SECAM: “Your Suffering is also Ours,” SECAM to Prelates in Madagascar Following Cyclone Batsirai
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Following the recent deadly tropical Cyclone Batsirai which in the month of February heavily impacted the Island country of Madagascar, Bishops in Africa under the continental body Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), have expressed their solidarity with the Prelates in the country, assuring them unity during this time of crisis.
“At this very trying moment that you are going through with all the people entrusted to your pastoral care, we would like to express to you our great fraternal solidarity,” SECAM members say in a statement shared with AMECEA Online Friday March 6.
They added in reference to St. Paul’s message to Corinthians that “If one part of the body suffers then every part suffers with it (and) if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Hence “It is this deep communion in Christ that leads us to tell you that your suffering is also ours. We share it with you.”
According to reports, in Mid-February, Cyclone Batsirai led to loss of over 100 lives; thousands of people were displaced as some camped in various sites while other thousands experienced heavy destruction and damage of their homes.
While having their meeting in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, SECAM bishops expressed their astonishment concerning the disaster saying, “It is with deep shock that we all received the shocking news of the terrible cyclone Batsirai which dramatically ravaged a large part of Madagascar and the islands of the region at the beginning of this month of February 2022, leaving behind a major disaster with dozens of deaths and massive destruction of property.”
“In this perspective, we pray especially for you, our brother bishops, who are charged on a daily basis with the task of strengthening the hope of this afflicted people. May the living God make your labor fruitful so that the joy of hope and the compassion with your people may prevail over the sadness of trial,” the bishop said in their collective statement.
They assured their colleagues in Madagascar of prayers for all the victims and for the repose of the souls for those who died in the disaster that the Lord, “Our Comforter par excellence (may) console all his people who are in Madagascar and adjacent islands and revive in them our great hope that is in God; that great hope which surpasses our human hopes, and which will never be disappointed.”
“Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, we ask you to welcome this message as the expression of our deepest fraternal communion in the great family of God in which we walk together, in faith, hope and charity, towards the eternal Kingdom,” Regions representatives appealed to their brother bishops.
The seminar in Nairobi was organized by the Commission for the Evangelization of SECAM.
