Vatican City, Feb 19, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Earlier this morning, Pope Benedict met with prelates from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau on Africa, with whom he stressed the need for harmony and strong faith formation in an area often wracked by violence, poverty and being home to a diverse religious population.
The Holy Father told the Bishops, who had just completed their regular “ad limina” visits, that the great variety of human and ecclesial situations in these particular Churches often makes it difficult to harmonize pastoral activities.
Despite this, he stressed that "the ties of communion are essential for an ever-greater apostolic fruitfulness and in order to carry out the mission received from the Lord."
"Walking alongside their people," the Pope said, "bishops must guide, encourage and coordinate evangelizing action, that the faith may grow and spread among human beings. In this way, the Gospel must take full root in the cultures of your peoples."
He also pointed out that "in order to remain faithful to baptismal commitments, each individual must receive a solid education in the faith, so as to be able to face up to the new phenomena of modern life, such as growing urbanization, the unemployment of many young people, material seductions of all kinds and the influence of ideas of varying provenance."