Development in Africa and the state of affairs at the Synod

¨Life is moving ahead!¨ That is how Cardinal Bernard Agré put it. At 83 years of age, the former archbishop of Abidjan looks optimistically at the development of his continent since the First Synod on Africa, which he attended back in 1994.¨We are advancing! Some things will be repetitive -- that is normal -- but because the situation in Africa has developed, there are other things that will be different. Africa is not all the same nor is it static. She is moving and so are the situations and the people. And presently, we do want certain situations to change.¨This change indicates a renewed vigilance of the society, which also helps to deal with some of the challenges that the Synod must face.This Synod wishes to open itself to the world. There is all the work we wish to carry out with the Muslims so as to say we are both believers and we have so much to discuss. I believe we have to be open, not only seeing what is risky, the perils of Islam or sects No, it is not enough to see what is risky, we must also discover what is positive in order to build a new world. We will speak of the youth, above all of the youth of today. We will also dedicate special attention to the conditions of young girls and women, because women are still the poorest of the poor -- this is important. We will also have other issues to discuss.

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