UGANDA 4/6/2004 17:59 LETTER TO POPE FROM KAMPALA Church/Religious Affairs, Standard Holy Father, as editor-in-chief of MISNA, on behalf of the missionary institutes, I thank You for the courageous words expressed this morning to the President of the United States of America George W. Bush. I am currently in Uganda, where I followed the visit of Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino in the Acholi territories devastated by a violent civil war. It is a classic forgotten war, one of countless realities ignored by the international community and law, despite proclamations of democracy from the pulpits of power. I have felt, here in Uganda, profound emotion for the concern You have expressed for these outskirts of the world excluded from the political agenda of the consortium of nations. I believe there is no person more respectful than yourself of the better American democratic tradition, but there is no doubt that what is occurring between the Tigris and Euphrates is not only penalising the Arab equilibriums, but the entire world, to the further detriment of the African continent that despite the easy talk in the living rooms of the respectable, continues paying an extremely high price for an economic recession that generates unceasing poverty. However also commented by Monsignor Davide Lajolo, Secretary for Vatican State Relations, in the symposium on Africa organised last month by the Pontifical Council Justitia et Pax, underlining: æfter the terrorist attack against the United States on 11 September 2001, living conditions in most African nations have decisively deteriorated? also specifying that the Sub-Sahara is the region of the world æhat pays the highest price with its millions of poor and absence of an efficient assistance network. While Jeffrey Sachs, chairman of the Earth Institute of Columbia University and special adviser of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, had added: æhe United States spends $70-billion per year to finance the war in Iraq and $1-b to help Africa? An evident reality even here in Uganda, where Your words, relaunched over the radio broadcasts, once again imprinted and proved what kind of dwarf politicians often hold in their hands the fate of humanity, particularly in the neglected outskirts of the planet, where events such as those that have emerged over the past weeks can repeat and to which You referred as source of æisturbance for the civic and religious conscience of all?and of difficulty æor a serene and decisive effort to share human values, in absence of which neither war nor terrorism will ever be won? Not in Iraq, not in the Holy Land, not in that Great Middle East which will be addressed in the imminent G8. And even less so in Africa. Particularly if æhe active participation of the international community and, in particular, the United Nations Organization? so clearly and firmly auspiced in Your speech to President Bush does not become a prompt reality. It is fine time for the western world to drop its mask and admit that too many times it has opted for the market of deregulation over the pre-eminence of the human being. Your Social Teachings, in reality, is the exact contrary to a world of deregulation and emerges more grand than ever in the defence of values of solidarity that constitute the only real hope of salvation for this grieving humanity, in Africa and elsewhere. Thank You again Holy Father, on behalf of the too many human beings still victims of the torture of social injustice and misery. (Translation of piece by Father Giulio Albanese) [BO]
