Cardinal: Church must mend split between African, Arabic countries

Published: 2008-02-11

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (CNS) -- Church structures in North Africa need strengthening so that the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar can represent "all of Africa, as is intended," said the symposium's president, Tanzanian Cardinal Polycarp Pengo. "We cannot come out with a continental voice until the split is mended" between what is considered "black Africa" and countries "that seem more Arabic than African," such as Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, Cardinal Pengo said in a Feb. 8 telephone interview from Johannesburg, where SECAM's standing committee met Feb. 4-7. Cardinal Pengo, the archbishop of Dar es Salaam, said North African countries do not contribute to SECAM, and "we want them to realize that we consider them part of Africa." Cardinal Pengo said members of the standing committee also sent messages of condolence to Catholics in Kenya and Chad, where political violence has claimed hundreds of lives. "The situation in Kenya is very worrying," he said, noting that "people are dying while its leaders fight for political position."

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