SECAM, referred to in the article, is the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. Its president, Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, said that “for 2022, I wish for our continent good economic recovery, free of the debts that have been strangling it.

“I think of the refugees and displaced persons, victims of fratricidal wars and terrorism,” he added, “while entrusting to God their fate so that a solution can be found to enable them to come out of the darkness and the shadow of death.”