MESSAGE OF THE AMECEA BISHOPS
FROM THE 8TH PLENARY ASSEMBLY IN NAIROBI, KENYA

SOCIETY MUST RESPECT EVERY PERSON

While meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss common concerns in Eastern Africa, we, the Catholic Bishops of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, wish to emphasize the need and importance for every other person.

We respect one another because we are all children of the same Father in heaven and are called by him to the same eternal destiny. Since we have the same Father, we are all member of the same human family. We are brothers and sisters of one another. We belong to each other. We must, therefore, respect every other person because he or she is a member of our human family.

Our common Father has given us many gifts. He has given each of us life as a gift to ourselves and our community. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable human reality from the moment we are conceived beneath the heart of our mother. This gift of life is precious. We reverence and respect it in one another since it comes from God.

With life, our Father has given us all we need to preserve and develop this life on earth. He has given these gifts to our whole human family and it is our duty to ensure that these gifts are equitably shared among all his children.

Many do so, but unfortunately there are many other among us who do not. These include those who want to gather more than their just share of the gifts our Father put on earth for all of us. They often do this without leaving the poor an opportunity to better themselves or they seek their own advantage through any means available to them without any respect for other persons. If one respects other persons, one could not steal from them nor use one's high position to defraud them. One could not demand a bribe from a person one respects, nor deny that person what is rightfully his or hers. Neither could one perform any act of corruption in a society one respects.

Society's Foundation

We Africans are a religious people. We have our own values. Without these values no ideology can offer an adequate and lasting reason for respecting one another. Not can any society built on such an ideology stand for long, since it is not built on a rock foundation. Its proclaimed ideals soon fall victim to the self-interest of those leaders and members who seek a way to enhance their own profit and position. It is a society built on sand and a house built on sand is destined to fall. (cf. Mt 7:27)

Our own African and religious values are rock foundation on which our society must be built. These are the values that our society must reflect in its policies, its public morality and in its daily life.

It is only by living and fostering these values that they will permeate our society. It is only by parents and others passing them on from their generation to the next that our society will constantly be strengthened in its worth, cleansed from its ills and enjoy the full development our Creator intended it to have.

In doing this we do not stand alone. God sent his Son to help us. Jesus identified himself with each of us, male and female. He died in the struggle against evil and rose in victory over sin, so that each of us may share in a higher form of life, his own life.

He taught us and showed us how to live with one another on earth, so we will be able to live together as his brothers and sisters with our Father forever. This is our human destiny, but it has to start here on earth by living and respecting one another as he loved and respected each of us.

It is not easy to do this, but God is love. The Holy Spirit came to strengthen us, enlighten us and unite all of us in love and respect.

As we, the AMECEA Bishops, share these thoughts with you, we pray that God may bless you and all people of good will in Eastern Africa with this love and respect for every person - a blessing needed for peace and true development in our society today.

28th August 1982
Nairobi, Kenya