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Cardinal Turkson Calls on Church in Africa to Build on Past African Synods, Mend Broken Relationships

Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson. Credit: ACI Africa
Sabrine Amboka and Agnes Aineah

By Sabrine Amboka and Agnes Aineah

Kigali, 01 August, 2025 / 1:59 pm (ACI Africa).

The theme, “Christ, Source of Hope, Reconciliation and Peace” of the ongoing 20th Plenary Assembly of members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) is an invitation for the Church in Africa to reflect on the first two African synods, and to mend broken relationships that exist on the continent, Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson has said.

In his homily at the opening ceremony of the assembly that is taking place in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Cardinal Turkson explained the imagery of “the church family of God” as was first proposed by the first African synod in 1994, and the message of “Church in Africa at the service of reconciliation, justice and peace” that came out in the second synod in 2009.

Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson. Credit: ACI Africa

“SECAM wants us to go to the ends of the earth with the message of these two synods,” Cardinal Turkson said at Holy Mass on Thursday, July 31, and added, “We are, first and foremost, a family of God. God is our Father, the church is our mother, and we are all brothers and sisters.” 

“The message that SECAM places in our hands, as we gather here for this opening ceremony, is to go out with a real sense of being a church family of God, but also recognizing the great mission of being servants of reconciliation, to heal the relationship that always exists between us,” he said.

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Credit: ACI Africa

The Ghanaian-born Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Social Sciences in Rome noted that the invitation of SECAM in their assembly which is expected to end on Monday, August 4, is for the Church in Africa to understand the message in the first synod as an invitation from the Lord to live as a family of God. “Consider God our Father, the Church our Mother, and all of us as brothers and sisters.” 

Groundbreaking as it was, the first African synod also elicits painful memories, Cardinal Turkson said, and explained that the synod had both a happy and sorrowful end.

Credit: ACI Africa

“The first Synod had a very painful and sorrowful end, especially in view of where we gathered this morning for this celebration,” he said, making reference to the genocide in Rwanda that left close to one million people dead.

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“In 1994, when the first African synod concluded, there was joy for all the Bishops gathered in Rome because apartheid in South Africa collapsed. But at the end of the same synod, we had a very brutal experience in this land where we are gathered now for celebration,” he said.

He added, “We stand in a place where we have failed the Lord once. And we pray that with the support and the nourishment that the Lord will give us, we shall not fail the Lord again.”

Credit: ACI Africa

Cardinal Turkson clarified that the desire by SECAM is not only for the people of God on the continent to heal and reconcile with one another, but to also function in peace, and live in justice. “This came from the second synod,” the Vatican-based Cardinal said. 

 “The second synod says we must all be servants of reconciliation, justice and peace,” Cardinal Turkson said, and added, “With reconciliation, we mend and heal the relationship which we break all the time. And so, mend and heal the family of God with the mission of serving reconciliation, justice and peace all days of our life.” 

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Credit: ACI Africa

In one of the activities lined up for the ongoing assembly of SECAM in Kigali, is the visit, on Saturday August 2, to the Rwanda Genocide Memorial.

Credit: ACI Africa

On August 3, delegates will visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Kibeho, where the closing Mass will be celebrated in French by the SECAM President.

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