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Europe is the Faith—so Hilaire Belloc declared in 1920. Nearly a century later, the faith burns as bright as it did then, but it is Africa, not Europe, that is carrying the torch of orthodoxy. Such is the unavoidable take-away from last month’s synod on the family. With prominent Western traditionalists like Cardinal Raymond Burke sidelined, the prelates from sub-Saharan Africa became the outspoken voices of orthodoxy. Cardinal Robert Sarah, a Guinea native and the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, made headlines in a floor speech (fittingly, in this context, they are called “interventions”) likening gender ideology and ISIS to apocalyptic beasts.
Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of South Africa accused liberal European bishops of betraying the “essence of the faith” their missionary ancestors had brought to Africa. Tanzanian Bishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande warned that normalizing same-sex unions would put society on a slippery slope to polygamy and bestiality. On the whole, the some 54 African bishops at the synod gained a reputation as a conservative voting bloc, wielding considerable influence in a synod of about 270 participants, as the Religion News Service reported. So unyielding were they, that Cardinal Walter Kasper bellyached in an interview—that he later tried to deny—that the Africans “should not tell us too much what we have to do.” And the influence of the Africans might have been greater had not some of the smaller, ecclesiastically moribund countries been overrepresented, thanks to the papal appointments. A striking contrast is between Belgium and Nigeria.
Each got the same number of bishops—three—even though Nigeria has more than double as many Catholics as Belgium, a difference of 18.9 million to 8.5 million. And those figures actually understate the gulf between the two nations. In Belgium, just 5 percent of Catholics were showing up to Mass on any given Sunday in 2009 survey. In Nigeria, the rate is 92.2 percent. Absent papal appointments, Belgium was due to have just one bishop representative. One of the appointed was Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp, whose call for the Church to recognize same-sex unions arguably makes Kasper look like a stodgy conservative. Another appointee was Cardinal Godfried Danneels, who presided over much of the decline in the Church in Belgium.
His successor, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, who has led a turnaround in vocations and a revival in faith since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, was passed over. Here’s the good news: African Catholics like those in Nigeria represent the future of the Church, not those in Belgium (with the exception of the new faithful inspired by Leonard!). By almost every conceivable measure, Catholicism in Africa is experiencing an extraordinary spiritual renaissance—the very reverse of what is happening in the continent to its north. With 171.9 million faithful, sub-Saharan Africa represents 16 percent of Catholics worldwide, a third the number in Europe and more than double that in the United States. The Democratic Republic of the Congo, at 31.2 million Catholics in 2010, has almost as many as Poland and France each, at 35.3 million and 37.9 million, respectively. And African Catholics are on the rise.
From 1910 to 2010, they went from constituting just one percent of the local population to 21 percent, making Africa the fastest growing region for the century. By comparison, Catholics in North America increased from 16 to 26 percent of the population, according to the Pew Research Center. From 2004 to 2050, African Catholics will continue their climb, increasing by 145.8 percent to 342 million, making Africa the most Catholic continent after Latin America. Europe, meanwhile, will slump from 270 million to 255 million Catholics, at a decline of -5.5 percent by 2050. The Congo Republic that year will become the most Catholic country, with double as many faithful as will be in Poland, according to the Population Research Bureau. Such growth is mirrored in other measures of ecclesiastical health. The number of parishes in Africa has more than doubled since 1980. So has the number of priests. Enrollment at Catholic schools, from kindergarten to college, has more than tripled, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.
The largest seminary in the world is in Nigeria, boasting 1,225 candidates for the priesthood, about a fourth as many as the total number in the United States, according to one report. It is tempting to chalk up the traditionalism of African Catholics to the underlying cultural conservatism of their broader societies, as Kasper seemed to want to do. But look closer and much more is at play. Reading through the various public statements of many African prelates one senses that unmistakable fierceness of conviction that comes with being a newly converted society. That spiritual vigor is being matched by intellectual rigor. Perhaps nowhere is that more clear than in Sarah, a rising star in the Church who released his book God or Nothing right before the synod as a kind of opening salvo for orthodoxy.
God or Nothing reads as an articulate exposition of the fundamentals of Christian faith and as a thoughtful critique of the many ills that beset the modern world, particularly the West—secularism, postmodernism, individualism, among them. The topic may not be fresh, but Sarah’s insights are. And he has the intellectual heft to back them up. He invokes Prometheus in explaining how Western secularism is attempting to appropriate God for themselves just as the ancient mythical figure stole fire from the gods. He is as conversant in Camus and Nietzsche as he is in Irenaeus and Augustine. And, in the autobiographical portions of the book, he speaks of his studies of Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. In a sense, what is happening is not as new as it may seem. In fact, it is very old. Indeed, in the early history of the Church, it was from the other side of the Mediterranean that some of the greatest defenders of orthodoxy hailed.
In the fourth century, when it seemed that the entire Catholic world was in the grips of Arianism and even the pope was imprisoned by the heretics, the fugitive Athanasius kept orthodoxy alive in the deserts of Egypt. Augustine stood athwart Manichaeism, Pelagianism, and Donatism and transformed the Church’s understanding of grace. In the early fifth century, St. Cyril of Alexandria was the standard bearer of orthodoxy against the Nestorian heresy. Of course, all this was happening in North Africa—in some ways, a world away from sub-Saharan Africa, but the point is that Christendom, understood as a spiritual civilization of love, can survive without Europe.
The comparison to the early Church is apt in more ways than one. Martyrdom—that fountain from which the Church always springs anew—seems particularly decisive in shaping the experience of Catholics in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the more notable deaths are well known to the Western public—it’s just that the Christian identity has not been stressed in media reports. Most of the more than 200 schoolgirls who were kidnapped last year and either killed or sold into slavery by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram were Christians. The Somali militants who stormed onto a Kenyan university campus earlier this year and slayed almost 150 people, also were targeting Christians.
So prevalent is persecution that one Nigerian archbishop even compared Africa to the ancient Roman Colosseum “where we are thrown to the beasts.” There is something about death that makes the truth urgent. When confronted with the sword or the gun, things seem a lot less gray. Black-and-white thinking tends to come hand in hand with life-or-death situations. Eternity matters more. This life matters more because eternity matters more. It’s little wonder, then, that in the West—where death has been shooed away behind the hospital curtain and sequestered in the nursing home—that the truth has become such a thorny proposition. Contra Kasper, we should listen as much as possible to the Africans. They might just save us from ourselves.
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Kenyan officials have said some 10,000 police officers will be deployed to boost security during Pope Francis’ forthcoming visit to Kenya. State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said on Sunday Kenya expects one million people to travel to Nairobi to welcome the Pope, who is scheduled to arrive in the country on November 25 and stay up to November 27. "Security agencies continue to fine-tune plans to secure the city during a particularly busy period, and when we expect Nairobi's population to swell by an additional one million people," he added.
Esipisu noted that the government is working closely with the Catholic Church to pull off a "very successful experience for the Pope." He touched on US President Barack Obama's visit to Kenya in July, saying, "Unlike the visit by President Barack Obama when the government encouraged Kenyans to stay home, we are encouraging Kenyans to flock into the city in their numbers to cheer the pope and celebrate mass with him." Bishop Alfred Rotich, who is heading the local Catholic parish's preparations in Kenya, said up to one billion people from across the globe will be watching the event.
Kenya has been grappling with a worsening security crisis as the deadly violence fueled by the al-Shabab militant group based in neighboring Somalia has spilled over. In April, al-Shabab militants stormed the Garissa University College campus and took hundreds of students hostage. The terrorist attack left 148 students and security forces dead and 79 others injured.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Many parents believe that a religious upbringing will help their child become a good, moral person - but that might not be the case. University of Chicago researchers put 1,170 youngsters from Christian, Muslim and atheist backgrounds through psychological tests. They found that religious children were less likely to share, and more likely to judge and punish others - based on a game where children were offered the chance to share stickers with others. Interestingly, religious parents BELIEVE their children are empathetic and sensitive - but it is not true. ‘Our findings contradict the common-sense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind toward others.
In our study, kids from atheist and non-religious families were, in fact, more generous," said Professor Jean Decety of the University of Chicago. The study included 1,170 children between ages 5 and 12, from six countries -- Canada, China, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey and the United States. Children completed a test where they shared stickers with others - and watched short animations in which one character pushes or bumps another, either accidentally or purposefully.
After seeing each situation, children were asked about how mean the behavior was and the amount of punishment the character deserved. Professor Decety said, ‘Together, these results reveal the similarity across countries in how religion negatively influences children's altruism. They challenge the view that religiosity facilitates prosocial behavior, and call into question whether religion is vital for moral development -- suggesting the secularization of moral discourse does not reduce human kindness. In fact, it does just the opposite.’
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world's Catholics live in Latin America - but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years. At the start of the 20th century, Africa had about 3 million Catholics. Today, a decade and a half into the 21st century, Africa counts 185 million Catholics. By 2025, Africa will account for over 23% of the World’s Catholics. If, as the saying goes, numbers are destiny, then it is surely the case that Catholicism is experiencing an “African moment” today.
In a recent interview with ZENIT, Archbishop Charles Palmer Buckle of Accra, Ghana, argued that the proper hermeneutic of approaching Africa’s presence at the 2015 Synod on the Family is to pay attention to the landmark historical developments that have shaped the Church in Africa in the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century. In this light, Archbishop Buckle highlighted the 1994 Synod for Africa that had as theme, “Church as Family,” and the 2009 Synod for Africa, that focused on Justice, Peace and Reconciliation. Based on these two Synods, the Church in Africa came to Synod 2015 with a somewhat critical discerning heart and mind. In the words of the Ghanaian Archbishop: “So for us, coming to participate in the synod for the family, is like bringing coal to new castle. We are here to share. We have been here sharing from our own experience, from our own cultural perspectives, but we are open and here to listen to what the family means to Europeans, Asians, Latin Americans, to people from North America. We are listening very attentively because we would like to avoid the pitfalls that families in these co-called advanced countries have fallen into. We would like also to help them look at families from its beautiful, original perspective. So we believe we are being enriched and we are enriching also, all the other participants.” From these words of Archbishop Buckle, the perspective of the African Church to the 2015 Synod is therefore twofold, to be enriched by the global Church, and likewise to enrich the global Church. The Church in Africa no longer sees herself as an infant, whose only legitimate role is to listen to the local churches of the Western world. The Church in Africa has clearly come of age.
This journey to maturity has had some significant providential moments, in addition to the two synods of 1994 and 2009, respectively convened by St. John Paul the Great, and Benedict XVI, the shy, gentle, saintly, scholarly Bavarian, a man clearly already in the ranks of Augustine, Aquinas, Jerome, Gregory and Newman, a Doctor of the Church while still living within the pilgrim sinful Church! Let us return to the historical hand marks that formed the African Church for Synod 2015, hoping to find in them a hermeneutical key to the issues that marked this Synod.
Without any pretense to biblical competence – since my world is restricted to explaining the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one can readily think of the encounter between the Queen from Ethiopia and Solomon (1 Kgs. 10; Mt. 12:42), to constitute a significant moment in the unfolding of salvation history for the Church that is in Africa. This meeting should constitute a part of the African ecclesial experience, granted that the history of the Church did not begin with Jesus Christ. In fact, to the repeated question whether Jesus founded the Church or not, the only legitimate response will be that such a question is a false question, for Jesus did not need to “found” a Church, since the Church, the called community of YHWH, was already in existence, from the call of Abraham. The Fathers would even talk about the Church from Abel the Just! What Jesus of Nazareth did was basically two things: he universalized and radicalized the community of Israel, by breaking the geographical boundaries around the chosen people to include everyone, and by stretching the prescriptions of the Torah from the letter and spirit to his own person. He became the new Torah, in his own flesh. Without this process of universalization and radicalization, the Christian Church is the same as Judaism! This is highly significant, especially when one begins to hear of calls to particularize or regionalize Christian teaching, in the name of pastoral exigencies. A Christian faith that is regionalized strikes at the very root of the coming into being, of the “new Israel,” in that geographic and political definitions become the determinants of the faith. In a few words, that is why the meeting between Solomon and the Queen of Ethiopia should have such ecclesial significance.
Briefly, other significant historical moments could be the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt; the presence of Simon of Cyrene at the scene of the Crucifixion and the encounter between Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8). The outstanding contributions to the universal Church made by Augustine of Hippo, Cyprian of Carthage, Tertullian, amongst others - the North African Fathers of the Church, cannot be overemphasized. The demise of Catholicism in North Africa remains a pain whose consequences are still with us today. That this collapse of the Christian faith in a once-flourishing part of Africa, owed in large part to a weakened Christianity thorn apart by internal controversies over doctrine before the onslaught of Islam, should constitute a warning sign against the repeat of such today. A Christianity that uses up its energies in internal debates is one heading for a weakened position against external threats to the faith. North Africa is a standing example.
The Church in Africa cannot forget the August 1969 historic visit of Blessed Paul VI to Kampala, Uganda, in which the Great Pope of Evangelii Nuntiandi, Popolurum Progresso, and Humanae Vitae, declared Africa as Christ’s new homeland, and called on the African Church to be missionaries to themselves. To show that a Church has taken roots, we can see indigenous vocations to the priesthood, religious life and the sacrament of marriage. To show that a Church has matured, we can see indigenous bishops. Paul VI saw both in Africa when he launched the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). The beatification of the Martyrs of Uganda showed the global Church that Africa was already bearing heroic testimony to the name of Jesus.
The most proximate preparation of the Church in Africa toward synod 2015 was certainly the Consultative Meeting of SECAM on the Family held at Accra, Ghana, June 8th to 11th, 2015: The theme of this Consultative Meeting: “The Family in Africa: What Experiences and What Contributions to the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops?” In response to this question, the African Church decided to base its contributions to Synod 2015 on this platform: God, by forming the first man and woman and commanding them to be fruitful and to multiply (Gen. 1:28) definitively established marriage to be a permanent union between one man and one woman. Consequently, the family becomes the sanctuary where life is born, nurtured and welcomed as a gift of God. Three things stand out from this decision by the African Church: Firstly, the family is a gift from God. It is not a human invention based on passing whims and caprices. Secondly, this creation of God cannot become obsolete at any point in history. God’s plan for the family, the union between one man and one woman is in need of no aggiornamento. Finally, it is within this gift of family, founded on the complimentary union of man and woman, that another most precious gift, the gift of life, is welcomed and nourished.
To non-African Catholics, it is helpful to note that the Church in Africa is a Church that has matured through much suffering. It is a Church that has been persecuted, with Catholics schools seized by post-colonial governments; church property confiscated; bishops, priests and religious imprisoned or killed, et cetera. Cardinal Robert Sarah’s book, God or Nothing bears eloquent testimony to this fact. The period of independence and the political upheavals that followed many African nations placed the Church often in very challenging situations, especially as missionaries were expelled overnight by new dictators that led many African nations in the post-colonial period. Catholicism in Africa has never been a “State Religion,” favored by any parliament or government. Catholicism in Africa tends to be on the side of the opposition. Its hope lies in Catholics themselves. Opinion pools have never been a priority to the African Church. Cardinal Dolan of New York recently made a very telling distinction between the Suffering Church and the Comfortable Church. It is obvious that a Church that has grown from harsh conditions develops an internal stamina of resistance that is capable of going against the grain.
When the African Church confronted the global Church at Synod 2015, she was conscious that many sectors of the Old Church are facing a crisis of faith in which God has become the Great Absent One; a crisis of pastoral practice; a crisis of education, in which many Catholic colleges have rejected the moral teachings of the Church; a crisis of anthropology and sociology, in which, at a time when there is much talk about conservation and preservation of the natural environment, the human environment is being subjected to all kinds of gender theory and scientific manipulation; the crisis of pastoral practice that is retarded by a culture which Ratzinger once described as an ecclesiastical occupational therapy, in which bureaucracies are set up that become self-serving, with little or no evangelical value; the challenge of the media and language, especially when the great expectation remains: when will Catholicism give in to the editorials of certain sectors of the Western media? These challenges are not unknown to the African Church. She too is conscious of her own challenges: of polygamy, and of divorce, caused by infertility, adultery, domestic violence, in-laws, poverty, HIV-AIDS and religious differences. But she is courageous enough to stand for God’s plan for marriage as recorded in Scripture. She is growing as a Church because she is open to the gift of children. She is courageous about the future of the African Church because she is open to God, and does not presume that the historical-critical method is the normative norm in understanding Scripture. She brings to the global Church the beauty of marriage as between two families, transcending the sense of individualism and particularism that could exclude the valuable support that comes from other family members, especially during moments of crises.
Much has already been written about the Final Report of Synod 2015, which has been handed over to Pope Francis for an eventual post-synodal exhortation. From close observation, it is a far richer document than the Instrumentum Laboris, which was heavily criticized by the Synod Fathers. Regarding the two most-talked about issues by the Western media, that is, the Holy Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried and the Church’s position on gay unions, even critics of the Church have accepted that there was no change in Church doctrine. Vincent of Lerins famously articulated the formula for the interpretation of doctrine: that which has always been believed everywhere, always, and by all. Certainly, the paragraph dealing with the internal forum and conscience for the cases of the civilly divorced, though clear, is insufficient. Cardinal George Pell of Australia has said as much. More precision could have been helpful.
However, it is important to recall that the talk about Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried gives a magical understanding of Communion. Paul of Tarsus is very clear about the examination of conscience before the reception. No one has a “right” to the Eucharist, and receiving Communion in a state of mortal sin does no good to the soul. Paul even told the Corinthians that many of them were sick because of unworthy reception of the Eucharist (1 Cor. 11:30). The habit, rampant in many Western churches, in which everyone goes to the Eucharist, as a “right” is certainly questionable. If in Germany, for example, sixty-five percent of Catholics do not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus as an objective fact, what is the point of the Eucharist without faith in the Resurrection, granted the intrinsic link between the Resurrected Lord and the Eucharist? If the Eucharist is the grain of wheat that falls to the grown and dies, and by dying bears fruit, (Jn. 12:24), what is the point of a Eucharistic reception that does not call recipients to the embrace of the letting go of the self in the embrace of the gift of children, since children are seen as a burden that must be rejected at all cost?
These questions, and more, are needed to appreciate the fact that Eucharist alone will not solve any problem. It was from the first Eucharistic table that Judas Iscariot left to go for the monies of the religious hierarchy to betray Jesus. The Gospel of the family has been a liberating experience for the Church in Africa. Perhaps as Africa did in the past by saving the Holy Family from the onslaught of Herod, Africa is once again called to saved the contemporary family from contemporary attempts that are so well organized and aimed at destroying the family as God created. This is the challenge for the African Church, for, in the final analysis, only what is true is ultimately pastoral. Only what is true is ultimately merciful.
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Pope Francis indicated on Sunday that his planned visit to the Central African Republic this month could be canceled if violence between Christians and Muslims there worsens. Speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square, he called for an end to the "cycle of violence" in the country he is scheduled to visit Nov. 28-29 as part of a trip that will also take him to Kenya and Uganda. Francis spoke of the "trip I hope to be able to make to that nation". He has previously simply said he would go.
A senior Vatican source said the phrasing was chosen because of the violence in the capital Bangui, where the pope is scheduled to visit a mosque in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods. "If the situation worsens, he will not be able to go and he is aware of that," the source said. Last Thursday, four people were killed by mobs, bringing last week's death toll to 11, including three negotiators for the Muslim Seleka alliance visiting Bangui for peace talks. . Mostly-Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the majority Christian nation in a coup in 2013, prompting reprisals by Christian militias known as anti-balaka.
Muslims and Christians have since split into segregated communities across the landlocked former French colony. Tens of thousands of Muslims have fled to the far north, creating a de facto partition. Apart from threatening the pope's visit, the violence might wreck plans to hold long-delayed elections in December. On Thursday, interim President Catherine Samba Panza replaced the defense, public security and justice ministers as part of a cabinet reshuffle. The violence has flared despite the presence of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers (MINUSCA), who Vatican sources have said would be involved in protecting the pope if he visits.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Week long activities marking the 500 anniversary of the reformation and the 19th Edition of Protestantism in Cameroon ended on 25th October 2015 with a variety of activities in different churches. The celebrations were highlighted by round table dicussions, choral festivals and special sermons all organized under the theme: "God is leading, yet testing us". Symbolic services were organized in most parishes on Sunday 25th to mark the end of these celebrations.
President Paul Biya was personally represented by the Minister of Economy Planning and Regional Development Louis Paul Motaze including the president of the senate and wife in an impressive celebration organized in Ebolowa. The protestant movement was founded by Martin Luther after he wrote his famous 95 theses against the sales of indulgences in 1517. Protestants worldwide have been commemorating the great event also known as the reformation.
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