer safe spaces for victims to be heard, supported psychologically, and protected. Let us pray for those who have suffered because of the wrongs done to them from members of the Church; may they find within the Church herself a concrete response to their pain and suffering.
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR LENT 2023
Death of the brother of our Superior General
Communciation
We wish to inform you of the very sad news of the unexpected death today at noon of the brother of our Superior General. Mr Maxwell was 60 years old. We offer our condolences to Stan, his sister and to the other family members. We pray for the eternal rest of Maxwell and ask Our Lady of Lourdes to obtain the comfort of divine grace for Stan and for all those who mourn his death.
Rome, 11 February 2023
André-L. Simonart, M.Afr.
On behalf of the General Council.
Jean Florent Toro R.I.P.
Society of the Missionaries of Africa
Father Christian Mulenga, Provincial of the Province of Southern Africa,
informs you of the return to the Lord of the stagiaire
Jean Florent Toro
on Monday 6 February 2023 in Chezi, Malawi
at the age of 25 years.On pastoral stage in Chezi, Malawi.
Let us pray for him and for his loved ones.
Download here the announcement of Stagiaire Jean Florent Toro’s death
Benedict XVI : Memories
Benedict XVI : Memories
+ Michael Cardinal Fitzgerald, M.Afr.
I had more to do with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) than with him as Pope Benedict XVI.
According to the rules laid down in Pastor Bonus, the reform of the Roman Curia under Pope John Paul II, all dicasteries had to have the approval of the CDF before publishing any document that touched upon theology. This was the case for Dialogue and Proclamation, published in 1991 by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID. Become now the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue) together with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP). This involved three-way meetings of the top officials of the CDF, CEP and PCID. Cardinal Ratzinger was always well-prepared with written notes. He never bluffed his way with many words in answer to a question. He was always precise and polite in presenting his opinion.
Cardinal Ratzinger, at the request of a former student of his who had been chosen as the Orthodox bishop of Chambésy, Switzerland, became a founder member of the Foundation for Inter-cultural and Interreligious Dialogue based in Geneva. Before he was elected Pope, he asked me to replace him on the Board of the Foundation. I mention this because it shows that he had confidence in me. When, in 2006, so during his pontificate, I was sent to Egypt as Nuncio, it was not because Pope Benedict disagreed with my attitude towards Islam and relations with Muslims, as the social media at the time insisted.
The same media stated that had I been still the President of the PCID Pope Benedict would have shown me the draft of his lecture at Regensburg in September 2006 and the conflict that ensued with Muslims would have been avoided. I think, though I have no way of verifying this assertion, that Pope Benedict would not have asked the advice of anyone in preparing a lecture to be delivered at the university where he used to teach.
Had I been consulted I would have said that speaking about Muhammad is like treading on holy ground, and so it is necessary to have the delicacy to take off one’s shoes and tread lightly. One can understand the reaction among Muslims to the negative quotation that Pope Benedict used in his Regensburg speech. As one Muslim leader said to me at the time: “If Pope Benedict had said ‘I don’t agree with this’ there would have been little reaction, but unfortunately it was only later that it was made clear he did not agree with the quotation.” (On this whole question of the Regensburg lecture, see the special dossier in Islamochristiana 32(20060) pp.273-297).
During his pontificate Pope Benedict did not receive Nuncios in audience, which is strange since Nuncios are the personal representatives of the Sovereign Pontiff. This meant that between 2006 and 2012 I had no relations with him. After retiring I was granted a private audience and found that Pope Benedict was well briefed on Egypt and had many questions about the situation there. He had, after all, presided over the special Synod of Bishops for the Middle East and published the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente.
I saw the body of Benedict XVI
The word of the Lord remains forever
Reginald Cruz
“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” 1 Pet. 1:24-25
These words of Scripture resonated in me when I saw the body of Benedict XVI. The death of any Pope would offer faithful people a moment of retrospection, even if the greyness of his embalmed body gave the air a slightly darker touch.
A steady stream of people lined up before the late Pope Emeritus. Many seemed to be tourists lucky enough to be in Rome, content to commemorate the event with their mobile phones. Yet there were those visibly affected by the loss of this “painfully introverted” theologian but great erudite, once feared as God’s rottweiler.
Joseph Ratzinger was not – as many have wrongly claimed – overly eager to occupy the See of Peter. Aware of the limits of his administrative skills, he was constantly learning to become a Pope. This self-awareness is the basis of his most incredible legacy to the Church: the deep humility to recognize and accept what neither mind nor body can ever understand and the willingness to hand over the Papal See. So it is that Benedict XVI was a servant of Christ and a herald of the Word of the Father who lives forever.
GMG greetings 2023
We will miss him for a long time
The death of a confrere is often a source of sadness, but the one of Richard, Cardinal Richard, is felt as a tragedy because it is difficult for us to separate it from the succession of events since May. He was appointed Cardinal, then President of SECAM, he came to Rome for the consistory and for this we mobilised ourselves to give thanks and celebrate here at the Generalate, receiving delegations and friends from all over! All of a sudden, everything stopped!
Since his death, we have tried to make sense of it all. Only one feeling prevails: only God knows. It is only in faith, in the word of God, that we have found consolation, for faith and the word do indeed bring us back to what we deeply are, brothers and sisters of Christ, adopted sons and daughters destined for the fullness of life in God. Baptised with Christ into death, as we heard in the first reading, Richard entered and still lives in the new life. We believe that, as in his life he ate the “living bread that came down from heaven”, he will “live forever” and we hope that we too will live with him when the time comes.
Allow me to share a word about Cardinal Richard. Those who lived with him appreciated his total commitment to the good of the Society and of the confreres. Richard was a great worker but he was also a charming companion. As we know, his health was not good and several times he had to stop and had to be hospitalised. But when he was discharged, he was back at it again: trips, visits, meetings and conferences. Richard had become a true representative of our Society and an icon for many of us. His last appointments show how much his intelligence, his clear-sightedness and his commitment were recognised at the level of the Church in Africa and of the Universal Church.
During the Mass of thanksgiving for his nomination as Cardinal that I presided over here, I mentioned how happy we were to welcome different delegations in the house where he lived for 16 years! That’s longer than he lived anywhere else in the same place! It is beautiful in a way that it is in this house that he spent his last days on earth.
We will miss him for a long time. We pray that he may rest in peace and be reunited in joy with the One he served so well.
Father Stanley Lubungo,
Superior General
Farewell Mass – 19/12/2022
Pontifical Urbaniana University, Mass for H.E. Richard Kuuia Baawobr,
Communication
Before the body of the late Cardinal, His Eminence Richard Kuuia Baawobr, M.Afr., leaves Rome for the funeral in Ghana, which will take place on January 11 and 12, 2023, a Eucharistic celebration will take place on Saturday, December 17, 2022, in the chapel of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, at 10.30 a.m. It will be presided over by His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization. Concelebrants are asked to bring alb and purple stole.
Rome, December 9, 2022
Andre-L. Simonart, M.Afr.,
Secretary General
Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, Cappella Ardente
Communication
On Saturday, 10th December 2022, from 10 to 12 am viewing of the body of His Eminence Richard Cardinal Kuuia Baawobr, M.Afr., will be possible in the mortuary chapel of the Gemelli hospital.
André-L. Simonart, M.Afr.
Secretary General.