Africa’s Youth is Preparing for the Synod

In several African countries, as the French daily La Croix tells us, youth associations and chaplaincies are at work preparing for the Youth Synod to be held next October in Rome.

In the dioceses of Togo, the youth movements and their chaplains have engaged in many activities, and the coordinating council of the Catholic Youth Action (CCACJ) reports that a special commission is working to improve the involvement of young people in the preparation for the Synod. The proposals for the Synod year include a forum on topics of the social doctrine of the Church.

In Benin too, the preparations are lively, and the young people “want cement and concreteness, work,” explains Father Ludovic Gnansounou of the diocese of Dassa, in central Benin. Meanwhile, in Ivory Coast, 35,000 young people gathered a few days ago for the diocesan pilgrimage to Abidjan: for the occasion, the apostolic nuncio, Msgr. Joseph Spitri, invited the young people to make their aspirations known: “It is with the young people themselves that we will better understand their role in the Church,” he said.