South Africa’s Cardinal Napier Sends Out Strong Message about “assault on the family”

June 19, 2024 | ACI Africa

The family is facing the “biggest and most serious crisis” in the world today, Wilfrid Fox Cardinal Napier has said, and warned that attacks against the family seek to decimate procreation.

In his presentation during a recent online conversation on the Synod on Synodality, Cardinal Napier observed that the family hurts the most when attacks are waged on the marriage institution.

“In the world of today the biggest and most serious crisis is precisely in the family. It starts with the all out attack on marriage, which is the basic and most fundamental element of human society,” the South African Cardinal said at the virtual event that brought together African theologians and experts, who seek to deepen the understanding of the Synthesis Report of the Synod on Synodality ahead of the 2-29 October 2024 session in Rome.

He said that the “assault on the family” goes further by “trying to deprive it of its most basic rights and duties.”

“We see this in the key areas of procreation, the nurturing and education of children. In our eyes, children are willed by God to be the creatures whom He wants to be most like Him, indeed His own image and likeness!” the Catholic Archbishop emeritus of South Africa’s Durban Archdiocese said during the June 14 event.

Participants at the virtual conversation that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM) explored the topic, “The Synodal Missionary Face of the Church Family of God in Africa”.

It was the second in a series of weekly conversations that the two entities have organized. Participants spoke of how the Church in Africa as a family of God is “coming of age”, and singled out African values that are enriching the synodal conversations.

In his input, Cardinal Napier said that Africa has a lot to teach the rest of the world what it means to be a family of God.

He challenged those representing the Church in Africa in the second session of the Synod on Synodality to show others what it means to be full members of the Family of God, “precisely because they are from Africa.”

“If there is anything which I would love to see the African members and delegates at the Synod doing, it is that they take every opportunity to be radical images of God, who mirror God to others, by reflecting what it means to be full members of the Family of God, precisely because they are from Africa,” the 83-year-old Cardinal said.