AFRICA/NIGERIA – Hunger, insecurity, desertification will be at the center of the regional meeting of the Bishops of West Africa
Abuja (Agenzia Fides) – “Fratelli Tutti: Path to building human fraternity and sustainable peace in West Africa”. This is the theme of the plenary meeting of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa (RECOWA) to be held in Abuja in Nigeria from May 2 to 9 and which is expected to be attended by more than 150 bishops.
This was announced by Fr. Zacharia Samjumi, Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) through a statement signed by the President His Exc. Msgr. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, Archbishop of Abuja. “Importantly, the RECOWA General Assembly will pay attention to our common humanity – Fratelli Tutti. It is an effort to go beyond geographical and linguistic differences to appreciate those issues that speak to us more on the understanding that we all are brothers and sisters”, said Fr. Samjumi.
More concretely, the Secretary-General stressed that “RECOWA plenaries discuss peculiar issues that affect the lives of millions of people in West Africa and explore how best the Church can support governments toward improving the living conditions of the people. RECOWA has various organs that address the issues of interfaith dialogue, security, good governance, justice and peace”. “Like RECOWA, the Church has been able to raise its concerns and work together on issues of justice and peace. From Senegal to Nigeria, RECOWA has made its voice loud against land grabbing, child trafficking, illegal immigration and terrorism, in addition to the issue of climate change to stop desertification. These issues are expected to be part of the agenda of the plenary in 2022. With RECOWA, which overcomes the language barriers imposed by English, French and Portuguese, the Catholic Church confirms itself as a body of integration for West Africa”, concluded Fr. Samjumi. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 9/4/2022).
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