It recalls the role of the late former Pontiff in carrying out the Second Special Assembly for Africasaying the late former Pontiff “He convened the Second Synodal Assembly for Africa in order to give the Church of God on the African continent a new impulse full of evangelical hope and charity.”
Cardinal Ambongo further says that Benedict XVI invited Africa to “trust in itself to rise up with dignity. He saw in her the spiritual lung of a humanity that seems to be in a crisis of faith and hope.
The Congolese member of the Order of Capuchin Friars Minor (OFM, Cap), who serves as president of SECAM’s Justice, Peace and Development Commission, says that God’s people in Africa and Madagascar are making “a fervent prayer to the Lord that He may welcome this faithful servant of the Gospel in His kingdom of peace and light.”
“On behalf of the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and on my own behalf, I pay tribute to the Church in Africa and Madagascar who led Africa with fervor, conviction and generosity”, said the Deputy Prime Minister. President of the Continental Symposium says in the tribute shared with ICA Africa.
Born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, the late former Pontiff was elected pope in April 2005, taking the name Benedict XVI.
This election came after decades of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Cardinal and one of the closest associates of Saint John Paul II, whom he succeeded as Pope.
In February 2013, Benedict XVI, then 85, shocked the world with an announcement in Latin of his retirement, becoming the first pope in 600 years to do so. He cited his advanced age and lack of strength as unsuitable for the exercise of his position.
Widely recognized as one of the leading theologians of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI’s pontificate was characterized by a deep understanding of the challenges facing the Church in the face of growing ideological aggression, especially from an increasingly Western mindset. increasingly secular, both inside and outside the world. Church.
He warned of the “dictatorship of relativism” in a homily just before the 2005 conclave that elected him pope.
After his retirement in 2013, the late pope emeritus resided at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, a small convent built in 1994 within the walls of Vatican City, devoting himself to a life of penance and prayer.
