Nairobi, 28 April, 2024 / 11:00 pm (ACI Africa).
The recent appeal that Robert Cardinal Sarah made to delegates representing the Church in Africa at the ongoing Synod on Synodality to emphasize “unity of the faith” rather than specific cultures is in order, the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has said.
Speaking at an April 25 press conference on the sidelines of the four-day meeting of delegates to represent Africa at the 2-29 October 2024 session of the Synod on Synodality in Rome that concluded on April 26 at Roussel House of Donum Dei Missionary Sisters in Karen in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN), Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo weighed in on the appeal that Cardinal Sarah made during his visit to Cameroon earlier this month.
On April 9, addressing members of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC), Cardinal Sarah said, “At the next session of the Synod, it is vital that the African Bishops speak in the name of the unity of the faith, and not in the name of particular cultures.”
The Guinean-born Cardinal, who, until his retirement in February 2021, was serving as Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, acknowledged with appreciation the contribution of Africa’s delegates at the 4-29 October 2023 session of the Synod on Synodality, which concluded with a 42-page summary report.
He told NECC members on the sidelines of their 49th Plenary Assembly, “At the last Synod, the Church in Africa forcefully defended the dignity of the man and woman created by God. Her voice was ignored and scorned by those whose sole obsession is to please Western lobbies.”
