Bishop’s visit should focus on Africa

by Letters Editor · Published April 24, 2014 · Updated April 23, 2014

From Athaly Jenkins, East London

Some readers requesting �Prayer for Africa� leaflets have been reminded of the many years when we all prayed for the conversion of Russia. �Shouldn’t we pray like that for Africa today?

Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be canonised on April 27. In February 2005 a report stated that �Africa was among [John Paul�s] preoccupations before his failing health saw him readmitted to hospital�.

His message to the synod of African bishops in Rome mentioned Africa�s conflicts. Poverty, illnesses, insecurity and corruption, which �weaken Africa, drain its energies, decimate its generations and mortgage its future�.

A January 2014 meeting of the African Union planned to discuss agriculture/food security and other matters, but was �logjammed� by conflicts and humanitarian crises which seem almost without solution.

The Southern African Catholic bishops will make their ad limina visit to Pope Francis and various curial departments in Rome from April 24-26, and their Mass on April 30 in the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls will also be attended by the participants in the Southern Cross/Radio Veritas canonisation pilgrimage.

As it happens, April 30 is the day on which Mass is celebrated in Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Nigeria in honour of Our Lady Mother of Africa, with beautiful liturgy and prayers.

Wouldn�t this be a wonderful grace-filled opportunity to discuss with so many others from Africa who will be in Rome at that time the promotion of �Prayer for Africa� throughout our continent.

Perhaps it can use the same St Francis Prayer used by the SACBC in 1985, adapted for Africa, as it expresses so well that �in forgetting ourselves we shall find unending peace with others�.

Perhaps it would also be a God-given opportunity for asking Pope Francis to consider the dedication of Africa to Our Lady Mother of Africa. Let us pray.