I am Very Happy
Jul 15, 2005
I am very happy that Benedict XVI received me before I returned to Benin to continue being a Roman missionary in Africa. By Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, Dean Emeritus of the Sacred College
(30Days, May 2005) And I am very happy that on the same morning the Pope also received the Cardinal Vicar Camillo Ruini and the heads of CELAM. Rome, Africa and Latin America together.
I wished the Pope a long and fruitful pontificate. And I recalled the problems of my continent, often forgotten by the powerful of this world, but always in the heart of the successor of Peter. Of John Paul II yesterday, of his successor today.
I spoke of the wars that bloody our land, of the hunger that kills old and young, of the sects that poison the faith of the simple, of the advance of Islam, of AIDS that slaughters the innocent. In this regard I was struck by the fact that the Pope’s first appeal during the first Regina Caeli recited from the window of his apartment in the Apostolic Palace was for peace in Togo, a country bordering my Benin.
I was moved by the promptness of the Pope, even if, obviously, I would have preferred his intervention not to have been necessary. In the brief audience we spoke of past and future. There wasn’t time for any nostalgic memories. I can’t however forget the fact that Benedict XVI was created a cardinal by Paul VI in 1977, and in what was a true “mini-consistory” – the new cardinals were four - the cardinal’s hat was also granted to my humble person. I am also grateful to the great Pope Montini for this.
I am Very Happy