the pope and the church’s mission

Knowing reality
in the light of god
We offer here the excerpts from the two homilies and the speech delivered by the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.

“The vocation of the Church, a community of people who are reconciled with God and with one another, is that of being a prophesy and a leaven of reconciliation between the different ethnic, linguistic and even religious groups, within single nations and throughout the continent. Reconciliation, a gift of God that men and women must implore and receive, is a stable basis on which to build peace, an indispensable condition for the authentic progress of people and of society, in accordance with the project of justice wanted by God. Open to the redeeming grace of the Risen Lord, Africa will thus be illuminated increasingly by His light and, letting itself be guided by the Holy Spirit, will become a blessing for the universal Church.” 
(Homily during the Mass for the Opening of the Synod, October, 4th)

“Only in the light of God do we recognize one another and truly see the whole of reality. It seems to me that we should bear all this in mind in our analyses of reconciliation, justice and peace. Empirical analysis is important, it is important to know the reality of this world exactly. Yet these horizontal analyses, made with such precision and skill, are insufficient. They do not identify the real problems because they do not place them in the light of God. If we do not see that they are rooted in the Mystery of God, worldly things go wrong because the relationship with God is not properly in order. And if the first, basic relationship is off course, all the other relationships, however good they may be, fundamentally do not function.”
(Reflection during the First General Congregation, October, 5th)

“God’s plan does not change. Through the centuries and turns of history, He always aims at the same finality: the Kingdom of liberty and peace for all. And this implies His predilection for those deprived of freedom and peace, for those violated in their dignity as human beings. We think in particular of our brothers and sisters who in Africa suffer poverty, diseases, injustice, wars and violence, forced migration. These favorite children of the heavenly Father are like the blind man in the Gospel, Bartimaeus (Mk 10:46) at the gates of Jericho. Jesus the Nazarene passed that way.”
(Homily at the Mass for the Conclusion of the Synod. October, 25th)

“We give thanks because this ‘mysterious encounter between our poverty and the greatness’ of God was achieved also in the Synodal Assembly... This is the Church in the world: a community of reconciled persons, operators of justice and peace; ‘salt and light’ amongst the society of men and nations... The Church is the Family of God, in which there can be no divisions based on ethnic, language or cultural groups. Moving witnesses showed us that, even in the darkest moments of human history, the Holy Spirit is at work and transforming the hearts of the victims and the persecutors, that they may know each other as brothers. The reconciled Church is the potent leaven ”
(Homily at the Mass for the Conclusion of the Synod. October, 25th)