Catholics around Sierra Leone last week converged to celebrate a national year of faith at the Immaculate Heart Cathedral in Bo, southern Sierra Leone.
The Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Freetown, Rev. Father Joseph Tamba Kamanda told Politico that “the celebration bears witness to our common identity as Catholics” adding that it “is an expression of our hunger for spiritual well-being”.
Regarding the liturgical context of the celebration, Father Kamanda who delivered the homily said “the celebration may be summed up in two words: mission and commission”. He said the celebration marked “the end of Jesus’ earthly mission and ministry but signals our call or commissioning to continue the ministry of Jesus” until the end of time.
Fr. Kamanda said that it was Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI who declared a “Year of Faith” that started on 11 October, 2012 and would end on 24 November, 2013. He said the declaration was not unique in the sense that during certain times in the history of the Church, popes had called on the lay faithful to dedicate themselves to “deepening their understanding of a particular aspect of the faith”.
He noted that Pope Emeritus was very clear about the purpose of the Year of Faith, adding, “it is a summon to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the ‘One Savior of the World’”.
The Vicar General said that because the “Year of Faith” was an opportunity for believers to allow the faith to influence their daily lives at the individual, family and community levels, it was important to point out certain “social and cultural factors that are ‘profoundly affecting a person’s perception of self and the world, and consequently, a person’s way of believing in God’”. In this regard, Fr. Kamanda said, some areas that deserved national attention were “divorce between faith and everyday life”; “relapse into traditional practices and beliefs”; “an oral culture versus Christian spirituality”; “civil and church leadership”; “excessive narrow mindedness”; “abuse of political power or connections”; “new age churches”; “pastoral care of the youth”; “a society that kills truth” and “selective application of justice”.
Father Kamanda concluded the homily by calling on all Catholics to pray for each other as they congregate as pilgrims so that “the same spirit who energized those disciples may touch each of us so that we may willingly share in the Church’s three-fold ministry of word, worship and witness in our own individual lives”.
