CARDINAL ZOUNGRANA WAS "A GREAT SON OF AFRICA"

VATICAN CITY, JUN 10, 2000 (VIS) - Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, presided at the funeral Mass today in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, for Cardinal Paul Zoungrana, archbishop emeritus of Ouagadougou.

In his homily in French, the prefect called Cardinal Zoungrana "a great son of Africa, ... a son of the Universal Church" and "a builder of the Church-Family." With his death, said the cardinal, "a glorious era for Africa and the Church in Africa comes to an end."
Pointing to the growth of the Church in Africa during the last century, Cardinal Tomko noted that "from 2 million baptized in 1900, African Catholics today number 110 million. Africa has gone from no native clergy at all, to 26,000 priests today. And there are nearly 20,000 candidates to the priesthood in the seminaries."

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