A delegation of French bishops, led by the president of the Episcopal Conference Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard, is currently visiting Central Africa (from 3 to 13 July). Their journey, which will take them through the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi, is intended to express the solidarity of the French Church with the populations of the Great Lakes. Invited by the Association of the bishops of Central Africa (ACEAC), the French bishops are now participating in the Association’s plenary assembly, together with Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace and envoy of the Pope. “This visit, the first in our country said Cardinal Frédéric Etsou, archbishop of Kinshasa, on welcoming the French delegation will be an opportunity for you to experience directly the sad reality in which our peoples live, the defenceless victims of warlords. This visit has a high ecclesial value because it reminds us that the love of God is stronger than the forces of evil”. Since 1998, over three and half Congolese have been killed as a result of the war. On Sunday 4 July Msgr. Ricard officiated the solemn celebration inaugurating the plenary assembly. “If we are here among you he said, addressing a throng of some 12,000 faithful it is to share your sufferings, your anxieties and your hopes, but also to revive our faith and our ecclesial life in contact with yours”. On Friday 9 July, a part of the French delegation will travel to Rwanda where it will be received by the bishops and visit the dioceses of Nyundo, Ruhengeri and Kigali and the sites of the genocide of ten years ago.
