Vatican City, Apr 1, 2009 / 08:55 am
Twenty thousand people gathered on Wednesday morning in St. Peter’s Square to participate in Pope Benedict XVI’s weekly General Audience. The Holy Father told them of the highlights of his trip to Africa and emphasized that his message to all Africans was that true hope of peace and reconciliation can only be found in the Word of God.
Pope Benedict told the faithful that with his visit, he had "sought to embrace all the people of Africa, and bless them in the name of the Lord," beginning with Cameroon, a country with "a profoundly religious soul which unites the numerous ethnic groups that inhabit it."
In Cameroon, "more than a quarter of the inhabitants are Catholic, and live together peacefully with the other religious communities,” he explained. “For this reason, John Paul II chose it to promulgate the exhortation Ecclesia in Africa, after the first synod assembly for Africa.”
“This time,” he added, “the Pope went there to deliver the Instrumentum Laboris [working document] for the next assembly, the theme of which will be 'The Church in Africa, instrument of reconciliation at the service of justice and peace.'”