The Holy Father announced that he would be giving out copies of the Encyclical, printed in a special edition of L’Osservatore Romano, to pilgrims present for the Angelus.
In his October 6 message, Cardinal Ouédraogo says COVID-19 pandemic has established that no one can face life in isolation and underscores the need for people to identify themselves as a single human family and true brothers and sisters of the one Father, God.
The Archbishop of Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou Archdiocese goes on to make reference to Pope Francis’ Second Encyclical, Laudato Si’ saying in the 2015 document, the Holy Father demonstrated “our interconnectedness beyond human beings to embrace the Earth, our Mother and Sister.”
The Cardinal also quotes St. John Paul II who had earlier said, “It is building the communion of love that the Church appears as ‘sacrament’; as the sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the human race.”

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“To make the Church the home and the school of communion: that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium, which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings,” the President of SECAM continues, quoting St. John Paul II.
He says that the people of God in Africa and Madagascar join Pope Francis “to earnestly plead for intensified efforts towards true brotherhood, solidarity, dialogue, mutual acceptance, trust and support, which are crucial values for our current world visibly divided along cultural, religious, social, political and ideological lines or principles.”
According to Cardinal Ouédraogo, genuine fraternity is an appropriate response to the challenges posed by COVID-19.
The Cardinal calls on all the people of God in Africa and the surrounding Islands not only to study the Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, diligently but also respond to it positively in family, cultural, religious, political, social and business circles.
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.