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The African sense of the sacred

Francis X. Rocca

As if to refute claims that he fails to appreciate African litugrical styles, Pope Benedict told reporters on his flight back from Angola yesterday that he had been “greatly impressed by the spirit of concentration in the liturgies, the strong sense of the sacred” that he witnessed during a week-long trip to Africa.

“In the litugries there is not self-presentation of groups, self animation, but the presence of the sacred, of God himself,” the pope said. “Also the movements were always movements of respect and consciousness of the divine presence.”

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