SECAM: African and European Bishops to Discuss Synodal Trends in Upcoming Seminar
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Representatives from the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the Council of European Catholic Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) are set to deliberate on how synodality is shaping the Churches in Africa and Europe.
In a letter addressed to the Secretary General of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) Fr. Anthony Makunde, the bishop representatives from the two continental Episcopal bodies that have had a long-term relationship since 2004, will have a two-day seminar in Kenya’s capital Nairobi under the theme Synodality: Africa and Europe walking together.
The conference that will be held on 24th and 25th January, is expected to have 20 bishops from both Africa and Europe and will focus on various thematic areas including, understanding the emerging synodal Church in the light of “Praedicate Evangelium,” the continental impression on the first session of Synod on Synodality and how the Church can listen to young people in Africa and Europe in the light of the synodal process.
The Praedicate Evangelium (Preach the Gospel) is an Apostolic Constitution that was released by Pope Francis in 2022, on the restructuring of the Roman Curia and its service to the Church in the world.
The document highlights that preaching the Gospel is the “task that the Lord Jesus entrusted to his disciples,” and the mandate constitutes “the primary service that the Church can render to every individual and all humanity in the modern world.”
In all the thematic areas the bishops are to discuss in the upcoming seminar, they will focus on both the African and European contexts.
Since the beginning of the relationship between the two continental Episcopal bodies, the bishops agreed to have their meetings triennially.
The first seminar was held in Rome (Italy) under the theme: “Communion and solidarity between Africa and Europe.” The last physical seminar before the Covid-19 pandemic was held in Fatima (Portugal) in 2018 and reflected on the meaning of globalization the Church and Cultures in Europe and Africa.
At a virtual session in 2021, members of two Continental Episcopal bodies encouraged solidarity and promotion of brotherliness, as they called on all local churches to open their doors and welcome the people of God basing their discussions on Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti that was published in 2020.
Some of the expected facilitators during the two-day seminar include the Archbishop of Nairobi, Most Rev. Philip Subira Anyolo; the SECAM President Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa Archdiocese in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); the Archbishop of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Cardinal Hollerich; the Archbishop of Vilnius, Lithuania Msgr. Gintaras Grušas; Bishops Lucio Andrice Muandula of Xai Xai, Mozambique; the bishop of Troyes, France, Msgr. Alexandre Joly; and Bishop Bernardine Francis Mfumbusa of Kondoa, Tanzania.
