Synod proposals call for change of heart to meet Africa’s challenges; clarifies Church teachings on sexuality regarding AIDS pandemic
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Meeting the challenges of Africa – from protecting the environment to stopping the spread of AIDS – requires an individual change of heart, better education and cooperation based on respect for African and Christian values, said Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana.
The Cardinal, whom Pope Benedict XVI named as President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on October 24, presented the 57 propositions formulated by the Synod of Bishops for Africa and offered as suggestions for a document the Pope may write about the work of the Church on the continent.
Cardinal Turkson, 61, had served as recording secretary of the October 4-25 Synod.
Presenting the propositions at a press conference, Cardinal Turkson said Synod members had looked at Africa’s challenges from the point of view of “the work that the Church, as the family of God, has to do.”
While many of the problems involve bad government, ancient ethnic tensions, disease, exploitation by multinational companies or the cultural agenda of foreign aid organisations, he said, the Bishops believe they cannot be resolved without “a spirituality that unleashes signs on a social, economic and political level in our countries.”
Concern for the family was present in many of the propositions, including one on HIV and AIDS.
The Bishops said the disease cannot be handled solely as a medical problem or “solely as an issue of a change in human behaviour,” because both are necessary.
The proposition committed the Bishops to working against anything “that helps the spread of the disease, such as poverty, the breakdown of family life, marital unfaithfulness, promiscuity and a lifestyle that is devoid of human values and Gospel virtues.”
As far as condoms are concerned, the Synod reaffirmed a position taken by Cardinal Turkson at the Synod’s opening press conference on October 5.
The Synod’s proposition called on the Church to provide “a pastoral support, which helps couples living with an affected spouse to inform and form their consciences so that they might choose what is right with full responsibility for the greater good of each other, their union and their family.”
The Cardinal told reporters on October 24 that pastors have an obligation to counsel such couples and explain Church teaching to them so they can make their decisions in good conscience.
Whether, as some people say, a condom in that situation should be seen as a method of protecting the other spouse or is still a means of contraception unacceptable to the Catholic Church is an issue that “is still being discussed” by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Turkson said.
One of the strongest Synod propositions condemned a section of the 2003 Maputo Protocol on women’s rights in Africa for encouraging the continent’s governments to provide abortion services in cases of rape, incest or danger to a woman’s physical or mental health.
The protocol adopted by the Africa Union at a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique not only violates Church teaching, the Bishops said, but it “is in contradiction with human rights and the right to life.
“It trivialises the seriousness of the crime of abortion and devalues the role of childbearing.”
While thanking international aid agencies for their assistance, the Bishops also insisted that more be done to ensure that aid reach the people for whom it is intended.
They called for an end to aid that does not meet real needs or comes with strings attached that violate the recipients’ moral and cultural values.
Bishop Edmond Djitangar of Sarh, Chad, told reporters that Africans did not want to “be slaves of an ideology” spread or imposed by people outside Africa.
“We want to remain ourselves,” he said, especially when it comes to the definition and role of the family.
The propositions spoke of the family as being of “capital importance” for protecting human life and for learning and practising forgiveness, peace, reconciliation and harmony.
Yet they also said the family is under threat because of abortion, the denigration of childbearing, “the distortion of the notion of marriage and the family itself,” and divorce.
The Bishops called for better education of Catholics in the meaning of Christian marriage, improved marriage preparation programs and better support for families.
Another issue raised often during the Synod was the need to defend the dignity of women and to promote their role in Church and society.
“The Synod Fathers condemn all acts of violence against women,” including “the battering of wives, the disinheritance of daughters, the oppression of widows in the name of tradition, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, trafficking in women and several other abuses such as sex slavery and sex tourism,” one of the propositions said.
Synod members promised to promote the education of girls and women, open shelters for those who are abused and bring women into Church decision-making structures.
They also asked that a special commission on women in the Church be established within the Pontifical Council for the Family.
The Synod decried the exploitation and mistreatment of too many of the continent’s children, listing “aborted babies, orphans, albinos, street children, abandoned children, child soldiers, child prisoners, physically and mentally challenged children, children accused of witchcraft (and) children sold as sex slaves.”
During the Synod, many Bishops had condemned multinational companies for exploiting Africa’s natural resources in a way that does not benefit local populations and, in fact, leaves behind environmental destruction.
The Synod proposals not only called for national and international legislation to manage resources and ensure the fair distribution of mining and petroleum revenues, but also called on pastors to educate the faithful in respecting nature and encouraged all Africans to plant trees.
Saying the death penalty demonstrates a lack of respect for human life and is too often used “to eliminate political opponents,” one proposition stated simply:
“This Synod calls for the total and universal abolition of the death penalty.”