Missionary cooperation
The Sillon Noir, in the months following its birth in Bohicon, on October 19, 1970, marked out the field of its missionary cooperation. This was, first of all, in the direction of our Fathers in faith who brought us the Good News of salvation, as a requirement of fidelity. It is in the name of this fidelity that the lay faithful questioned the young vicar at the end of the mass on his homily which they found subversive in relation to the requirement of purity of faith and their relentless fight against all form of syncretism. But having perceived in the light of the conciliar texts read and translated into the local language, the missionary imperative of inculturation, they understood that their fidelity could only be translated into truth as missionary relief at the heart of their culture.
The field of missionary cooperation, which thus opened up for them, became clearer as a field of "collaboration in the Vineyard of the Lord" of all categories of Christ's faithful: clerics, religious and lay faithful. In this field, the lay faithful appeared as those through whom the Spirit of the Lord brought about this original missionary initiative, with the awareness of a people of God entirely missionary and theologian. With unfailing missionary zeal, the community intellectual apostles of the first hour put the clergy of their Diocese on the path of a synodality of witness and evangelical proclamation: witness at the heart of the culture of evangelical novelty, proclamation kerygmatics of the person of Jesus of Nazareth to their brothers and sisters who remained in the ancestral traditions.
The religious congregations in mission in the Diocese of Abomey, the organizations of missionary cooperation have been seized in this nascent missionary dynamic at the heart of the Church in this small portion of the vast African continent. They will soon support this missionary work.
Indeed, for more than a decade, the Sillon Noir has worked in an artisanal way. The investigations were recorded in notebooks or recorded on cassettes. The archives moved according to the change of position of the leaders of the movement. Databases that have not been reinvested in liturgical applications or dissertation and thesis work have not been able to be preserved for long. When we know that in the first years, the members devoted two hours a week to collecting data, we can measure the enormous loss that this represented. It was in the face of this mess that the Religious of the Assumption (Province of Spain) decided to help the Sillon Noir to acquire a small house in Cotonou (Quartier Gbeto, Rue de l'Afrique) which housed the Center Q.I.C. born in 1990. Thanks to relatively modern equipment for the time, much research data could be transcribed and made available to the public. Many books and brochures have since been published and distributed.
In Bohicon, birthplace of the Sillon Noir, thanks to the help of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a similar Center was created to serve as a place of activities for community intellectuals. After a few years of intense activities, the Center of Cotonou becoming cramped, the Salvatorian Fathers of Passau agreed to help the Sillon Noir to start a larger building to house the activities of the QIC Center. To this end, the Archbishop of Cotonou, Mgr de Souza, refusing that the first premises be destroyed and rebuilt, preferred to cede in 1998 to the Sillon Noir a plot at square 901 (Quartier Sikècodji – Paroisse St Jean) for the establishment of the new headquarters. Apart from the substantial contribution of the Salvatorians of Passau and the specific contribution of the members of the Sillon Noir, in particular university intellectuals, several partners have contributed to the realization of this project: the Diocese of Bolzano, Misereor, Missio München, the Sisters of the Assumption and the Little Sisters of the Poor. The blessing of the new seat was made on November 24, 2003 by the Archbishop of Cotonou, Mgr. Nestor Assogba. At the latter's request, the name "Centre de recherche scientifique Notre Dame de l'inculturation" (CRS-NDI), retained by the promoters since 2001, was changed to "Centre de recherche et de spiritualité Notre Dame de l'Inculturation". Inculturation" (CRS-NDI). This designation will later be better specified: “Centre for socio-theological research of Our Lady of Inculturation”.
The official inauguration of the new headquarters was made on November 25, 2003 by the same Archbishop, in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr Pierre N'Guyen van Tot, during the opening of the International Colloquium on "Consecrated Life and the New Evangelization “, organized by CERAO (Regional Episcopal Conference of French-speaking West Africa) and URCAO (Regional Union of Conferences of Major Superiors of French-speaking West Africa)” (November 25-29, 2003) .