AMECEA PLENARY: USCCB assures AMECEA Church of Enhanced Solidarity towards Urgent Needs in the Region
By Sr. Helen Kasaka, LSMI
United States of America Conference of Catholic Bishops has pledged to support the pastoral needs of the Churches in Eastern Africa.
In a solidarity message read on behalf of USCCB by Edward Kiely at the opening of the 20th AMECEA Plenary Study Session held at Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Archbishop Peter L. Smith Chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) subcommittee on the Church in Africa assures the bishops in AMECEA region of the support towards pastoral projects that require urgent attention such as the care for the environment.
“The Subcommittee has been entrusted in a special way with the task of building and maintaining relationships with bishops’ conferences in Africa. To date, the Solidarity Fund has received and disbursed over $33 million, including over $2.2 million in 2021. Over the past few years, it has been a great joy for us to have supported a number of projects that were inspired by Laudato Si’ and promoted environmental justice and action throughout Eastern Africa and the rest of the continent,” Archbishop Smith said.
The Archbishop further added that since the Solidarity Fund was still a relatively new program, they were trying to increase the capacity to support it and that they have included certain parameters for the fund of which the region will benefit. The bishops in the USA were interested in collaborating in a respectful way with their brother bishops in Africa.
Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa is a USCCB initiative that raises awareness form Christians in the American parishes of the urgent needs of the Church in Africa. Dioceses and parishes support the Solidarity Fund through collections or other creative ways. The Solidarity Fund accepts grant requests for pastoral projects from bishops’ conferences and associations of Bishops’ Conferences from Africa.
And Archbishop Smith has also appreciated the gratitude the Church in Africa acknowledges whenever it receives such supports.
He applauded the Bishops in AMECEA region for considering deliberating on caring for the environment saying, “It is of particular significance to be here with you as you consider the theme “Environmental Care and Integral Human Development” especially as it pertains to your situation in Eastern Africa. Every day as we encounter ever more environmental and ecological tragedies, be they from war or changing climate cycles, Pope Francis’s timely encyclical, Laudato Si’, is proving to be a prophetic call to profound conversion that we can no longer ignore. We applaud you and the Church in Eastern Africa as you come together in a spirit of Synodality and collegiality to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit in order to confront these challenges and to offer the world understanding and faith-filled solutions that respect the intrinsic dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God,” Archbishop Smith said.
And Archbishop Smith has applauded the increased gratitude by Churches in Africa for all the support it receives from them.
“During these few years, in which we have been more formally engaged in building deeper relationships with you, two major points have emerged. First, there is increased gratitude to the various churches in Africa for all the riches the Church in the U.S. has received and continues to receive. The second is a growing desire to share our gifts with the Churches in Africa,” Archbishop Smith retorted.