Vatican prefect challenges Congo’s laity to strive for peace, reject polygamy, witchcraft

July 09, 2012

As he continued his pastoral visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples praised those laity who serve as “an excellent example of faith and charity through their engagement in the political, economic, and cultural field.”

Speaking in Kinshasa, the nation’s capital, Cardinal Fernando Filoni outlined several challenges Congolese laity must face:

• “Conflicts, unhealthy rivalries, ethnic and tribal divisions, fetishism and witchcraft, the abandonment of the Church in favor of other sects or independent churches, all these evils are the sad event of a lack of depth of faith in a certain number of Christians. And so it is urgent to change these attitudes and behavior contrary to the spirit of the Gospel.”
• “Another area in need of attention and pastoral commitment is the family, plagued by a weak adherence to Catholic moral law of marriage, from divorce, polygamy.”
• “Given the sociopolitical context of the country affected by war, armed conflict, by struggle for power, by the displacement of population, social injustices, and violations of human rights, the challenge here is to make the Church-Family of God a true place of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.”

The nation of 72 million is 53% Catholic.

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal Filoni’s visit in Congo: "Thanks to the admirable collaboration of the laity and their pastors, the local church is alive, dynamic and missionary" (Fides)
• Vatican prefect calls Congo’s Catholics to deeper faith (CWN, 7/6)
• A Silent Genocide (Catholic World Report, 2009)