Blessing of the First Stones of the Cathedral of Abidjan (11 May 1980)

On Sunday, 11 May 1980, the Holy Father blessed the first stones in the ceremony of inauguration of the Cathedral in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. 

1. I thank Monsignor Bernard Yago, my dear brother in the episcopate, for his beautiful words, and I join in his joy for this liturgical ceremony. How, in fact, dear brothers and sisters who are listening to me, not let our joy burst before the spiritual reality thus manifested, and recall for a moment with you its profound significance? I am going to bless the first stones of the future cathedral of Abidjan and of a church which will be dedicated to Our Lady of Africa.

Now the Church is the house of God. Yes, all Christian life is founded on this marvelous supernatural reality, always to be deepened, always to be meditated on, which Saint John expressed in this simple phrase: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”[ 1 ]. Yes, the Lord was born, suffered, died and rose again so that the Christian might really be a son of God.

This supernatural truth must determine the life of the Christian always and everywhere. How? Here again I take up the teaching of the first letter of Saint Peter: “As living stones, become a spiritual house”[ 2 ]. The Church, the new Jerusalem of which Scripture and the liturgy speak, is being built in our lives, within us!

2. And yet the Church, the house of God, is not only spiritual. The human rootedness of our Catholic communities, as manifested and expressed in the construction of the churches, and in particular of this cathedral, depends closely on the Incarnation, on this coming of God into our humanity, on the fact that God made himself similar to us and that he wanted to meet us through our concrete ways of living!

The church is the place in which the Christian people gather, it is also the place where the Lord is really present: in the celebration of the holy mass; present in the Blessed Sacrament.

The church is the place where the Christian is born into divine life through baptism, finds the forgiveness of his faults through the sacrament of reconciliation, enters into communion with the Lord and with his brothers in the Eucharist.

However humble the churches you build, see how great the spiritual reality they manifest! They are the sign of the building of the kingdom of God in you, in your country! And among all the churches of a diocese, the cathedral, your cathedral which will soon rise here, has a special meaning. Just as the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, cathedral of the Pope, of the Bishop of Rome, is called for this reason “Head and Mother of all the churches”, so the cathedral of the diocese is called “mother of the churches” of the diocese: it is because it is the church of the bishop, of the head of the diocese, of the successor of the Apostles to whom Christ entrusted the charge and concern for evangelization. You will therefore love this new cathedral, which will remain dedicated to Saint Paul, the missionary Apostle par excellence! Love all your churches too! Love your bishops and all the priests who give birth to you and grow in divine life!

3. It is not without pain or effort that the kingdom of God grows in us! Nor is it easy to build churches. I know how much you care about them, despite emergencies of all kinds, and what sacrifices you make to build them. Those who are surprised that churches are built instead of devoting all resources to the improvement of material life have lost the sense of spiritual realities; they do not understand the meaning of the word of the Lord: “Man does not live by bread alone”[ 3 ]. But we know well that the stone church that is built with difficulty is the sign of the one that is being built in the community!

I am particularly happy to also bless, at the same time as the first stone of your future cathedral, the first stone of the church which will be built under the patronage of Our Lady of Africa.

Deeply enlightening encounter! On the one hand, the Apostle of the Nations, who lived only to announce the Gospel, and on the other, the Virgin Mary, who preserved in her heart the mysteries of the life of her Son, and who remains, in all centuries and for the whole Church, as we will still remember in a few days, the example of ardent prayer in expectation of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It is therefore not without very deep spiritual reasons that the first missionaries who came to your countries consecrated the field of their apostolate from the moment of their arrival to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This Heart is in fact the symbol of divine closeness, of God's love for our poor humanity and of the love that it can return to him through fidelity to his grace. The devotion of these missionaries to the Virgin, their trust in her, were therefore closely linked to the fulfillment of their apostolic mission: to make known and loved Christ, “born of the Virgin Mary”.

This is why, venerable brothers, dear sons and dear daughters, I experience a deep spiritual joy in renewing in some way, among you and in your name, the gesture of those who had come, the heart full of love for God and for their brethren in Africa, to bring the gospel of salvation. By entrusting Africa to the Immaculate Virgin, we place it under the protection of the Mother of the Saviour. How could our hope be disappointed? How, when you invoke her with fervor in this church and in all those of your countries, will she not lead you to her divine Son, to the fullness of her love?

May the Lord bless you! May he bless all the builders of the Church, spiritual and material! May he bless your country, the Ivory Coast! May he bless all who seek his spiritual and material progress! May he give his grace and his peace to all those who seek him and who come to meet him in these sacred buildings! Amen.

 [ 1 ] Io . 1, 14.

 [ 2 ] 1 Petr . 2, 5.

 [ 3 ] Cfr. Matt. 4, 4.

© Copyright 1980 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

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