Some African bishops at a Vatican meeting said they view President Obama’s election as a divine act, differing from some of their U.S. brethren, The Associated Press reports.
Archbishop Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, said he believes God directed Obama’s election victory.
“We believe God has his own plans. God directs history,” he said Wednesday of the election. “We pray that it (Obama’s presidency) brings blessings for Africa and the whole world.”
Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, the archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo, said in a speech at the meeting: “If the election of a black as head of the United States of America was a divine sign and a sign from the Holy Spirit for the reconciliation of races and ethnic groups for peaceful relations … this synod and the universal church would gain from not ignoring this primordial event of contemporary history which is far from being a banal game of political alliances.”
(Photo of Palmer-Buckle; photo credit: accracatholic.org)