Vatican City, Mar 22, 2010 / 09:06 am
Meeting with bishops from Burkina Faso and Niger on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged advancement on the countries' history of more than a century of evangelization. He urged them to continue building on existing missionary work and inter-religious relations.
Benedict XVI met with the bishops, whose countries share an episcopal conference, on Saturday as part of their “ad Limina” visit to the Holy See.
In his address to the group, he urged them to continue to promote evangelization in a “new missionary push” so that the Gospel is “fully received and faithfully lived” in the countries. He called them to stick to the roots of the faith so as to avoid the return to “old practices” that are incompatible with the Jesus’ teachings and to “resist calls from a world at times hostile to the evangelical ideal.”
The Pope went on to encourage them in their missionary efforts regarding the “sister-Churches” of Africa.