It is difficult to believe there are countries in the world where suffering is an every day reality. The pope delivered the post-synodal exhortation “Africae Munus” about the Catholic Church in Africa last November, focusing on the need for change.  Today the news coming out of Africa is mainly about the starvation in the Horn of Africa and the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. These headlines illustrate that in his exhortation the pope is hitting on very real issues.

Currently 11 million people are starving in the horn of Africa and in Nigeria radical Islamic groups want Christians to leave the northern territories.  In light of this it seems clear that when the pope says in his exhortation that Africa must become a land of reconciliation, peace and hope, he is conscious of the pain that all Africans experience .

The images coming from Nigeria this Christmas made me think of what I saw in Madrid at WYD: a Church united as a only body different, standing firm with the same root – Christ. The contrast between these two sets of images made me feel that the suffering of African Christians is also my suffering, the suffering of all Christian. When one part of the body suffers, the entire body suffers.

The Bishops of Africa and Pope Benedict XVI know the church needs to be alert to all of this. When, in “Africae Munus”, we read, “On the social plane, human consciences are challenged by the grave injustices existing in our world as a whole and within Africa in particular. The plundering of the goods of the earth by a minority to the detriment of entire peoples is unacceptable, because it is immoral. Justice obliges us to ‘render to each his due,’” it is a call to look at the plight of those who suffer, to look at those who have their life on the line every day.
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