BURKINA FASO: SECAM Bishops Express Solidarity with the People as Covid-19 Ravages

By CISA

OUAGADOUGOU, AUGUST 7, 2020 (CISA)-The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has expressed solidarity with Africans amid Covid-19.

“Thousands have lost jobs, small businesses destroyed. The diversity of pre-existing disasters such as floods, drought, locust invasion, poor harvest are real and constitute a serious challenge,” Cardinal Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo said  in a late July statement released ahead of the annual SECAM day celebrations on July 29.

The president of SECAM observed that the pandemic has given rise to several questions and agitations. “For those in the grip of anguish and misery, it is easy to conclude that God has abandoned us and the pandemic is punishment for our sins, individual and communal.”

“Even though courage has exposed how vulnerable people around the world are, it has also shown that we are one people and we need to be each other’s’ keeper,” he added.

SECAM anniversary celebrations marked on July 29, was shifted to the immediate Sunday August 2.  Cardinal Ouédraogo said the annual event is an important event for the Church-Family of God in Africa and Madagascar.

“The day is set aside for all members of the Church-Family of God in Africa and the surrounding islands to thank God for the gift of mother Africa, for the gift of one another and for the gift of the Christian Faith,” he added.

SECAM was founded on July 29 1969 and marks its 51st anniversary this year.