Mgr Augustin Simmel Ndiaye calls on the faithful to ensure education
PORTUGAL – At the Marian sanctuary of Fatima, in Portugal, Senegalese pilgrims continue their journey of faith and devotion. Yesterday, they gathered during a mass celebrated at the chapel of the Death of Jesus, presided over by Mgr Augustin Simmel Ndiaye, bishop of Saint-Louis, also president of the National Interdiocesan Committee of Catholic Pilgrimages of Senegal (Cinpec). During this Eucharistic celebration, he invited the faithful to follow the example of Joachim and Anne in the education of Mary. “Each family hopes to receive from God this precious gift that Mary was for Anne and Joachim. However, this gift requires education. Mary was formed to be able to say ‘yes’ to God, because grace does not replace nature,” he recalled. Before adding: “My thoughts spontaneously turn to our families, as well as to all those entrusted to us and hope for the support of our prayers. May the Virgin Mary collect here, in Fatima, all of these supplications and these tears to bring them to her Son Jesus.” Bishop Ndiaye also expressed his deep concern about the fate of young Senegalese girls incarcerated for infanticide. In his homily, he prayed for these suffering women: “My thoughts go to those who want a child without being able to have one, but also to those women who, cornered by extreme and complex situations, come to end the life they carry.” Evoking the recent debates in the Senegalese press around the reform of the law on infanticide, the prelate questioned collective responsibility. : “We condemn young girls who are very often victims themselves. What has society done to protect them from this abyss which leads them inexorably to prison? “. The Bishop of Saint-Louis wanted to remind the faithful of the daily reality of homes by emphasizing the imperfection inherent in each family. According to him, all family life is made up of ups and downs. “Was it not Pope Francis who reminded us that the perfect family does not exist, but that there are normal families, that is to say made up of sinners? Today, we form the family of God: we welcome the grace that the Lord grants us.
And this grace, like the Visitation, we cannot keep for ourselves,” he affirmed. Continuing his teaching, the prelate relied on the Marian figure: “When Mary was waiting for Jesus, she got up and traveled tens of kilometers in her state to go to her cousin Elizabeth.” In his eyes, “a family is a community that waits, that welcomes, but also that educates children to respond to their own vocation. The very first vocation lies within the family, whose mission is to welcome and train its members.”
Marie Bernadette SÈNE (Special Envoy)
