SENEGAL-MAURITANIA - The theme of the new pastoral year of the Diocese of Kaolack: "The Church of Kaolack, Missionary of Hope among Men"

Following the Year of Hope, the Diocese of Kaolack launched the activities of the 2025-2026 pastoral year with a four-day opening session on the theme: ‘The Church of Kaolack, Missionary of Hope among Men’ with a sub-theme: ‘The glory of God is man fully alive’ (St. Irenaeus of Lyon). The sessions focused on specific themes: restructuring pastoral bodies through diocesan commissions (lay apostolate, catechesis, communication, liturgy, family, vocation, justice and peace, theology and inculturation), structuring and establishing parish pastoral councils and parish councils for economic affairs, and analyzing and diagnosing the economic situation.  These sessions provided pastoral agents and their collaborators in the various parish councils, structures and action movements with tools and a framework for consultation, as well as the ability to initiate and sustain ecclesial transformations that enable a diocese to become missionary and to form missionary disciples.  The pastoral year 2025-2026 was conceived as the culmination of a diocesan dynamic for a missionary Church, a mature Church capable of self-sufficiency based on its spiritual, human, material, social and economic resources.  The program is also inspired by the thought of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon: ‘The glory of God is man fully alive.’ This upright man is the embodiment of integral human development that takes into account spiritual, human, social and economic dimensions. In his pastoral vision, Bishop Martin Tine has defined a pastoral horizon that requires every member of the diocese to have a renewed spirit (Eph 4:24) and generous boldness in following Christ, bearing witness to the Joyful Hope of salvation in Jesus Christ.