"The family in Africa is not dead. It is alive and will live better in the future thanks to all those that make it even more stable. Our Bishops are going to bring this good news to the Synod. Our prayers accompany them. May God’s love be upon them, as our hope is in Him!" These are the words pronounced in Cotonou by Msgr. Louis Portella Byuyu, Bishop of the Congolese diocese of Kinkala and Vice-President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, at the end of the preparatory workshop for October’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family.