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Your Graces,
My Lord Bishops
Your Excellency, the Executive Governor of Enugu State and Official
Representative of
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
The Monsignors, Rev. Fathers, Religious Men and Women, Christian laity,
My Lords temporal,
Our Distinguished Guests from the United States and other African Countries,
Chiefs and Traditional Rulers,
Ladies and Gentlemen
I have the singular privilege and joy of
welcoming all of you to this opening ceremony and introducing this
conference which has gathered all of us from different parts of the world
especially from the United States of America and the continent of Africa. As
you would have seen in our conference brochure, this is the second part of a
two-part conference which has been entitled A Call to Solidarity with
Africa. Americans and Africans in Dialogue about Africa’s Promise, Needs and
image.
As some of you might know, this conference
project arose as a response to the call made by the United States Conference
of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) during their general meeting in November 2001.
This call was contained in a very rich and challenging document that came
out of that meeting entitled A Call to Solidarity With Africa which I have
here in my hands.
The aim of this document was to draw the
attention of the global community in general and of the US Catholics in
particular to Africa as a continent that has been greatly marginalized in
world affairs but is yet full of promise, despite the peculiar challenges
that it faces in tour time. It would seem, especially through the effect of
the media coverage, that mainly Africa’s problems predominate in the
consciousness of most people in and outside Africa, eclipsing somehow the
enormous possibilities and potentials of the continent.
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