Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Jun 15, 2021 / 08:00 am
A cardinal in Burkina Faso said Sunday that the naming of a street after Pope emeritus Benedict XVI “brings hope” to the country, Africa, and the world.
Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo was speaking at a June 13 ceremony unveiling the newly named Rue Pape Benoît XVI (Pope Benedict XVI Street) in the capital, Ouagadougou.
The thoroughfare was previously called street 54.160, reported ACI Africa, CNA’s African news partner. It is the location of the country’s apostolic nunciature.
Ouédraogo described Benedict XVI, who served as pope from 2005 until his retirement in 2013, as a great pastor whose name “brings hope to Burkina Faso, to Africa, and to the world and promotes the spirit of dialogue, reconciliation, justice and peace in the hearts of all people.”
“Let us make this street a place where peace awakens faith,” the archbishop of Ouagadougou added.
Archbishop Michael Crotty, the apostolic nuncio in Burkina Faso and Niger, said that the naming of the street was “a sign of gratitude to the pope, now emeritus, who established the apostolic nunciature in Ouagadougou on June 12, 2007, and on the same day appointed Archbishop Vito Rallo as the first apostolic nuncio resident in the country.”
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa with a population of 20 million people, around 19% of whom are baptized Catholics.
The Irish-born nuncio thanked Ouagadougou city council for the honor bestowed on the pope emeritus, adding that the street was also significant because “the rectorate of the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO) is also located on Benedict XVI Street.”
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