Antananarivo, Madagascar, Jun 5, 2018 / 15:01 pm
During a meeting last month between representatives of the bishops of Africa and Germany discussing integral human development, both groups affirmed their need to continue the work of evangelization.
"As Church, both in Africa and in Germany, the Holy Spirit is opening our eyes to the fact that we still have a lot to do in our mission of evangelization," read a May 27 statement signed by Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising.
The communique was released following a May 22-27 seminar in Antananarivo, Madagascar, between the German bishops' conference and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, which are chaired by Cardinal Marx and Archbishop Mbilingi, respectively.
The bishops pointed to poverty, misery, disease, and despair in Africa "caused by human greed and corruption, injustices of all kinds and violence and fratricidal wars," and in Europe, a "dearth of spiritual values, excessive materialism and consumerism, individualism, little or no of respect for the life and rights of the unborn, of the aged and the infirm."