ACN News: Thursday, 14th December 2017 – BENIN

The John Paul II Institute in Benin: 20 years of family-based training in the service of African society

By Mónica Zorita


Giving people the ability to communicate values for strengthening the family in today’s society through education – that is the main mission of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute. The institute, which is headquartered in Rome, has branch campuses on every continent. The Benin campus is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Representatives of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) paid the campus a visit. The foundation offers more than 120 scholarships as part of its support of the African institute of theological studies.

The Kanga family from Cameroon is a good example of how the institute named after Pope Wojtyla works. Thanks to one of these scholarships, the married couple was able to make the trip from their country to Cotonou, Benin, with four of their five children. They are currently completing a master’s degree programme for lay people. After three years, they will return to Cameroon to help other families, offering them a professional orientation to help them deal with the problems of today’s society. The Seke family has already finished a course of study at the John Paul II Institute. The married couple has founded the “The Power of Love” centre, which offers engaged couples an orientation for marriage.


(The Kanga couple from Cameroon © Aid to the Church in Need)

At the pontifical institute, both priests and religious as well as married or unmarried lay people complete courses of studies that are based on the principles laid out in the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, which states, “All that you succeed in doing to support the family is destined to have an effectiveness that goes beyond its own sphere and reaches other people too and has an effect on society.”

“The John Paul II Institute in Benin is a kind of beacon for the African society, which is under the influence of a global trend that is attempting to push through cultural colonisation in the form of gender ideology,” explained Rafael D’Aqui, head of the Benin section of Aid to the Church in Need, after his return from the African country. He added, “A society without a foundation is doomed to collapse.” Students at the institute are trained to deal with issues that “are based on the daily values underlying marital life, of men and women as well as in the parish and in civil society – not only from a Catholic standpoint, but from an anthropological one.”

The pontifical institute would like to serve all of Africa. For this reason, more and more students are coming from all parts of the continent. In Africa, the family still has a high standing, in spite of a general decay in its structure.

Classes are held in French; however, plans have been made to introduce further languages such as English and Portuguese. The course offerings will also be expanded to include evening courses to open them up to working students.

Aid to the Church in Need has supported the pontifical institute from its very beginnings. The international Catholic charity carries out building as well as book donation projects. Furthermore, it has made available more than 120 scholarships amounting to over 1.2 million euros.


Editor’s Notes

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, Aid to the Church in Need’s Child’s Bible – God Speaks to his Children has been translated into 172 languages and 50 million copies have been distributed all over the world.
While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information or to make a donation to help the work of Aid to the Church in Need, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 7246 Baulkham Hills NSW 2153.

On Line donations can be made at www.aidtochurch.org