On her return from a fact-finding trip to Africa, Christine du Coudray, who heads the Africa desk of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Königstein, Germany, appealed to the industrialized nations to do more for the family and for the protection of human life in Africa.
Ms. du Coudray lamented the fact that ACN seems to be almost alone in its efforts to promote the “Culture of Life” on the continent. Many agencies working in Africa promote a Western concept of the family that is no longer based on the community of husband, wife and children, instead promoting artificial contraception and abortion and offering condoms as a solution to the spread of AIDS, she said, adding, “The Africans see these ideas as foreign. They understand at once that this is no culture of life but rather a culture of death.”
In November this year (16 – 22), Ms. du Coudray attended the congress of the “Africa Family Life Federation” (AFLF) in Nairobi, together with the secretary general of ACN, Mr. Pierre-Marie Morel. This congress, she reported, has shown the high level of expertise with which African experts from the widest range of disciplines are working for the promotion of healthy families. The 100 participants from 17 different African countries included specialists from a range of different medical fields, together with theologians, priests, religious sisters and lay specialists active in the pastoral apostolate. She believes that this foundation, which has been supported by ACN since it was first set up eight years ago, has the capacity to combine the various different forces and specialist disciplines and thereby achieve something in areas where individual groups are unable to do so.
The work of the AFLF rests on two pillars, according to Miss du Coudray. The first is a wide-ranging outreach to families; the second consists in helping married couples in the practicalities of everyday life, with particular emphasis on natural family planning. The important thing, she emphasizes, is to promote the training of those who will later train others. “We can never do enough to encourage this important and valuable cause,” she added.
With the help of ACN, the AFLF will shortly be producing a handbook on Christian family life which will be used in the family apostolate in numerous African countries. Says Christine du Coudray, “I believe there is nothing more important than to focus on the family, for it is the basis for everything else — for a healthy and stable society, for priestly vocations and for the future of mankind altogether.” She believes that Africa can show the West that the future of mankind lies with the family and that the African continent has “a special calling” in this regard.
Aid to the Church in Need ranks the protection of human life and the family as among its most important priorities. Right to the end of his life in 2003, the founder of ACN, Father Werenfried van Straaten, repeatedly and insistently urged an end to the killing of unborn life, and ACN continues to support numerous initiatives for the protection of innocent life and for the safeguarding of the family. ACN also supports AIDS prevention strategies, particularly in Africa, that set out to encourage chastity outside marriage and fidelity within it, especially among young people.
