The Catholic Church in Africa
BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN ITALY
THE Catholic Church has tens of millions of adherents in Africa, and its problems there are significant. Earlier this year over 300 church leaders met in the Vatican in Rome to discuss some of these problems during a month-long special synod.
Opening the sessions the pope said, as reported in L’Osservatore Romano: “Today for the first time there is taking place a Synod of the African Church involving the whole continent. . . . All of Africa is present today in St Peter’s Basilica. With deep affection the Bishop of Rome greets Africa.”
Tribal Warfare
As many are aware, the problems of the Catholic Church are particularly great in the African countries of Burundi and Rwanda, which are predominantly Catholic. The tribal warfare there became international news this spring when hundreds of thousands were slaughtered by their neighbors. One eyewitness reported: “We saw women with small children on their backs killing. We saw children killing children.”
The National Catholic Reporter told of the anguish of Catholic leadership. It said that the pope “felt ‘immense pain’ at fresh reports of conflict in the tiny African nation [of Burundi], whose population is predominantly Catholic.”
The massacres in Rwanda were even more damaging to Catholic leadership. “Pope Decries Genocide in 70% Catholic Nation,” proclaimed a heading in the same paper. The article observed: “The fighting in the African nation involves ‘a real and true genocide for which, unfortunately, even Catholics are responsible,’ the pope said.”
Since atrocities in Rwanda were being committed as the history-making Catholic synod convened in Rome, obviously the attention of the bishops was focused on the situation in Rwanda. The National Catholic Reporter observed: “The Rwandan conflict discloses something alarming: Christian faith has not set down deep enough roots in Africa to overcome tribalism.”
Noting the concern of the assembled bishops, the National Catholic Reporter went on to say: “This theme [of tribalism] was tackled by Albert Kanene Obiefuna, bishop of Awka, Nigeria, speaking to the synod.” In his address, Obiefuna explained: “The typical African lives the family life and also his Christian life in the context of his or her tribal work.”
Then, no doubt with Rwanda in mind, Obiefuna continued in his speech to the synod: “This mentality is so pervasive that the saying goes among the Africans that when it comes to the crunch, it is not the Christian concept of the Church as a family which prevails but rather the adage that ‘blood is thicker than water.’ And by water here one can presumably include the waters of Baptism through which one is born into the family of the Church. Blood relationship is more important even for the African who has become a Christian.”
Thus the bishop admitted that in Africa the Catholic faith had been unsuccessful in creating a Christian brotherhood where believers truly love one another as Jesus Christ taught that they should. (John 13:35) Rather, “blood relationship is more important” to African Catholics. This has resulted in their putting tribal hatreds ahead of all other considerations. As the pope acknowledged, Catholics in Africa must bear responsibility for some of the worst atrocities in recent memory.
Survival Said to Be at Stake
African bishops at the synod expressed fears for the survival of Catholicism in Africa. “If we want the Church to continue to exist in my country,” said Bonifatius Haushiku, a Namibian bishop, “we must give very serious consideration to the question of inculturation.”
Expressing similar sentiments, the Italian Catholic press agency Adista said: “To speak about ‘inculturation’ of the Gospel in Africa means speaking about the very destiny of the Catholic Church in that continent, of its chances of surviving or not surviving.”
Just what do the bishops mean by “inculturation”?
The Church and “Inculturation”
John M. Waliggo explained that “adaptation is the term that has been used for a long time to signify the same reality.” Put more simply, “inculturation” means the assimilation of traditions and concepts of tribal religions into Catholic ceremonies and worship, giving a new name and a new meaning to ancient rites, objects, gestures, and places.
Inculturation allows Africans to be Catholics in good standing and yet to hold on to practices, ceremonies, and beliefs of their tribal religions. Should there be any objection to this? The Italian newspaper La Repubblica, for example, asked: “Is it not true that in Europe Christmas was anchored to the festival of the Solis Invicti, which fell on December 25?”
Indeed, as Josef Cardinal Tomko, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, noted: “The missionary Church practiced the work of inculturation long before the term began to be used.” The Christmas celebration illustrates the matter well, as La Repubblica noted. Originally it was a pagan celebration. “The date of December 25 does not correspond to Christ’s birth,” acknowledges the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “but to the feast of the Natalis Solis Invicti, the Roman sun festival at the solstice.”
Christmas is only one of many church customs anchored in paganism. So are such beliefs as the Trinity, immortality of the soul, and eternal torment of human souls after death. John Henry Cardinal Newman of the 19th century wrote that “the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace.” Listing many church practices and holidays, he said they were “all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”
When Catholics enter non-Christian areas, such as parts of Africa, they often find that people already have religious practices and beliefs similar to those of the church. This is because during previous centuries the church adopted practices and teachings from non-Christian peoples and introduced them into Catholicism. Such practices and teachings, Cardinal Newman claimed, were “sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”
Thus, when Pope John Paul II visited non-Christian peoples in Africa last year, he was quoted in L’Osservatore Romano as saying: “In Cotonou [Benin, Africa] I met the adherents of voodoo, and it was evident from the way they spoke that in some way they already have in their mentality, rites, symbols and dispositions something of what the Church wants to offer them. They are only waiting for the time for someone to come and give them a hand to cross the threshold and live through Baptism what in some sense they were already living and experiencing before Baptism.”
What Should You Do?
The church’s failure to teach true, unadulterated Christianity to peoples of Africa has had disastrous consequences. Tribalism has persisted, as nationalism has elsewhere, resulting in Catholics slaughtering one another. What dishonor to Christ! The Bible says that such lawless killing of one another identifies people as “the children of the Devil,” and Jesus says of such ones: “Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness.”—1 John 3:10-12; Matthew 7:23.
What must honesthearted Catholics therefore do? The Bible urges Christians to be on guard against compromise with any practices or beliefs that would make their worship unclean in God’s eyes. “Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers,” the Bible says. To enjoy God’s favor, you need to ‘separate yourselves and quit touching anything unclean in God’s sight.’—2 Corinthians 6:14-17.
[Blurb on page 20]
‘The war in Rwanda is a true genocide for which even Catholics are responsible,’ said the pope
[Picture Credit Line on page 18]
Photo: Jerden Bouman/Sipa Press