Cardinal Philippe Ouédraogo, Archbishop of Ouagadougou and immediate past president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), called in his message entitled “Celebrate with dignity but in sobriety, solidarity and sharing” expressed on the occasion of Christmas 2022, the people to privilege dialogue and put aside violence and armed conflicts, while reviewing what Burkina Faso has suffered since 2015 of terrorist attacks and deploring the loss of human lives resulting from them.
Cardinal Ouédraogo added that terrorism has its origin in several social problems such as marginalisation, stigmatisation, injustice, bad governance and community conflicts while insisting on the importance of putting an end to armed conflict and dialogue for a fraternal living together.
He called for the setting aside of selfishness in favour of understanding, brotherhood, reconciliation, tolerance, true love and the courage to build peace, which for him is “the most beautiful Christmas gift that God can give us”.
Finally, Cardinal Ouédraogo called on the people of Burkina Faso to celebrate in “sobriety, solidarity and sharing”.