AFRICA/MOROCCO – Meeting of the Bishops of North Africa involves an finish
Rabat (Agenzia Fides) – The Bishops of the Regional Episcopal Convention handled the synodal course of, a theological reflection on the lifetime of the Church buildings of the Maghreb and the reception and implementation of the Declaration “Fiducia Supplicans” of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Religion on the pastoral that means of blessings. These are the matters mentioned by the bishops of CERNA (Convention of Bishops of the North African Area) of their Meeting held from 11 to fifteen January in Rabat (Morocco). As acknowledged within the last assertion despatched to Fides, on this event the contributors within the Meeting additionally visited the Ecumenical Theological Institute “al-Mowafaqa” within the Moroccan capital and appreciated its “efforts to offer its college students with each a Catholic and a Protestant strategy matters reminiscent of equality between North and South and equality between women and men, in addition to the academic supply that has been accessible for ten years for pastoral brokers of the Catholic and Protestant communities in Morocco and elsewhere”. The yr 2023, which has simply ended, marked the church buildings and folks of the CERNA area “by the earthquake within the Marrakesh area and the floods in Derna”, however this didn’t cease the church buildings of North Africa from “expressing their solidarity with the church buildings of Turkey and Syria after the “earthquakes” that hit these international locations, additionally financially. The members of CERNA took the joint initiative of fasting and prayer for peace firstly of Creation “in solidarity with the victims of the battle within the Holy Land” and despatched a letter of solidarity to Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. Concerning the Synod, the CERNA Bishops recall that “our dioceses have actively participated within the course of. Their reflections led to the creation in August 2022 of an necessary regional textual content on the lifetime of our Church buildings, their opinions and their questions, as much as the “Sending a delegation from North Africa to the continental meeting in Addis Ababa in March 2023 and the participation of two of us within the World Synod in Rome in October 2023”. One other subject mentioned was the theological foundations of Christian life within the area. “A yr in the past, CERNA determined to arrange a fee for theological reflection, involving a lot of bishops and vicars common, but additionally lay individuals, nuns and monks from our international locations,” says the the assertion. “The duty of this fee was to compile and set up a repertoire of the theological and religious heritage of our church buildings during the last sixty years and to establish the necessary axes which have emerged within the regional synod and which can be worthy of additional examine.” The fee will proceed to “present instruments for reflection in our communities. Collaborative work on liturgical points is also thought of.” Lastly, with regard to the doc “Fiducia Supplicans”, the CERNA Bishops “wish to emphasize above all three elementary optimistic features which can be expressed in it: a transparent affirmation of the Church’s instructing on marriage and sexual morality; a affirmation additionally of the imaginative and prescient of 1 merciful God, whose love and style are infinite and supplied to all with out distinction; a deeper understanding of the that means of blessings, whose function is neither to ratify nor approve concrete conditions skilled by individuals, however to implore God’s assist upon them”. CERNA invitations “our communities to take the time to learn and talk about this doc and the explanatory be aware revealed by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Religion on January 4, 2024 (…); and to keep away from any polemics and to domesticate every thing “which contributes to selling the communion and unity of the common Church”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/1/2024)
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