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liation to contemporary society, which unfortunately experiences in many

places conflicts, acts of violence, war and hatred. Your continent, sadly, has

not been spared, and it has been and continues to be a theatre of grave

tragedies which cry out for true reconciliation between peoples, ethnic groups

and individuals. For us Christians, this reconciliation is rooted in the merciful

love of God the Father, and it is accomplished through the person of Christ

Jesus who, in the Holy Spirit, has offered the grace of reconciliation to all. Its

consequences will be shown, then, in the justice and peace which are indi-

spensable for building a better world.

Truly, what is more dramatic, in the present socio-political and economic

context of the African continent, than the often savage conflicts between

ethnic groups or peoples bound by brotherhood? And if the Synod of 1994

insisted on the Church as Family of God, what can this year's Synod con-

tribute to the building up of Africa, thirsting for reconciliation and in pursuit

of justice and peace? The local or regional wars, massacres and genocides

perpetrated on the continent must challenge us in a special way: if it is true

that in Jesus Christ we belong to the same family and share the same life -

since in our veins there flows the Blood of Christ himself, who has made us

children of God, members of God's Family - there must no longer be hatred,

injustice and internecine war.

Cognizant of the growth of violence and the emergence of selfishness in

Africa, Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of venerable memory called in 1988 for a

theology of fraternity as a response to the pressing appeals of the poor and

the little ones.7 Perhaps he had in mind the words of the African Lactantius,

written at the dawn of the fourth century: "The first duty of justice is to

recognize others as brothers and sisters. Indeed, if the same God created us

and gave us birth in the same condition, in view of righteousness and life

eternal, we are surely united by bonds of brotherhood: whoever does not

acknowledge those bonds is unjust ".8 The Church, as the Family of God in

Africa, made a preferential option for the poor at the First Special Assembly

of the Synod of Bishops. In this way she showed that the situation of dehu-

manization and oppression afflicting the African peoples is not irreversible;

on the contrary, she set before everyone a challenge: that of conversion,

holiness and integrity.

3 0 O t t o b r e 2 0 0 9 - 0 9 : 3 7 p a g i n a 3 1 3 e : / 0 6 9 1 _ 9/L a v o r o/Ac t a _Ap r i l e _ 9 . 3 d GRECCO

7 L'Osservatore Romano, French edition, 12 April 1988, pp. 4-5. 8 Divine Institutions 54, 4-5: S.C. 335, p. 210.