African bishops, led by Cardinal Ambongo, call for spiritual renewal and concrete action on peace, justice, and climate in powerful Advent message.
Newsroom (01/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) Catholic bishops across Africa have issued a stark yet hopeful Advent message, acknowledging the continent’s deepening crises while calling faithful to renewed spiritual vigor and concrete commitment to peace, justice, and human dignity.
In a statement released November 28 by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, Archbishop of Kinshasa and SECAM president, painted a grim portrait of contemporary African realities: ongoing armed conflicts, forced displacement, kidnapping, banditry, hunger, poverty, corruption, weak governance, and the escalating toll of climate change.
“Our beloved continent, Africa, continues to face trials that weigh heavily on the hearts of her people,” Cardinal Ambongo wrote on behalf of the continent’s bishops. He highlighted droughts, destructive floods, environmental degradation, and economic fragility that disproportionately affect the poorest communities, as well as the perilous migration journeys undertaken by desperate youth.
“These sufferings pierce the heart of Africa,” he said, echoing Pope Francis’s frequent reminder that “the cry of the poor becomes our own cry.”
Despite the litany of hardships, the cardinal insisted that the Church stands in solidarity with suffering communities. “You are not alone in your sufferings,” he assured Africa’s Catholics. “As shepherds, we walk with you, bearing your burdens and raising your concerns before God and before the world.”
The message frames Advent as a season of defiant hope rooted in the coming of Christ, “the light that shines in the darkness.” Cardinal Ambongo urged Christians to turn their gaze to Jesus as “our enduring hope when the world disappoints; our strength when fear surrounds us; our justice when earthly systems fail.”
Beyond personal renewal, the SECAM president called for active witness: renouncing violence, corruption, and injustice; caring for the displaced and unemployed; protecting the environment in line with Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’; and fostering dialogue and solidarity.
“The coming of Christ urges us to purify our hearts… and to become instruments of peace in our families, communities, and nations,” he wrote.
The Advent letter comes at a time when multiple African regions grapple with prolonged conflicts—notably in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, the Sahel, and the Horn of Africa—while climate-induced disasters displace millions more each year. Analysts say the bishops’ intervention reinforces the African Church’s growing role as both moral conscience and advocate for systemic change on the continent.
As the Church prepares for Christmas, Cardinal Ambongo closed with Christ’s own words: “Take courage, I have overcome the world.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from ACi Africa
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