Religion

In this exclusive interview, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, the new prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, candidly discusses liturgical battles, criticism of the Pope, same sex marriage, Islam and Islamism, and how Africa can save the West.

Visiting Paris for a few days to launch his book God or Nothing, written in collaboration with author Nicolas Diat, Cardinal Sarah sat down with Élisabeth de Baudoüin of Aleteia to answer these questions:

Your Eminence, in your book God or Nothing, you mention several times the "liturgical war" that has been dividing Catholics for decades. You say that this war is particularly unfortunate because Catholics should be especially united on this issue. How can we get beyond these divisions and unite all Catholics in worshiping God? 

Cardinal Robert Sarah: Vatican II never asked us to reject the past and abandon the Mass of St. Pius V, which spawned many saints, nor discard Latin. But at the same time we must promote the liturgical reform sought by the Council itself. The liturgy is the special place where we meet God face-to-face, bring Him our whole life, our work, and make an offering of all this to his glory. We cannot celebrate the liturgy while taking up arms: carrying on our shoulders weapons of hate, combat, resentment. Jesus Himself said, "Before presenting your offering, first be reconciled to your brother." In this "face-to-face" with God, our heart must be pure, free of all hatred, all rancor. Each person must remove from his heart anything that might cast a shadow on this meeting. This involves respecting everyone’s sensitivity. 

Is this not precisely what Benedict XVI wanted? 

Cardinal Sarah: Yes, this is the meaning of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (July 2007, ed.) Benedict XVI put a lot of energy and hope into this work. Alas, he was not totally successful because people "clung" to their specific rite and mutually excluded each other. In the Church, everyone should be able to celebrate according to his or her own sensitivity. It is one of the conditions of reconciliation. Attention should also be paid to the beauty of the liturgy, its sacredness. The Eucharist is not a "dinner with friends", it is a sacred mystery. If it is celebrated with fervor and beauty, an understanding will certainly be reached. However, we must not forget that it is God who reconciles, and this will take time. 

In a chapter on the Popes, you mention the criticism that they were subjected to, even within the Church. Francis is no exception: some Catholics criticize his style, what he does, what he says, his expressions ... There is a feeling that one wing of the Church does not trust him to keep the deposit of faith. What should the faithful’s attitude be in regard to the Pope? Can a Catholic criticize the successor of Peter? 

Cardinal Sarah: The answer is very simple, it is found here: what should one think of a son or daughter who criticizes his father or his mother publicly? How could people have respect for him? The Pope is our father. We owe him respect, affection and trust (even if criticism does not seem to bother him). Reading certain documents or statements, one might get the impression that he does not respect the doctrine. Personally, I fully trust him and I encourage all Christians to do the same. You have to be serene and calm as he sails the boat. Jesus is with him, He who said to Peter: "I have prayed for you, that your faith may … strengthen your brothers.” A conclave is an action of God, it is God who gives a Pope to the Church. God gave us Francis to lead the Church today.

What should we say to those who claim that he was not the "choice of the Holy Spirit"? 

Cardinal Sarah: I ask them this question: are they in direct contact with the Holy Spirit? 

About the "powers in Europe who seek to prevent Catholics from exercising their freedom," you write, "The Manif pour tous* is an example of initiatives that are necessary. It was a manifestation of the genius of Christianity." Your Eminence, do you support the Christians who took to the streets by thousands to demonstrate their commitment to the family and the fact that every child needs a father and a mother? 

*Editor's Note: the "Manif pour tous" is a French national collective which has hosted peaceful demonstrations to oppose the “Marriage for all” bill.

Cardinal Sarah: Our mission as Christians is to witness to our faith. We know that the family is a reality desired by God. We know what it means for the Church and society; without it, there is no future, neither for the one nor the other. So the Manif pour tous is a way for Christians who defend this reality to witness their faith. I do not hesitate to affirm: I fully support this event in its various forms. They are an expression of fidelity to the Church and to the faith. 

However, at first glance, it has failed! 

Cardinal Sarah: Christ also apparently failed: after three years of public life, he was killed, laid in the tomb and the tomb was sealed! But he is risen and has conquered evil. The Manif pour tous, in its various expressions, could not prevent political decisions. But it achieved a great victory: it managed to reinvigorate families. This is its big win. Because of this, it must continue. This is not a one-time action. We must continue to write, to go out, and demonstrate! And we should also encourage solid homes that ensure that love endures and does not die. 

What do you mean? 

Cardinal Sarah: Love is like a flower in the desert, we must water it and guard it to prevent the animals from eating it. How do we protect love? With daily attention. How do we water it? With forgiveness. We must also take care of this plant, through prayer, attachment and dialogue. Without this, the plant, love, dies. A plant cannot survive if it is not sustained. However, the great gardener is God. If a family rejects Him, it does not last. Demonstrating, that's good. But we must take care of our families. We must ensure that love, that precious gift, is kept alive in the heart of spouses and lived in the family. 

In Europe, the spread of Islam and its radicalization cause concern. You who come from a predominantly Muslim country where Christians and Muslims live in peace, and speak of Islam as "a religion of peace and brotherhood," what are your feelings on this? 

Cardinal Sarah: Where does our fear come from? Islam has been present in Europe for a long time and no one has ever been afraid of it. It is true that there were fewer Muslims. But at the time, faith was stronger. Also, the sense of threat did not exist or only marginally. In Guinea, the population is 5% Catholic and 73% Muslim. But we are not afraid of each other. Instead, we stimulate each other through fidelity to our faith. Seeing the Muslims, for whom the importance of prayer and direct communication with God is essential, Christians must ask themselves: I believe in the true God, manifested through Christ: am I as fervent as the Muslims are? Do I fast? God is not someone with whom you are in contact occasionally, when you have time. He must be the first: in the family, in society ... All Christians are called to increase their relationship with Him. Prayer is also necessary, on both sides, for everyone to live in peace.

In this regard, you often tell a Muslim legend...

Cardinal Sarah: Yes, it's the story about a shepherdess who was considered a little crazy, her sheep peacefully coexisted with the wolves. When asked for an explanation, she replied: "I improved my relationship with God, and God has improved the relationship between the wolves and my sheep." God gives peace among men, through prayer.
 
This is a far cry from the violent behavior of radical Islam! How do you explain that?

Cardinal Sarah: The cartoons that target Islam (among others) do not promote brotherly coexistence. As the Pope said, we should not insult other people’s faith. We do not have the right, just because we do not share someone’s faith, to insult it and caricaturize it. This must stop! But true Muslims have never murdered anyone. Those who behead, crucify or slaughter in the name of God are projecting all their violence on an idea they have made of God. In my country, Muslims are horrified by these crimes and these beings who are men in name only.
 
In dealing with Islam, do you think that the West is playing with fire?

Cardinal Sarah: As Benedict XVI, who was worried about this, pointed out, God has never been as strongly rejected as today. If the West does not return to its Christian culture and values, the situation could become life threatening. But I think a time will come when Westerners will realize that they cannot continue to live without God. In this context, Africa can help.
 
In your book, you talk a lot about Africa, its sufferings, the ideological colonialism of which it is the object, but also its values. In your opinion, what can Africa bring to the world and the Church today?

Cardinal Sarah: God has always involved Africa in his plan for salvation. Africa saved Jesus, at the time of the flight into Egypt. It is an African, Simon of Cyrene, who helped him carry his cross. Africa has suffered a lot. Its values ​​were denied (and still are, through what Francis calls ideological colonialism, and in particular regarding the gender theory). It experienced slavery. The Africans’ suffering prompted John Paul II [who also announced that it would surprise the world, ed.] to say that their names are written “on the palms of Christ, pierced by the nails of the Crucifixion”.  But in a few decades, the Church there has greatly developed, with many priestly and religious vocations, so that blessed Paul VI called it "the new homeland of Christ." And as Africans are also deeply religious and cannot be separated from God, they are the ones who will restore God to the world.
 
Perhaps Africa will give the next Pope to the Church?

Cardinal Sarah: (laughs) What a question! (Then, after reflection) It is God who gives the Pope ...
 
And Nicolas Diat, co-author of God or nothing and present at this meeting, added: "Ask the Lord! And if you get an answer, give it to me! "
 

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Mar.2015

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Ngwa Bertrand

08.Mar.2015

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Last week, Rorate Caeli interviewed Raymond Cardinal Burke via telephone on numerous topics. Nothing was off the table for this interview and His Eminence was incredibly generous with his time. He showed himself to be brilliant and yet filled with humility. And his care and concern for traditional Catholics must be acknowledged and appreciated.

In this wide-ranging interview, His Eminence talked about issues ripped from the news such as: Vatican officials threatening to sue bloggers; more priests coming under his authority; the dismantling of the Franciscans of the Immaculate; how traditional Catholics can save their souls in this modern world -- and get their children the sacraments in the traditional rite in the face of dissenting bishops; priestly celibacy; daily confusion from Pope Francis; and much, much more. 

VATICAN OFFICIALS THREATENING TO SUE BLOGGERS

Rorate Caeli: Your Eminence, thank you very much for agreeing to this interview. As the most-read international blog for traditional Catholics, we believe this will give much hope to our readership, and to traditional-minded Catholics everywhere. For our first question: The traditional world, recently, has been stunned by the news that two officials of the Vatican have threatened to sue traditional-minded Catholic bloggers and reporters. Do you agree with this approach, and do you think we should expect to see more of this in the future? 

Burke: Unless the blogger has committed a calumny on someone's good name unjustly, I certainly don't think that that's the way we as Catholics should deal with these matters. I think contact should be made. I presume that the Catholic blogger is in good faith, and if there's someone in the hierarchy who is upset with him, the way to deal with it would be first to approach the person directly and try to resolve the matter in that way. Our Lord in the Gospel and St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians instruct us not to take our disputes to the civil forum, that we should be able, as Catholics, to resolve these matters among ourselves. (cf. Mt. 18:15; 1 Cor. 6:1-6)

CONFUSION FROM POPE FRANCIS

Rorate Caeli: After eight years under Pope Benedict XVI, clergy, laymen, even the media became accustomed to clarity. With so much confusion stemming from the daily statements of Pope Francis, confusion from the Synod, et cetera, is it best to focus more on the local and parish level and on the Church's tradition, rather than looking for specific guidance from Rome on issues of the day? 

Burke: Yes, I think that, in fact, Pope Francis himself has given that indication. For instance in his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he says that he doesn't consider it to be a magisterial teaching. (n. 16) With someone like Pope Benedict XVI, we had a master teacher who was giving us extended catechesis on various subjects. I now say to people that, if they are experiencing some confusion from the method of teaching of Pope Francis, the important thing is to turn to the catechism and to what the Church has always taught, and to teach that, to foster it at the parish level, beginning first with the family. We can't lose our energy being frustrated over something that we think we should be receiving and we're not. Instead, we know for sure what the Church has always taught, and we need to rely on that and concentrate our attention on that.

COMMUNION FOR ADULTERERS & ATTACK ON DOCTRINE

Rorate Caeli: Speaking of that teaching and what we're hearing, you've made news lately by saying you will resist any teaching that's heterodox on marriage, and that Catholics should fight back, which gets to a whole other question we were asking about. What should be the response of faithful Catholics if there is a change in the discipline in regards to Holy Communion for divorced and remarried adulterers?

Burke: I was answering a hypothetical question. Some people have tried to interpret it as an attack on Pope Francis, which it wasn't at all. It was a hypothetical question posed to me, and I simply said, "No authority can command us to act against the truth, and, at the same time, when the truth is under any kind of threat, we have to fight for it." That's what I meant when I said that. When the hypothetical question was put to me, "What if this agenda is pushed?" I said, "Well, I simply have to resist it. That's my duty."

Rorate Caeli: How can a faithful Catholic fight back? Is it in his home? Is it on a blog?

Card Burke:  I think you have to keep teaching, in your home and in your own personal life, to hold to the truth of the faith as you know it, and also to speak up about it and to make known to the Holy Father your deep concern, that in fact you cannot accept a change in the Church's discipline which would amount to a change in her teaching on the indissolubility of marriage. Here I think it's very important to address a false dichotomy that's been drawn by some who say, "Oh no, we're just changing disciplines. We're not touching the Church's doctrine." But if you change the Church's discipline with regard to access to Holy Communion by those who are living in adultery, then surely you are changing the Church's doctrine on adultery. You're saying that, in some circumstances, adultery is permissible and even good, if people can live in adultery and still receive the sacraments. That is a very serious matter, and Catholics have to insist that the Church's discipline not be changed in some way which would, in fact, weaken our teaching on one of the most fundamental truths, the truth about marriage and the family.

DISSENTING BISHOPS & SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM

Rorate Caeli: Getting to something that's right in Your Eminence’s wheelhouse, how do we fulfill the promise and the mandate of Summorum Pontificum at this particular time in the Church, and what role does Canon Law play in making the traditional Latin Mass available in every parish?

Burke: The law stands as it was given by Pope Benedict XVI, and it has not been changed. The document for its implementation was issued by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. All of that holds. All of that urges that when there is a desire for the traditional Mass among a group of the faithful, it is to be provided for them.

Rorate Caeli: Sticking to Summorum, for families whose children have never been exposed to the Novus Ordo, yet their local ordinary will not fulfill the mandates of Summorum by granting them traditional Confirmation, should those families take their children to a neighboring diocese or a personal parish like the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, FSSP, in order to have them confirmed in the traditional rite?

Burke: They certainly have the right to receive the sacraments in the traditional rite, in the Extraordinary Form. If they can't receive it in their own diocese, then certainly they could ask their parish priest to give them a note that the child is ready to be confirmed, and then have them confirmed in another place where it is permitted.

DISMANTLING THE FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF THE IMMACULATE

Rorate Caeli: You probably know, we have been covering the disheartening and frightening accounts of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate being dismantled over the last year. Does Your Eminence think that the commissioner, Father Volpi, has been fair? And what does Your Eminence think of Father Volpi's court mediation statement regarding the founder’s family?

Burke:I really don't have the kind of direct information on which to make a judgment about the matter. I have to say that, just from an outsider's view, Father Volpi has taken some very strong actions very quickly. Seemingly, I read the story too, he had to admit that the accusation which he made against Father Stefano Manelli, the founder of the Friars of the Immaculate, and his family members, of somehow misusing the temporal goods of the Friars of the Immaculate, was not true. That's certainly a very serious matter. Many friars are leaving, and it would seem that there should be some way of dealing with the whole situation in which the order itself wouldn't collapse, because they were strong, they had a lot of vocations, and they have a great number of apostolates. That's the part that's worrisome to me.

Rorate Caeli: There are reports, and frankly we get personal reports of this, of FFI priests saying they're “fleeing,” they're “in hiding,” using those words from the current FFI under Fr. Volpi. There's also reports of bishops taking in FFI priests seeking refuge in their dioceses. Would Your Eminence encourage those other bishops to do the same?

Burke: If there's a priest who desires to leave his religious community, and this a good priest, and there isn't anything contrary to the bishop accepting him, I think a good bishop would certainly accept such a priest and try to help him to become a priest in his diocese. There's a process; it takes time. The priest who is wanting to leave his religious community has to have a welcoming bishop. When a bishop is able to welcome such a priest, I think the bishop should be happy to do that, because it assists a good priest to be able to continue to exercise his priestly ministry.

TRADITIONAL PRIESTS SUPPRESSED BY DISSENTING BISHOPS

Rorate Caeli: What, in Your Eminence's opinion, are good priests supposed to do who are being suppressed by their bishops? We know of many, though we're not going to name them publicly. Some have no mission whatsoever now, and they're living on donations and help from family and friends. Some find it necessary to join independent groups. What is Your Eminence's advice to those priests who simply want to live, preach and say Mass as all priests did before the Council?

Burke:I would simply urge them to seek a bishop who is receptive to such priests and would try to help them, if he can, or if he can't help them directly himself, to help them find another bishop who would permit them to lead a good priestly life. That's all that one can do. Obviously, also, there is recourse to the Congregation for the Clergy. If the priest feels that he's simply being treated unjustly, then he could ask the Congregation for the Clergy to intervene.

Rorate Caeli:  There are reports that in an attempt to fix the problem we just discussed, an Apostolic Administration for traditional priests and religious may be in the works, in order to solve many of these issues facing them, in terms of living out their vocations strictly according to Summorum Pontificum. Can Your Eminence comment on where in the process that may be -- the future of an Apostolic Administration?

Burke:Such a thing is possible. I'm not aware that anything is in process in that regard. Maybe it is, I just haven't heard about it. Certainly that is a possibility and would be a way of assisting these priests and the faithful who are attached to them to remain in communion with the Church.

MORE PRIESTS COMING UNDER CARD. BURKE'S AUTHORITY 

Rorate Caeli: Now, Your Eminence may have a bias on this question, but would the Sovereign Military Order of Malta theoretically be able to function as an Apostolic Administration, giving faculties for traditional priests and religious?

Burke: Well, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, has incardinated priests. But it did so as a sovereign military order, not as an Apostolic Administration. The Order has a Prelate, appointed by the Holy Father, who participates in the governance of the Order. He is clearly the lawful superior of any priests incardinated in the Order. Right now, we're studying the whole situation because we have requests from additional priests who wish to be incardinated in the Order. But certainly it has happened in the past, and there's no reason why it couldn't continue to happen, not in virtue of the establishment of an Apostolic Administration, but in virtue of the nature of the Order.

PRIESTLY CELIBACY

Rorate Caeli: We were already planning on asking this question months ago when we first started crafting these interview questions, and then the Pope was reported to have said just yesterday the issue of married priests is "on his agenda." Is priestly celibacy for western priests under serious threat with this pontificate?

Burke: That would be a very serious matter because it has to do with the example of Christ Himself, and the Church has always treasured in her priests the following of Christ's example, also in His celibacy. I've heard this reported, but I haven't been able to verify it, but that would be, obviously, a very serious matter. The matter was taken up already by a world synod of bishops in the late '60s, and at that synod there was a very solid reaffirmation of the Church's teaching on clerical celibacy. I don't refer to it just as a discipline because it has to do with what from the earliest centuries the Church understood as being most fitting for her priests. It's something more than a discipline, and therefore I would think it's very difficult to conceive that there would be a change on this.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR TRADITIONAL CATHOLICS

Rorate Caeli: What words of encouragement can Your Eminence give to traditional Catholics who are struggling to save their souls and the souls of their children in this modern world, and without, it sometimes seems, any help from Rome?

Burke: I frequently say to those who are writing to me and are expressing such discouragement, or are asking for direction in what seems to be a very troubled situation, that when, in times like this, there seems to be some confusion in the governance of the Church, then we have, more than ever, to steep ourselves in the Church's constant teaching and to hand that on to our children and to strengthen the understanding of that teaching in our local parishes and our families. And our Lord has assured us -- He didn't tell us that there wouldn't be attacks on the Church, even from within, but He has assured us that the gates of Hell will never prevail over the Church. In other words, Satan, with his deceptions, will never finally prevail in the Church. We have to have that confidence about us and go about it with great joy and great determination, in teaching the faith, or in giving witness with apologetics to souls who don't understand the faith or who have not yet become members of the Church. We know that the gates of Hell will not prevail, but in the meantime, our way is the Way of the Cross. And when we have to suffer for the sake of what we believe, what we know to be true, we can embrace that suffering with the knowledge of the final outcome: that is, that Christ is the Victor. He is the one that ultimately overcomes all the forces of evil in the world and restores us and our world to the Father. That is the way in which I try to encourage faithful Catholics. I think it's important, too, that devout traditional Catholics get to know one another and support one another, to bear one another's burdens, as the Scripture says. We ought to be prepared to do that and be sensitive to families that might be suffering some particular difficulty in this regard, and try to be as close to one another as possible.

THIRD VATICAN COUNCIL?

Rorate Caeli: Thank you. We only have a few questions left. There are some very loose reports, but from credible sources, of Francis considering calling a Third Vatican Council. Has Your Eminence heard anything about this at all?

Burke:  No, not at all.

PROCESS FOR CHOOSING BISHOPS

Rorate Caeli: Episcopal appointments in the United States were, on average, conservative-leaning under Benedict XVI. That was not the case everywhere. From this arises what is a clear gap with the priests and actual churchgoing faithful of the new generation that are widely conservative, attached to the true catechism, to Catholic moral law, to a reverent Sacred Liturgy. Is Your Eminence in favor of a new orientation in the naming of bishops in the United States and elsewhere? Is the current method for the selection of bishops a good one, in your view?

Burke: I think it is. It involves the consultation not only of other bishops and priests in the diocese, but also the lay faithful. And there is always the possibility for individual members of the laity or groups of lay faithful to make known their concerns to the Congregation for Bishops or the Nuncio. I think that the most important thing is to let the Apostolic Nuncio know, when there's an appointment of a bishop being considered for a diocese, that there are very many faithful Catholics who  have particular needs and to express those needs.

CURRENT ROLE IN THE CHURCH

Rorate Caeli: What's Your Eminence's main focus on work these days?

Burke: My main focus is on the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, helping the Grand Master with the governance of the Order, especially in the spiritual dimension. The Order has a twofold purpose: the defense of the faith, and the care of the poor. The two things honestly go very much together. I'm helping him with questions about the structure of the Order itself in order to fulfill more effectively those two purposes, but also to deal with questions that inevitably come up in any Catholic organization with regard to doctrine and with regard to morals. That's my main focus. I am also spending time studying and writing on important questions in the Church today.

TRADITIONALISTS RESTORING THE CHURCH

Rorate Caeli: Do you see traditional Catholics taking more of a leading role, in the future, in the restoration of the Church?

Burke: I think so. I find more and more very strong Catholic families who are devoted to the traditional Mass, and I think that those families will have more and more influence in the time to come. If those families influence other families, then obviously there's a momentum that grows.

Rorate Caeli: Is there anything else that we haven't touched upon that Your Eminence would like to add?

Burke:Just to encourage everyone to be devoted to the Sacred Liturgy, which is the highest expression of our Catholic faith, the highest expression of our life in God, and to be very devoted to the study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and to the teaching of the faith in our homes and in our local communities. The Church has suffered terribly from decades of poor catechesis, such that the faithful, children and young people, even adults, don't know their faith, and we need to address that because the two things go together. When we know our faith well, then we have a strong desire to worship in accordance with our faith, and at the same time our worship makes us desire more to know our faith. And then, obviously, all of that gets expressed in action by the charity of our lives, especially on behalf of those who are in most need.

Rorate Caeli: That leads to one last question. Your Eminence has mentioned the family in the home many times. Was John Paul II prophetic when he spoke about the Domestic Church?

Burke: Oh, yes. He said that the Church comes to us by way of the family, and that's true. Christ Himself comes by way of the family. He was prophetic in the sense that he pronounced again what the Church has understood from the very beginning. That term, Domestic Church, is very ancient, and it was repeated at the Second Vatican Council. It's a very ancient terminology for the family. In that he was prophetic, in the sense that he set forth what God Himself teaches us about the family.

Rorate Caeli: That's all we have for Your Eminence. Thank you very much for your time today and for your incredible service to Holy Mother Church.

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Ngwa Bertrand

02.Mar.2015

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The African bishops took the first step on Monday toward having representation at the African Union, with the appointment of a liaison between the AU and the symposium of African bishops conferences. Bernhanu Tamene Woldeyohannes was on Feb. 23 appointed head of the office for relations between the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and the African Union. Woldeyaohannes' Addis Ababa office “will facilitate the signing of a memorandum of understanding  for SECAM observer status at the African Union,” the bishops announced. “This is in line with the goals of the Catholic Church in Africa in contributing to the building of a unified, integrated, strong, democratic, well governed, developed, prosperous, righteous, peaceful ,and respected Africa,” SECAM stated.

SECAM was designed during the Second Vatican Council as a mean for African bishops to speak with one voice despite language, cultural, and historical differences, and held its first meeting in 1969 during Bl. Paul VI’s visit to Uganda; the African Union gathers all African States but Morocco and was established in 2002. The Holy See is a non-member state accredited to the African Union, and the establishment of a SECAM observer at the union could enhance the Holy See's participation in the organization. Woldeyohannes will likely collaborate justice and peace and economic commissions, aiming to promote African development in line with the AU's “Agenda 2063”, intended to reignite a sense of unity, self-reliance, integration and solidarity that moved the African independence movements of the 1960s.

He has been head of the Ethiopian bishops' justice and peace department, and work in their community development program. Woldeyohannes' appointment follows declarations by Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel, head of the Ethiopian Archeparchy of Addis Ababa, that he is committed to SECAM, as well as the Association of Members of Bishops' Conferences of East Africa, gaining observer status at the African Union.

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28.Feb.2015

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The annual "Status of Global Christianity" survey published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is a cornucopia of numbers: some are encouraging; others are discouraging; many of them are important for grasping the nature of this particular moment in Christian history.  This year's survey works from a baseline of 1900 A.D., and makes projections out to 2050. Within that century and a half there's some good news about the global human condition that ought to be kept in mind when remembering the bad news of the 20th century and the early 21st. For example: in 1900, 27.6 percent of adults in a world population of 1.6 billion were literate. In 2015, 81 percent of the adults in a global population of 7.3 billion are literate, and the projection is that, by 2050, 88 percent of the adults in a world of 9.5 billion people will be literate--a remarkable accomplishment. 

Of the 7.3 billion human beings on Planet Earth today, 89 percent are religious believers, while 1.8 percent are professed atheists and another 9 percent are agnostics: which suggests that Chief Poobah of the New Atheists Richard Dawkins and his friends are not exactly winning the day, although their "market share" is up from 1900. There were some 267 million Catholics in the world in 1900; today, the world Church counts 1.2 billion members, with a projected growth to 1.6 billion by the middle of the century. Yet in the last quarter of the 20th century Catholicism was displaced by Islam as the world's largest religious community, as the global Muslim population grew from 571 million in 1970 to today's 1.7 billion. The most extraordinary Christian growth over the past century has come in Africa: home to 8.7 million Christians in 1900, 542 million today, and perhaps 1.2 billion by 2050, when there will be as many African Christians as Latin America and European Christians combined. Twenty-first century Christianity is also a far more urban reality than a century ago. In 1900, 29 percent of the world's Christian population lived in cities; it's 65 percent today, although that's projected to decline to 59 percent by 2050. But perhaps the most astonishing numbers in the survey involve Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians. There were 981,000 of these souls in 1900; there are 643,661,000 of them today; and there are projected to be over 1 billion Charismatics and Pentecostals in 2050. In raw numbers, then, Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing phenomenon in world religious history.

These three phenomena--African growth, urbanization and the rise of Pentecostalism--also help account, I suspect, for the greater fragmentation of the Christian world. What might be called entrepreneurial Christianity--founding your own church--is very much a part of all three, and that helps explain why the number of Christian denominations grew from 1,600 in 1900 to 45,000 today, with projections of 70,000 in 2050. For all the admirable growth noted in the survey, Christianity seems stuck in something of a rut, if the measure is Christians-as-a-percentage-of-world-population. Christians were 34.5 percent of global population in 1900, 33.3 percent in 1970, 32.4 percent in 2000, and 33.4 percent today, with projections to 33.7 percent in 2025 and 36 percent in 2050. Figuring out how much of this is due to the decline of European Christianity as a percentage of world Christianity would require number-crunching beyond my capabilities. But it's worth noting that, in a century of dramatic, aggregate Christian growth, European Christianity had the lowest annualized growth rate (0.16 percent), and the European share of world Christian population has shrunk from 66 percent in 1900 to 23 percent today--thus raising more questions about the warrant by which European Christian leaders, Catholic and Protestant, pass judgment on the pastoral practice of fellow-Christians around the world. One more disturbing number: according to the survey's projections, only 14 percent of non-Christians today know a Christian--a number that speaks to both the isolation of religious groups from each other and the failures of evangelization. So there's a lot of work to do in fulfilling the Great Commission, especially with those who have no contact with the faith.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.Feb.2015

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Gunmen have kidnapped an American missionary while she was working at a school in central Nigeria, with ransom the suspected motive for the attack, police say. Rev. Phyllis Sortor was kidnapped from the Hope Academy compound in the Nigerian village of Emiworo in Kogi state at around 10:00 a.m. local time (0900 GMT) on Monday, the state's police spokesman, Sola Collins Adebayo, said on Tuesday.“Unknown gunmen... came into the school premises shooting sporadically to scare away people before taking (the hostage) away into the bush,” Adebayo described, adding, “We are hopeful of finding her. Our suspicion is that she was picked up for ransom.”

The American missionary was affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, operating a community organization on school grounds in the village, he said. “The US Embassy has been notified, and the State Department and the FBI are working with local authorities to find and rescue her,” the Free Methodist Church's website stated. Local Nigerian gangs often times kidnap foreign nationals, usually demanding ransom in order to secure their release.Nigeria has witnessed a string of kidnappings, deadly shooting attacks and bombings by the Boko Haram Takfiri militants since the beginning of their operations in 2009.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Feb.2015

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