{"id":11333,"date":"2015-10-29T08:24:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T08:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=11333"},"modified":"2015-10-29T08:24:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T08:24:00","slug":"africa-has-a-lot-to-say-at-the-synod-on-the-family-esther-gaitan-fuertes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2015\/10\/29\/africa-has-a-lot-to-say-at-the-synod-on-the-family-esther-gaitan-fuertes\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICA HAS A LOT TO SAY AT THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY -Esther Gaitan-Fuertes"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p>Africa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a015.10.2015<\/p>\n<p>On the occasion of the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York, the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar made an appeal to political leaders and international organizations to end the promotion of a civilization of death in the continent. \u201cThe agents of the civilization of death are using ambivalent language, seducing decision-makers and entire populations, in order to make them partners in the pursuit of their ideological objectives\u2026 They take advantage of poverty, weakness and ignorance in order to subject peoples and governments to their blackmail.\u201d Among these objectives is the implementation of \u201csexual and reproductive health and rights\u201d programmes, which are imposed as a condition for development assistance.<\/p>\n<p>One of Aid to the Church in Need\u2019s project partners in Benin, Father Fran\u00e7ois Tiando, faces this monumental challenge in his work as he is responsible for family pastoral care in the Natitingou diocese. Another problem that he encounters in his pastoral work with families is that \u201csome people are not quite open to modernity or Christianity. The major challenge is still polygamy&#8230; It is difficult for the young to understand the importance and benefits of monogamy.\u201d This is worsened by the pressure of international organisations to implement a \u201creproductive health\u201d agenda amongst Benin\u2019s population, a phenomenon that is also present in other African countries. According to Father Tiando, the devastating consequences of this agenda are more and more visible. \u201cMany Christian couples are aware that this hurts the family, especially the women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Father Tiando stressed out that the Church needs to face this challenge. The purposes of the organisations which promote this agenda are quite clear, as the slogan of the so-called \u201cAmour et Vie\u201d (Love and Life) youth centres for reproductive health shows: \u201cLearn to live your sentimental life without risks.\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> They offer a confidential service, which in practice means that teenagers and young people can receive advice on reproductive health without parental consent. \u201cParents are disarmed\u2026 there is a serious crisis of values in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christine du Coudray, head of the Africa department at Aid to the Church in Need International, agrees: \u201cAfrica is a target of the NGOs\u2019 agenda because the majority of the population is young.\u201d One of the first steps to counteract this threat coming from abroad, according to Ms du Coudray, is to stop using the United Nations\u2019 vocabulary on this matter which is \u201cpurposely unclear and a new invention. Instead, we should use the Church\u2019s long-standing vocabulary of love and family, whose words are full of meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Father Tiando remains confident in the Church\u2019s ability to face this threat \u2013 and the diocese of Natitingou\u2019s triennial family action programme, supported by ACN, is part of its response. The programme\u2019s final objective is the \u201cevangelisation of families by the families\u201d \u2013 in line with the diocese\u2019s motto, a solidary and missionary family.\u00a0 Once the families who attend the formation discover the true value of the Christian family, they pass it on not only to their children but to other families. Father Tiando is convinced that not only evil, but also good can be contagious. \u201cThe other families can see that Christian values truly lived in the family are good for the family and society as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From these past years\u2019 experience, Father Tiando reports how many men\u2019s vision of their wife and women in general changes after taking part in the formation. In the African tradition, the man is the head of the family, whereas in the Catholic family man and woman stand together thanks to dialogue and prayer. \u201cI am impressed by the testimonies of those who are taking part in this formation. They learn and live that prayer sustains the couple and the family.\u201d The fact that other couples give their testimony at the formation also helps the participants to realise that they are not isolated in their problems. \u201cThese families build up a net of friendship though the diocese: a friendship around common values.\u201d Thus the family action programme\u2019s ultimate goal is that these families would then evangelise other families, as part of the diocesan project of \u201ca family that is solidary and missionary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christine du Coudray is quite positive about this kind of family programmes supported by Aid to the Church in Need in Africa. \u201cWe don\u2019t see these programmes in European countries, where they are also necessary. These family programmes, which are carried out in Africa, also give fruits in our countries in mysterious ways.\u201d For instance, the 2013 World Congress of Families organized in Paris followed the example of the celebration of the 10<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary of the African Family Life Federation AFLF (<em>F\u00e9d\u00e9rationAfricained\u2019ActionFamiliale<\/em> FAAF). The AFLF mission is to provide its members \u2013 who represent 28 associations from 22 African countries \u2013 with the competences for their educational work with youth and married couples, to promote family values and responsible paternity\/maternity according to God\u2019s design. Ms du Coudray points out that, when it comes to Christian family values, \u201csomething good is coming from Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This mission of the African people towards humanity today was also stressed by the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar, in their common declaration issued last June: \u201cAs Pope Benedict XVI solemnly declared, \u2018Today Africa is the spiritual lung of humanity\u2019.\u201d The bishops denounce that the billions of dollars allotted to promote the \u201creproductive health agenda\u201d in the African continent have a clear objective, \u201cthe efficient control of demographic growth in Africa, according to the Western \u2018model\u2019, which has become a zero growth model in Europe today.\u201d They consider this Western policy in Africa to be \u201ca terrifying resurgence of a colonialist spirit under the guise of the appealing names of liberty, equality, rights, autonomy, democratization and development\u2026 It can no longer be denied that under the euphemism of \u2018sexual and reproductive health and rights\u2019, such programs are plainly imposed as a condition for development assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This concern of the African Catholic bishops is shared by members of other religious faiths present in the continent. African cultures have traditionally celebrated \u201cthe beauty and sacredness of life and the family.\u201d The Bishops of Africa and Madagascar exhort all Africans to resist the political and economic pressures of the transnational \u201creproductive rights\u201d lobby, and categorically say \u2018no\u2019 to this planned destruction of marriage and the family. In words of Pope Francis, we should be \u201con guard against colonization by new ideologies. There are forms of ideological colonization which are out to destroy the family\u2026 [So] in our families we need to be very wise, very shrewd, very strong, in order to say \u2018no\u2019 to all attempts at an ideological colonization of our families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>In 2014 Aid to the Church in Need supported 108 family projects in Africa with more than 1,065,000 EUR and for 2015 so far it has supported 93 projects with just over 780.000 EUR.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> These \u201clove and life\u201c centres are supported by PSI, which defines itself as a \u2018global health organization dedicated to improving the health of people in the developing world by focusing on serious challenges like a lack of family planning, HIV and AIDS, barriers to maternal health, and the greatest threats to children under five, including malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.\u2019 Its revenue in 2013 was approx. $600 million.\u00a0 Source: http:\/\/www.psi.org\/about\/at-a-glance\/<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Esther Gaitan-Fuertes.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a015.10.2015 On the occasion of the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York, the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar made an appeal to political leaders and international organizations to end the promotion of a civilization of death in the continent. \u201cThe agents of the civilization of death are using ambivalent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11335,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - 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