“Charity must inspire all actions” of the Church.
“It is not about wanting to create a custom-cut world, but about loving it, the Pope stated.
“This is why the Church’s primary calling is not to transform the political order or change the social fabric,” he said.
This was the message the Pope sent out in his General Audience with members of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel.
The Pope said he appreciated the work done by the Foundation’s local branch, promoting “numerous projects to counter desertification.”
Apart from asking the international community to help the Sahel, Pope Benedict XVI also said he wished “to encourage and support efforts made by ecclesiastical organisations that work in this field.”
The Pope urged the international community to help the Sahel which “has been threatened again in recent months by serious drought and food shortages caused by a lack of rain and advancing desertification.”
“The lives of local inhabitants are being threatened as a result of “extreme poverty.”
Addressing the Foudnation, the Pope stressed that “the Church sees Africa as the continent of hope, the continent of the future.”