All the preparatory documents of the Synod, as well as the discussions in the Assembly, clearly showed that issues in Africa such as increasing poverty, urbanization, the international debt, the arms trade, the problem of refugees and displaced persons, demographic concerns and threats to the family, the liberation of women, the spread of AIDS, the survival of the practice of slavery in some places, ethnocentricity and tribal opposition figure among the fundamental challenges addressed by the Synod.
Omnia praeparatoria documenta, sicut etiam ac sese evolvente conventu disceptationes, insigniter collustrarunt quaestiones, veluti paupertatem in Africa augescentem, vitae urbanae extensionem, internationale aes alienum, armorum commercium, perfugarum profugorumque quaestionem, demographicas quaestiones et minas quibus familiae afficiuntur, mulierum liberationem, illius morbi quod AIDS appellant propagationem, servitutis adhuc in quibusdam locis exstantis condicionem, ethnicarum partium studium et stirpium contentiones, ad praecipuas provocationes pertinere, quas perpendit Synodus.vatican.va vatican.va