ACI Africa, Jan 4, 2023 / 13:15 pm
Catholic bishops from African nations paid tribute to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died on Dec. 31, eulogizing him as a leader of the Catholic Church who served with “great self-sacrifice.”
In a tribute shared with ACI Africa, a sister publication to CNA, on Jan. 2, the first vice president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said that the Church in Africa and Madagascar received with “great sadness and deep emotion the news of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.”
“This great servant of God who returns to the Father’s house in all serenity during the octave of the Nativity knew how to be, throughout his pontifical ministry, a great witness of the new evangelization, servant of love in truth (Caritas in Veritate),” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu said in the one-page tribute.
Writing on behalf of Catholic bishops in Africa, Ambongo said the late pope “served the whole Church with great self-sacrifice and has worked tirelessly for justice, peace, reconciliation, and dialogue between cultures.”