(Jude Atemanke. ACI Africa)
Les participants à la sixième session des conversations synodales en cours sur le Synode sur la synodalité ont proposé des moyens pour les jeunes catholiques d’Afrique d’utiliser efficacement les médias sociaux dans leur participation à la mission d’évangélisation de l’Église.
Kenyan bishops urge protesting youth to accept dialogue amid another peak of violence
(Fredrick Nzwili. National Catholic Reporter).
Catholic bishops in Kenya are urging protesting youth to accept dialogue, while reminding them that remaining intolerant could push the country into anarchy.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
As the retrieval of dismembered bodies tied up in sacks and dumped in an abandoned quarry used as a dumpsite in Kenya’s Embakasi South Constituency in Nairobi has continued, Archbishop Philip Anyolo Subira of the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) has called for respect for human life.
Synodal Process in Africa “should also foster intergenerational dialogue”: Catholic Youths
(Jude Atemanke. ACI Africa).
There is need for the Church in Africa to foster interactions between the young and the not-so young people in the spirit of the multi-year ongoing Synod on Synodality, which Pope Francis extended to 2024, with the first phase, 4-29 October 2023, having concluded with a 42-page summary report.
Les évêques de l’AMECEA s’engagent à protéger les personnes vulnérables
(Vatican News)
Les évêques de l’Association des Conférences épiscopales Membres de l’Afrique de l’Est (AMECEA), en collaboration avec la Commission pontificale pour la protection des mineurs (PCPM), ont conclu une réunion consultative à Roussel House à Nairobi, au Kenya, pour discuter sur des actions menées pour la protection des enfants et des adultes vulnérables dans la région de l’Afrique de l’Est.
(Agnes Aineah. Aciafrica).
When the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) issued Fiducia Supplicans, the declaration permitting the blessing of “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations”, Catholic Church leaders in Africa expressed their sharp opposition to the move.
(Jude Atemanke. ACI Africa).
L’Eglise d’Afrique peut s’inspirer de l’expérience des Eglises orientales du continent pour vivre le Synode sur la synodalité, ont déclaré les participants à une conversation virtuelle.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
Lasting peace in and rebirth of Africa are only possible if Christians and Muslims on the continent go beyond their differences and decide to uphold “mutual respect and cooperation”, John Cardinal Onaiyekan has said.
(Crux. Ngala Killian Chimtom).
Catholic bishops in Kenya have expressed disgust at the heavy-handed response of the police to anti-tax protesters that has resulted in several deaths. The Kenyan parliament on Tuesday voted for the controversial 2024/25 Finance Bill that sparked nationwide protests. The proposed law raises taxes on essential items like bread, vegetable oil, and sugar, raises an eco-levy that would apply to most manufactured goods (including items like sanitary towels and diapers), increases banking charges, and imposes higher annual charges on car owners. The tax bill seeks to raise an additional $2.7 billion in taxes, in order to decrease the country’s budget deficit without incurring additional debts.
(Global Sisters Report. Doreen Ajiambo).
Dozens of religious sisters under the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (or AOSK) gathered on June 14 at the Radix Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, for the official launch of the Communication Network for Catholic Sisters. The project, CNCS, empowers sisters working in their ministries to tell their own stories through media such as print, broadcast and digital. Sponsored by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Catholic Sisters Initiative, the project organized a two-day workshop before the launch to train 13 sisters who are already involved in communication and media. After completing the program, they can also teach other sisters to tell their own stories as well. Sr. Jane Wakahiu of the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi lauded the project, saying it’s important to religious sisters in their evangelization, especially in an age where media plays a vital role in shaping public opinion and influencing people’s lives.
(Crux. Ngala Killian Chimton)
A new 2023-2030 strategic plan for East Africa that has been described as “the start of the journey of hope” has been launched by the Catholic Relief Services. The seven-year plan that was announced in Nairobi, Kenya on June 18 lays emphasis on a broad range of issues, including tackling climate change adaptation, fostering youth development, ensuring Health, nutrition and social services as well as the provision of water, hygiene and sanitation. It also promises to tackle issues like responding to emergencies, fostering local leadership and supporting disabled people. For the past four years, Kenya has suffered drought that has never been seen in recent times and just as the country was recovering from the drought, it then had some of its worst floods.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
Members of the Sisters’ Led Youth Empowerment Initiative (SLYI), a program of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK), have belatedly marked World Environment Day 2024 by engaging young people in the country’s Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN) in activities that foster “environmental stewardship”.
The activities that included garbage collection and general cleaning at St. Charles Lwanga Vocational Training, Kibera on Friday, June 14 was done in partnership with Kenya’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Creative Economy and Catholic Technical and Vocational institutions, community promoters, and volunteers drawn from ADN.
(Aciafrica. Jude Atemanke).
The Church in Africa, which for many years was considered a missionary territory has evolved and is growing “stronger” compared to the Church in Europe that seems to have “weakened”, the representative of the Holy Father in Kenya has said.
Archbishop Hubertus van Megen, who was preaching during the Episcopal Consecration of Mons. John Kiplimo Lelei as Auxiliary Bishop of Kenya’s Catholic Diocese of Eldoret highlighted some of the weaknesses of the Church in Europe, which reflect an orientation towards secularism.
(Silas Isenjia. ACI Africa).
Members of the Africa Christian Professionals Forum (ACPF) are calling on governments, institutions, and lawmakers across Africa to have in place a legal framework that fosters “accepted family values” on the continent.
(Paschal Norbert. CISA)
In line with the directive from the First Session of Synod on Synodality in 2023, the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has constituted a commission to deal with the issue of polygamy in the African Church.
(Paschal Norbert. CISA).
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has said that the Church in Africa is united ahead of the 2024 Second Session of the Synod on Synodality set to begin in October and avowed that the discussion around Fiducia supplicans, the controversial Vatican’s declaration on same-sex blessings is buried in Africa.
(Agnes Aineah. ACI Africa)
For environmental reporting to be impactful, communicators must rediscover the beauty of nature and bring it out in their work, participants at a workshop for Catholic journalists in Kenya have been told.
In his keynote address at the five-day workshop that ends on Friday, April 26, Archbishop Anthony Muheria who was recently elected Vice Chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) urged Catholic communicators to learn from The Canticle of the Creatures, a powerful poem by St. Francis of Assisi that he said brings out the beauty of God’s creation.
(ACI Africa, Silas Isenjia).
La décision du gouvernement kenyan de revoir à la hausse les frais de permis de travail pour les missionnaires dans ce pays d’Afrique de l’Est dénote une ingratitude envers les sacrifices des personnes qui ont consacré leur vie à faire de la société un endroit agréable, ont déclaré les évêques catholiques du pays.
S’adressant aux journalistes le jeudi 11 avril à Roussel House of Donum Dei Missionary Sisters à Karen, Nairobi, les membres de la Conférence des évêques catholiques du Kenya (KCCB) ont déclaré : “Nous sommes surpris par l’augmentation exorbitante des frais de permis de travail payés par les missionnaires, de KES 15.000 (US$115.00) à KES 150.000 (US$1.153.00)”.
(ELENA MAGARIÑOS. Vida Nueva). –
Por iniciativa del Dicasterio para el Diálogo Interreligioso, los coordinadores de las Comisiones Episcopales para el Diálogo Interreligioso, junto con los agentes pastorales involucrados en este campo en todo el continente africano, se han reunido, tal como ha informado hoy el Vaticano, para un taller consultivo en Nairobi, Kenia, del 9 al 10 Abril de 2024, para discutir el tema: ‘El cristianismo en diálogo con el Islam y la religión tradicional africana (ATR): desafíos y oportunidades’.
(ACI Africa. Staff).
The two newly Consecrated Auxiliary Bishops for the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi in Kenya have been called upon to live their prophetic calling, speaking out truth to power, for the interest of the people of God under their pastoral care.
In his congratulatory remarks during the Episcopal Ordination of Bishop Simon Peter Kamomoe and Bishop Wallace Ng’ang’a Gachihi at St. Mary’s Msongari School grounds in Westlands, Nairobi on Saturday, April 6, Kenya’s immediate former President, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, urged Church leaders to practice servant leadership.