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Benin message: be a model for Africa

On a three-day visit to Benin, Pope Benedict XVI urged African Catholics to witness the hope of the Gospel in their daily lives and make the Church a model of reconciliation for the continent.

In a particular way, the Church must be “attentive to the cry of the poor, the weak, the outcast,” the Pope said at a Mass for more than 50,000 people on 20 November.

“I would like to greet with affection all those who are suffering, who are sick, those affected by AIDS or other illnesses, to all those forgotten by society. Have courage! The Pope is close to you in his thoughts and prayers,” he said.

The 84 year old Pontiff delivered his homily in French, English and Portuguese, adding a few words in Fon, the local indigenous language. He occasionally wiped his brow as temperatures rose during the morning liturgy.

“The Church in Benin has received much from her missionaries; she must in turn carry this message of hope to people who do not know or who no longer know the Lord Jesus,” he said.

The Pope’s message was aimed beyond the borders of Benin, a small West African country with a population of nearly 3 million Catholics out of a total population of nearly 9 million. He came to Africa to unveil a document, Africae Munus (“The Commitment of Africa”), that outlined pastoral strategies and urged Catholics to become “apostles of reconciliation, justice and peace” across the troubled continent.

At every one of his public events, Africans, including many pilgrims who came from neighbouring countries, gave him a lively welcome, blending song, dance and prayer in religious celebration. 

One of the most animated encounters saw the Pope surrounded by several hundred schoolchildren who accompanied him in a rhythmic procession and cheered him inside a parish church. In a talk, the Pope told the children to ask their parents to pray with them. Later, he pulled a rosary from his pocket and asked the young people to learn how to pray it. Each child was given a rosary before leaving.

On 19 November, the Pope travelled to the city of Ouidah, a former slave trading post on the Atlantic coast, to sign his follow-up document to the 2009 Synod of Bishops for Africa. The 138-page text said the Church should lead the way in promoting respect for human dignity and life at every stage, fighting against economic imbalance and environmental degradation, providing health care to those with AIDS and other diseases, educating the young and reconciling human hearts in places of ethnic tension.

Before the signing, the Pope said that in the face of Africa’s problems, “a Church reconciled within herself and among all her members can become a prophetic sign of reconciliation in society” and help guide the struggle against “every form of slavery” in the modern world.

Addressing diplomats, civil authorities and religious representatives in Cotonou, the Pope cautioned against viewing Africa solely as a place of problems and failures. Often this perspective is fueled by prejudices, he said.

“It is tempting to point to what does not work; it is easy to assume the judgemental tone of the moraliser or of the expert who imposes his conclusions and proposes, at the end of the day, few useful solutions,” he said.

He also warned of the related risk of seeing Africa only in terms of vast resources to be easily exploited.

Relations between Christians and Muslims in Benin are generally good, and representatives of Islam were among those present at the Cotonou meeting.

The Pope emphasised that “everyone of good sense” understands the need for interreligious dialogue today and rejects the attempt to justify intolerance or violence.

“Aggression is an outmoded relational form which appeals to superficial and ignoble instincts. To use the revealed word, the sacred scriptures or the name of God to justify our interests, our easy and convenient policies or our violence, is a very grave fault,” he said. 

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