{"id":49708,"date":"2025-07-14T07:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=49708"},"modified":"2025-07-14T07:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T07:20:17","slug":"cardinal-ambongo-appeals-to-trump-africa-is-important-to-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/it\/learn\/cardinal-ambongo-appeals-to-trump-africa-is-important-to-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal Ambongo appeals to Trump: \u2018Africa is important to the U.S.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 100%; margin-bottom: 25px;\">\n  <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/storage\/image\/cardenal-fridolin-ambongo-fiducia-supplicans-20012024.jpg?ssl=1\" style=\"display: block; margin: auto; max-width: 100%\" \/><br \/>\n  <span style=\"text-align: right; font-style: italic;\">Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo,  the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, asked President Donald Trump for aid to Africa an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, June 8, 2025. \/ Credit: Fran\u00e7ois-R\u00e9gis Salefran CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<p>Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 10, 2025 \/ 15:19 pm (CNA).<\/p>\n<p>Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo asked U.S. President Donald Trump this weekend to reinstate foreign aid to Africa.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTargeted humanitarian aid for Africa is urgently needed, morally good, and of great strategic value to the U.S,\u201d Ambongo, the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/africa-needs-american-generosity-catholic-usaid-donor-59235b89\" target=\"null\" class=\"null\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">wrote in an op-ed<\/a> published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday afternoon.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u200b\u200bPresident Trump has made clear that he will put the needs of his country and its citizens first before attending to the needs of the world. No leader of a nation as great as the U.S. could do otherwise,\u201d the cardinal stated. \u201cIt would be a mistake, however, for Mr. Trump to forget about Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ambongo highlighted Africa\u2019s rich natural resources and \u201cbright entrepreneurial and eager young people\u201d as important assets to the U.S., emphasizing the utility of a relationship between Africa and the United States.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>American generosity toward Africa through USAID has \u201ctransformed millions of lives for the better\u201d in the region, Ambongo said, pointing out that American aid has helped enhance African society and avert further political and economic crises threatening the continent\u2019s development. In the process, he noted, American economic influence in the region has been strengthened.<\/p>\n<p>With the freezing of critical aid to African countries, the cardinal described Africa as \u201ca magnet for conflicts and fights over the natural resources so important to modern technology.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He also noted pervasive famine and poverty plaguing many parts of the region.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While Ambongo acknowledged the need for the U.S. to be concerned about the use of its limited resources, he noted that international adversaries will replace the U.S. if it completely withdraws all aid to Africa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInternational politics won\u2019t tolerate a vacuum,\u201d he predicted. \u201cShould the U.S. abandon Africa, its place will be taken by its adversaries: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cardinal stressed that \u201cit isn\u2019t too late to turn the tide\u201d and reach a mutually beneficial solution that does not exploit U.S. resources for ideological causes that run counter to African values by providing aid that supports abortion services and contraception in the region.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s unhelpful to tie aid to ideology \u2014 to abortion or \u2018population control\u2019 \u2014 that defies the values of many African cultures,\u201d he said. \u201cI believe that respect for African culture can coexist with humanitarian aid. Cultural colonization needn\u2019t be the price exacted for a moral, strategic, and humanitarian partnership.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ambongo\u2019s remarks on the politicization of humanitarian aid come after the U.S. State Department announced its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264603\/us-state-department-will-destroy-contraceptives-earmarked-for-foreign-aid-programs\" target=\"null\" class=\"null\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">plans to destroy a reserve of artificial contraceptives<\/a> that was previously set aside for distribution in developing countries through foreign aid programs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pleading on behalf of bishops, priests, and laypeople in Africa, Ambongo urged Trump and his administration \u201cto reconsider aid to his friends in Africa, who have been and will continue to be important partners of the U.S.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are eager to work closely with Washington to ensure that all such aid is used well, free of the fraud and mismanagement that has occurred in the past,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThere is too much at stake \u2014 for Africans, for Americans, and for the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264657\/cardinal-fridolin-ambongo-appeals-to-president-trump-africa-is-important-to-the-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264657\/cardinal-fridolin-ambongo-appeals-to-president-trump-africa-is-important-to-the-us<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, asked President Donald Trump for aid to Africa an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, June 8, 2025. \/ Credit: Fran\u00e7ois-R\u00e9gis Salefran CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 10, 2025 \/ 15:19 pm (CNA). Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":56612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-49708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Cardinal-Ambongo-appeals-to-Trump-%E2%80%98Africa-is-important-to-the-U.S.webp?fit=670%2C447&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54152,"url":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/it\/learn\/cardinal-ambongo-opposition-to-same-sex-blessings-not-an-african-exception\/","url_meta":{"origin":49708,"position":0},"title":"Cardinal Ambongo: Opposition to same-sex blessings not an \u2018African exception\u2019","author":"Christian Pure Team","date":"Agosto 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. \/ Credit: Fran\u00e7ois-R\u00e9gis Salefran CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED Vatican City, Jul 1, 2025 \/ 14:47 pm (CNA). 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