ACCRA FEBRUARY 26, 2016 (CISA) – West African Catholic bishops have called on Africans to desist from copying practicing harmful western practices.
Cardinal Théodore Adrien Sarr, Archbishop Emeritus of Dakar reminded Africans that they have their own “culture, traditions and so we need to avoid the several limitations of the Western world instead we must do things based in our traditions, our practices and customs.” Cardinal Sarr, current president of the Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa, was speaking during the ongoing Joint Plenary Assembly of the two international meetings of the Episcopal Conferences of West Africa February 25, reported Fides.
The Assembly brought together over 150 bishops from the Anglophone RECOWA (Regional Episcopal Conference of West Africa which includes Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone) and the Francophone CERAO (Episcopal Conférence Régionale de l’Afrique de l’Ouest whose members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Togo).
The conference on reconciliation and challenges to the Church in West Africa began on February 23 and will last one week under the theme “New Evangelisation and the Specific Challenges for the Church, Family of God in West Africa: Reconciliation, Development, Family Life.”
Cardinal Sarr further warned Africans to be wary of attempts from Western countries to promote so-called gay marriage. “Beware… We are living in a world where the Western world, especially the Americans, behave like people who have to think for the rest of the world,” the prelate stated.
“They have to decide for the rest of the world, but we say that no, you can’t decide for the rest of the world.”
He stressed that the Church will continue to offer its contribution to the peace efforts in the precarious West African region and that during the Assembly the threat of terrorism in the region will also be discussed.
