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The mission to the peoples of Africa is changing. The local Churches need to explore new areas where evangelization is needed. In my opinion, these are culture, economy and politics.
Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino has been President of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace since the end of 2002. From the very beginning of his mandate, which coincided with the preparation and outbreak of the war in Iraq, he has had to deal primarily with subjects concerning “peace” in the world. Convinced “that Africa is a forgotten continent,”
he intends particularly “to work for Africa, to make noise for Africa.”
In Iraq, priests are being abducted, often ransomed, and sometimes killed. Families are being thrown out of their homes without notice or forced to abjure their faith and embrace Islam. The biggest part of the Christian community has already fled the country.
“Pirated” medicines are proliferating and are putting the lives of millions of people at risk. Medicines, because they are necessities, are getting more expensive and becoming easy targets for unscrupulous activities of organized crime groups. Fake drugs already ranks fourth among the more common counterfeit activities. While multinationals keep mum so as not to alarm consumers in rich countries, families in Africa and Southern Asia buy smuggled medicines at much cheaper prices, sometimes at the cost of human lives.
They are Sudanese who seem to have been forgotten
by the domestic and international communities. In Khartoum, there is indifference to what is happening in the area which borders Chad. Without being importuned, government warplanes continue to bomb villages. The United Nations and the superpowers remain silent. In the refugee camps, the situation is desperate. Some people fear a worse genocide than the one of Rwanda.
The United Nations define major wars as armed conflicts that cause more than 1,000 deaths per year. In 2007, they are known to be taking place in Palestine—Israel, Kashmir—India, Darfur—Sudan, Chechnya—Russia, DR of Congo and Iraq. However, there are four dozens of others happening elsewhere that are less reported by the media and forgotten by the international community.
