SECAM and MISSIO Empowering African Women Religious

In Lomé, Togo, Catholic women religious from Africa met from 4 to 9 September to reflect on their empowerment and security.

The Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the German Catholic organization Missio Aachen organized a seminar on the empowerment of African women religious in Lomé. More than one hundred African women religious and experts from thirty countries in Africa and elsewhere are participating in the work of this meeting which opened on Thursday 4 September. It was in the presence of Most Rev. Lucio Andrice Muandula, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Xai Xai in Mozambique and Vice-President of SECAM, the President of Togo Bishops Conference, Most Rev.  Benoît Alowonou, Bishop of Kpalimé, and the President of Missio Aachen, Father Dirk Bingener.

Recalling the urgency of empowering women’s religious congregations, the Bishop of Kpalimé “wishes that the acute issue of financing the Church’s missions be better understood from the perspective of solidarity, transparency, trust and innovation in the funding methods and conditions”.

During this ongoing session, the issue of empowering religious congregations on the continent is addressed from several aspects, such as Missio’s strategy and areas of financing, project proposals and the funding process, risk factors for abuse and protection.

“It is obvious that strong economic dependence weakens human beings and exposes them more easily to all kinds of abuse”, Sister Marie Diouf, President of the Confederation of Conferences of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COSMAM/COMSAM). According to this Senegalese nun, religious congregations in Africa need financial support to develop their empowerment strategies, particularly in terms of training and capacity building, support for sound financial and accounting management, and then financing significant income-generating projects. A member of the Congregation of the Daughters of the Holy Heart of Mary in Senegal, the president of COSMAM urged financial partners “to move towards long-term investments in favor of religious congregations.” Superior of the Institute of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Trinity and Vice-President of the Union of Major Superiors of Togo (USUMATO), Sr Fidélia Dotsey, welcomed the holding of this seminar in Lomé. According to her, this seminar on the empowerment of African women religious responds to the statement of Pope Paul VI during his visit to Kampala (Uganda) in 1969, who affirmed that Africans are their “own missionaries”.

Missio Aachen President Fr. Dirk Bingener praised the continent’s women religious who are “close to the people and, in many places, shape the face of the Church”, but who are, at the same time, exposed to situations of abuse and exploitation. “We must contribute to improving the economic situation of women’s congregations, because it is also economic dependence that makes people vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,” he said.

Charles Ayetan