Cardinal Michael Czerny encouraged Christians not to lose hope in the face of hardship, and to patiently build bridges of communion in order to transform the world and its situations of suffering. The Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said this during the opening Mass for the plenary assembly of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa, AMECEA.
The liturgy was celebrated in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, July 19, 2026.“Living in the world, we Christians are called to transform and transfigure it in the manner of the Holy Spirit, from within,” he said.Cardinal Czerny will be in Nairobi from July 18 to 22 for the 21st plenary assembly of the AMECEA, which gathers 8 national Catholic Bishops Conferences across nine countries in Eastern Africa.The assembly is taking place at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and brings together 140 bishops from Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and associated regions in Djibouti and Somalia.The theme of this year’s edition is “AMECEA’s Synodal Journey with Young People: Building Bridges of Communion, Hope, Justice, and Good Governance.”
Cardinal Czerny reflected on the parable of the leaven from the Gospel of the day, which says the Kingdom of God is like yeast hidden in flour that allows all of it to rise.“This image clearly encourages a quiet, thorough and effective work of transforming situations of suffering and injustice,” the Cardinal explained. “It is not a matter of making a flashy show of ourselves, but rather of living daily lives quietly transforming the world from within, in deep communion with God and with others.”
He noted how the Holy Spirit acting within every Christian helps change the world, also by reading the signs of the times and allowing us to reach out to others.In this regard Cardinal Czerny called, especially young people, “to build authentic bridges of communion,” not by “indiscriminately imitating or assimilating the ways of the world, diluting our Christian identity or watering down the demands of the Gospel” but by being a vital source, like yeast.“This is how we truly collaborate in building the Kingdom of God, fulfilling our role as ‘leaven’ in the very different contexts in which we live,” he insisted.
Quoting another Gospel parable — that of the wheat and the weeds which grow together — Cardinal Czerny underlined the attitude of the landowner who does not immediately uproot the weeds to separate them from the wheat.He emphasized how “this is a patient, prudent, and faith-filled attitude,” as although the farmer sees the evil of the weeds, “to restore justice, to restore life, he does not give in to the temptation which often comes to us of quick, facile and instinctively punitive measures, risking the destruction of the good wherever it is already laboriously if invisibly sprouting.”For Cardinal Czerny, this “prudent and patient approach” should help all Christians to “develop an everyday diplomacy, building bridges amongst ourselves and with everyone, both within the Church and in society.”“It’s too easy to get trapped in rash and unfair judgments,” he noted.