American Delegate at Synod on Synodality Shares “African wisdom” on War

Vatican, 27 October, 2023 / 9:55 PM

Archbishop Timothy Paul Broglio, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) who is participating in the October 4-29 Synod on Synodality in Rome has reminisced about serving in Ivory Coast, and the lesson he learnt in Africa about war.

Sharing his experience of the Synod at the Wednesday, October 25 briefing in Rome, Archbishop Broglio said that a lot could be learned from what he described as “African wisdom” in resolving world conflict.

“If I can draw on a little bit of African wisdom,” he said, adding that in Africa, he had heard it said that “after people fight a war, they sit down and discuss terms of peace” and “wouldn't it be better if they sat down first and discussed before they went to war?”

The native of Cleveland, Ohio, who serves as the Local Ordinary of the U.S. Military Services admitted that he found the African notion of war and peace “very wise”.

Archbishop Broglio served as the Secretary of the Apostolic Nunciature in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, between 1983-1987 before he took up other roles in the leadership of the Church, including Apostolic Nuncio in the Dominican Republic and Apostolic Delegate to Puerto Rico.

During Archbishop Broglio’s stay in Ivory Coast, the West African country was exemplarily peaceful and was regarded as the continent’s “model of stability”. This was before 2002 when an armed rebellion plunged the country into turmoil that lasted for over four years. The country’s second stretch of violence was witnessed for five months between 2010-2011.

At the Synod delegates press briefing, Archbishop Broglio spoke after the presentation of Dieudonné Cardinal Nzapalainga, Archbishop of Bangui in Central African Republic (CAR), who shared about the involvement of the Church in CAR in restoring peace in the African country.

“I share the Cardinal's enthusiasm for peace,” Archbishop Broglio said in reference to Cardinal Nzapalainga’s presentation, and added, “If there is anything I have learnt in the last fifteen years, it is that the military has the greatest desire for peace.”

“In my experience with the U.S. military in almost 20 years of war, they recognize what war is and what cost represents. So perhaps also the listening in the exchange that is going on in the synod might provide an example for the world to see and perhaps to imitate in resolving world conflict,” the 71-year-old Archbishop said.

Cardinal Nzapalainga narrated the Church’s involvement in restoring peace in CAR, which has been in conflict since the country’s independence in 1960.

“I come from a country affected by war,” the 56-year-old member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (C.S.Sp.), also known as Spiritans or Holy Ghost Fathers, shared with other participants in the Synod on Synodality.

“When there was war, Protestants and Catholics came together to speak with the rebels to ask them to stop and to think about the interest of the country. Pope Francis came to visit us in 2015 for the opening of the Holy Door, a moment that was very important in CAR. We understood that a path had been started to which all of us had to contribute,” he said.

Cardinal Nzapalainga, who also said, during the October 25 press briefing, that women in CAR play a significant role in the affairs of the Church in the country shared that a situation of war, suffering, migration persists in CAR, even at the time of the Synod on Synodality, and added, “We came here to share all these with our brothers.”