YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – In a fractured African continent, a leading African cardinal has urged the Church to restore hope to a people already moving toward hopelessness.
“The African continent is full of problems: Real poverty, political instability, violence, ethnic and religious conflicts, wars, terrorism, migration and refugees, bad governance, corruption, environmental degradation, trafficking in arms and drugs as well as people. There is despair and bad management of natural resources,” said Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa.
In a statement shared with Crux ahead of the 55th anniversary of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, SECAM, the cardinal called on the Church “to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ – which is hope, peace, joy, harmony, love and unity – because our continent is still hungry for Jesus Christ, who is the only source of true reconciliation.”
He said true reconciliation also has to do with justice and peace-these values being an integral part of evangelization.
“A commitment to peace, justice, human rights and human promotion is also a witness to the Gospel when it is a sign of concern for persons and is directed towards integral human development,” Ambongo said.
He said evangelization must promote initiatives which contribute to the development and ennoblement of individuals in their spiritual and material existence and must denounce and combat all that degrades and destroys the person.
“Therefore, every member of the Church-Family of God in Africa is called to proclaim the Gospel of Hope wherever they are: Christians who are in positions where they exercise the power of the State, whether in the administration of public affairs or those who are activists in a political party,” the cardinal said.
“Those working in the field of economics must assume their responsibilities in accordance with the dictates of the Gospel and thus become the leaven that transforms institutions and society from within, making the structures of sin, violence, corruption and injustice disappear. Only in this way will the Church in Africa truly be the Family of God, where members are reconciled with God, with society and with each other,” he continued.
Ambongo – who is also the president of SECAM – extolled the growth already registered by the Church in Africa, evident not only in the number of Christians – they constitute 18 percent of Africa’s population – but also gauged from the fact that Africa now exports clerics to Europe and America where “secularism is driving more and more people away from the Church.”
But the Church in Africa faces significant challenges, according to Father Stan Chu Ilo, Research Professor of Ecclesiology and African Studies at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology, DePaul University, Chicago, and President of the Pan-African Catholic Network.
He said one challenge would be to unite the fragmented people of Africa.
“There is so much division in the society, so much conflict, and so much internal tension in the churches,” he told Crux.
“These are not often spoken of, but fashioning a people for God seems to me to be the main challenge. Africans need to find in their continent this sense of connection and a bond of love. We all speak of ubuntu in Africa today, but often love is not seen in our communities with constant wars, division, clannishness, ethnocentrism, regional politics, and tension between Francophone and Anglophone Africans,” Chu Ilo said.
He regretted that Africa has failed to set aside one Sunday every year as a Day of Reconciliation, as recommended by the Second African Synod.
“Africa needs to be reconciled to herself and this involves the question of identity, are our churches and institutions made in Africa or are they simply patchworks? Is our liturgy made in Africa? Is our clerical culture, lay culture, and religious life made in Africa? It seems that fashioning a people is a very important challenge so that the Church in Africa will be truly a contextual and inculturated Church serving the needs of all God’s people in Africa healed of division and sectionalism,” Chu Ilo told Crux.
A second challenge to the Church according to Chu Ilo has to do with the dependency of African Churches on the financial sustenance of the West.
“African Catholic dioceses – all of them – are still under the ‘protection’ of Propaganda Fide. Bishops are chosen through Propaganda for Africa, but in other parts of the world the choice is made through the Dicastery for Bishops,” he said.
He urged the Church of Rome to recognize that Africa has come of age and should be treated as an adult and called on local bishops in Africa to work hard “to be independent from constantly begging for help from Western agencies.”
“This does not give Africa respect, recognition and authority,” Chu Ilo said.
He identified poverty and politics as the third challenge facing the Church in Africa. Noting that there were so many people suffering on the continent, he urged the Catholic Church to use its large numbers to “bring about social transformation in the world of poverty.”
“It is a contradiction to have so many faithful in the Church who receive the message of the Gospel but whose lives have remained a tale of suffering. The Church should become the Church of the poor and for the poor in Africa, but the Church in Africa has a lot of assets and should not continue to put herself forward as a Church in need,” he explained.
He said churches in Africa can become strong social capital in supporting agriculture and food production, political engagement for good governance, promoting Catholic education and quality education, and good health.
Chu Ilo identified the youth bulge in a digital age, as an opportunity, which unfortunately has not been grasped by the Church. He complained that the Church in Africa seems to not have a clear agenda in this area and noted that it will pose a serious challenge “to the survival of the Church in Africa with the rise in Pentecostalism, new age, and other forms of tantalizing options in the digital age.”
“If the faith is lost to the youth of Africa today, it will be difficult to imagine what will happen in the future” he told Crux.
He underscored the need for the African Church to commit more resources to youth evangelization and empowerment and with it more participation of lay people.
“We are still a priest-centric and bishop-centric church in Africa and this will not be a good foundation for the future. We need to train and equip our lay members and adopt co-responsibility and shared participation as a framework for building the church in Africa in a synodal way for the work of mission and integral development and integral salvation,” he told Crux.
