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THE CHURCH WE WANT IN AFRICA

Fr. Louis Birabaluge, SX

Apr 4, 2016
1939

The Church we want in Africa is: a) a merciful Church preaching the merciful Father; b) a Church of the poor and for the poor; c) a Church with an incisive presence of women; d) a Church where authority and leadership are service and not power; e) a discipleship and missionary Church. This desire Church is an outcome of the Theological Colloquium on Church, Religion and society in Africa organized in 2014-2015 by Hekima University College, a Jesuit college based in Nairobi/Kenya. The general theme of the Colloquium was: “The Church we want: theological voices within and outside the Church at the service of ecclesia in Africa[1].

 

If the Church we want in Africa has Vatican II as theological resource, an event that dates back fifty years ago, “Pope Francis effect” remains its contemporary source[2], says A. E. Orobator, sj, the editor of the contributions whose authors are men and women who know well the strengths and the weaknesses of the Church in Africa either because they are Africans or they have been serving in Africa as missionaries. This paper aims to be a brief summary of the Church in Africa the Colloquium of Nairobi wanted.

a) A merciful Church, preaching the merciful Father

Since his election as “bishop of Rome”, Pope Francis has several times expressed his wish to see the Church being like a “field hospital”. This implies to be a Church that encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by any kind of human misery (Lumen Gentium, n°8). Only a bruised, dirty and hurting Church which is not afraid to go out and reach those who are not “in order” with its the teaching can reveal to the World today the face of the Merciful Father( Lk 15). The call for the Jubilee year of mercy is the culmination of this merciful Church wanted by Pope Francis.

Obviously a merciful Church, sign of the merciful Father is needed in Africa, where the Church seems to be specialist in “irregular cases”: fornication, adultery, divorce, polygamy…Could Africa have produced a Pope Francis?” To this provocative question, Stan Chu Ilo, a priest from Nigeria says “no” because the Church in Africa through its teaching, leaders and institutions has not shown yet the maturity of the Latin American Church from where Pope Francis emerges (pp. 27-34).

b) A Church of the poor and for the poor

A Church of the poor and for the poor appears in the article of Bienvenu Mayemba, a Jesuit from Congo (DR), where he analyses the experience of the late great theologian Jean-Marc Ela from Cameroon and Pope Francis (pp. 67-82). Following them, Bienvenu is convinced that in a continent where the majority is poor, the Church can be credible if only it is a Church where the poor feel at home. A Church of the poor is a Church where the care for the poor is more than mere words, but expressed in real charitable works. Furthermore, it should be a Church where the fight for justice is taken seriously. If the Church in Africa wants to be the Church of Jesus who preached in the synagogue of Nazareth (Lk 4: 18-19 ) and who emptied himself (Ph 2: 7) it has to link Charity and Justice in the concern for the poor as Jean-Marc Ela and pope Francis have continuously repeated. Being a Church of the poor and for the poor requires also examining honestly the lifestyle of the African church leaders and ministers (bishops, priests, religious…). Indeed, they are sometimes confused with the “ruling class” of many African countries. Here again, says Stan Chu Ilo, the lifestyle of Pope Francis is still an inspiring model. It’s said that when he was cardinal in Argentina, he took public transport, cooked his own meals and so on (p. 33).

c) A Church with an incisive presence of women

“We need to create still broader opportunities for more incisive female presence in the Church” (Evangelii Gaudium, n°103). This appeal of Pope Francis is taken seriously by many contributors of the Church we Want in Africa, especially women (Josée Ngalula (DRC), Alison Muro (South Africa), M. Akossi-Mvongo(Ivory Cost)…). Is the highly patriarchal African church ready to be part of the new future for the world by promoting and allowing the gfts of women on the african continent to flourish? (p. 151) This is the question asked by sister Anne Arabonne, from California/ USA.

Beyond good intentions, all the speakers plead for a deep conversion of mentality and behavior in the Church of Africa where the hierarchical and patriarchal cultural prejudices do not allow women to express their talents and skills in the life of the Church. Because of what J. Ngalula calls “theological illiteracy” which affects the majority of Catholic faithful, including clerics, there is an urgent need to make provisions for the biblical literature and the major texts of the Catholic Church on the dignity of women to be made available and internalized (p. 181). This rich treasure may shape the African clericalism and empower African women in order to help in building up the Body of Christ, as they are already doing in the daily life of many Christian communities.

Both Pope John Paul II (Ecclesia in Africa n°104) and Pope Benedict XVI (Africae Munus n°56-57), at their time, reminded the Church in Africa its duty of promoting female dignity and emancipation. They asked the members of the Church in Africa to be an example and model for the whole African society. Since then, few actions have followed. Is there a hope that in the Church wanted in Africa, Pope Francis’call for an incisive female presence in the Church will be heard and expressed in actions? Actually, that is the wish expressed by African theologians.

d) A Church where authority and leadership are service and not power

The Church in Africa, through her leaders, is known to be a strong voice in criticizing those in political powers because of their misuse of power and leadership. In the Church we want, the Shepherds of the Church in Africa are called to examine their conscience because, while criticizing statesmen, the Church in Africa is like a mirror of the African malaise, says Anthony Egan, a Jesuits from South Africa (p.250-251). Thus, according to him, the Church in Africa is far from being an alternative to what is lived in the society in terms of power, leadership and management. The Church in Africa still needs a pneumatology clear enough to convict the hierarchy of usurpation of the place of Christ in the Church. Such a vibrant pneumatology is a sine qua non, for the future of ordained and non ordained ministries conceived as services, in the Church in Africa, says Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a Methodist from Ghana (p.335).

Obviously, the confusion between power and authority, an exercise of leadership exempt of tribalism and nepotism is not the whole picture of the Church leaders in Africa. Emmanuel Katongole, a priest from Uganda, quotes the case of Bishops Christophe Munzihirwa and Emmanuel Kataliko, both ministering during the most intense periods of civil war in Bukavu (DRC) (p.198), as African models of how Christian authority and leadership may look like: humble and wise service, care for the human dignity and builder of communion among tribes and nations.  Bishop Antoine Kambanda from Rwanda, in his article with a provocative title: “He who wants cows must sleep like cows: The bishop in the Church of Pope Francis” (p. 46-57), also highlights this vision authority and leadership when he describes the African bishop as someone who should be compassionate, lover and concerned for the poor and closer to the people.

e) A discipleship and missionary Church

In order to serve the whole Africa, the Church in Africa needs to work hard for her own conversion both in her different members and her structures. However many are its challenges, it must be clear that the Church does not exist for its own welfare. A self-centered Church, a Church which is not a community of missionaries discipleship (Evangelii Gaudium n°24) betrays its identity and is not faithful to the mandate received from the Lord Jesus: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16: 15). In the Church we want in Africa, this face of the Church appears in the meditation made by Bishop Rodrigo Majia Saldarriaga, a Jesuit bishop from Colombia who has served in many African countries, reflecting on the mission of the African bishop in the pastoral programme of Pope Francis (pp.58-68). If the bishop we want in Africa, is the one helping the Church to be “permanently in a state of mission (Evangelii Gaudium n°25) and a “Spirit-filled evangelizer who prays and works” (Pope Francis, Address to the Congregation for bishops, February 27/2014) (p.66), it becomes clear that the Church we want in Africa is a discipleship and missionary Church. If not, it is not the Church wanted by its Founder Jesus Christ and which we want in Africa.

The Church we want in Africa is a heavy task. It implies strong and deep human and spiritual resources. In terms of numbers of Christians, the Church in Africa is well equipped. But Emmanuel Katongole advises us not to focus so much on the demographic growth of the Catholicism in Africa when thinking about what Africans may expect from “convinced Christians” (p. 191). The future of the Church in Africa needs a real and deep spirituality (Laurenti Magessa, p. 137) well rooted in the Holy Scriptures, the celebration of faith and the daily life. In his introductory, Fr. E. Orobator noticed that the weakest point of all the essays is the less use of the Scripture. If Christ is the foundation of the Church, he says, the Scripture remains normative in retrieving and applying the meaning of the Church in Africa and in the World (p. 24).

Further to this weak point, I consider a clear theology of sacraments, attentive to the social dimension of sacraments, wider than what is done in the book by Laurenti Magesa (p. 141-142) as highly needed in Africa. If the Church we want in Africa truly confesses Christ as its head (Col 1: 18), we cannot presume the Church to be merely the Church of our wishes and imagination. The Church lives of what it receives from Jesus through sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, which, according to Henri De Lubac, “makes the Church”. Consequently, before reflecting on the Church we want in Africa, the reflection on the faces of Jesus in Africa is of a great help because it enables us to understand that the life given by Jesus to his African disciples, is the same life they are called to share today. Actually sacraments are signs of Jesus’given life.

As cardinal J. Ratzinger clearly puts it out: “Church and sacraments stand and fall together; a Church without sacraments would be an empty organization, and sacraments without a Church would be empty rites without meaning or inner cohesion”. (J. Card. Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, New edition, San Francisco, Ignatius, 2004, p. 338). If African theologians want to serve the Church we want in Africa, they cannot escape their commitments and duties to reflect, in the light of faith, on the foundations of the Church which are, in this perspective, christological, pneumatological and sacramental.

 

[1] The title of the volume is: The Church we want. Foundations, Theology and Mission of the Church in Africa. Conversations on Ecclesiology , A. E. Orobator, sj, (Editor), Nairobi, Paulines, 2015, 343p.

[2] Idid., p.10.

The Church we want in Africa is: a) a merciful Church preaching the merciful Father; b) a Church of the poor and for the poor; c) a Church with an incisive presence of women; d) a Church where authority and leadership are service and not power; e) a discipleship and missionary Church. This desire Church is an outcome of the Theological Colloquium on Church, Religion and society in Africa organized in 2014-2015 by Hekima University College, a Jesuit college based in Nairobi/Kenya. The general theme of the Colloquium was: “The Church we want: theological voices within and outside the Church at the service of ecclesia in Africa[1].

 

If the Church we want in Africa has Vatican II as theological resource, an event that dates back fifty years ago, “Pope Francis effect” remains its contemporary source[2], says A. E. Orobator, sj, the editor of the contributions whose authors are men and women who know well the strengths and the weaknesses of the Church in Africa either because they are Africans or they have been serving in Africa as missionaries. This paper aims to be a brief summary of the Church in Africa the Colloquium of Nairobi wanted.

a) A merciful Church, preaching the merciful Father

Since his election as “bishop of Rome”, Pope Francis has several times expressed his wish to see the Church being like a “field hospital”. This implies to be a Church that encompasses with her love all those who are afflicted by any kind of human misery (Lumen Gentium, n°8). Only a bruised, dirty and hurting Church which is not afraid to go out and reach those who are not “in order” with its the teaching can reveal to the World today the face of the Merciful Father( Lk 15). The call for the Jubilee year of mercy is the culmination of this merciful Church wanted by Pope Francis.

Obviously a merciful Church, sign of the merciful Father is needed in Africa, where the Church seems to be specialist in “irregular cases”: fornication, adultery, divorce, polygamy…Could Africa have produced a Pope Francis?” To this provocative question, Stan Chu Ilo, a priest from Nigeria says “no” because the Church in Africa through its teaching, leaders and institutions has not shown yet the maturity of the Latin American Church from where Pope Francis emerges (pp. 27-34).

b) A Church of the poor and for the poor

A Church of the poor and for the poor appears in the article of Bienvenu Mayemba, a Jesuit from Congo (DR), where he analyses the experience of the late great theologian Jean-Marc Ela from Cameroon and Pope Francis (pp. 67-82). Following them, Bienvenu is convinced that in a continent where the majority is poor, the Church can be credible if only it is a Church where the poor feel at home. A Church of the poor is a Church where the care for the poor is more than mere words, but expressed in real charitable works. Furthermore, it should be a Church where the fight for justice is taken seriously. If the Church in Africa wants to be the Church of Jesus who preached in the synagogue of Nazareth (Lk 4: 18-19 ) and who emptied himself (Ph 2: 7) it has to link Charity and Justice in the concern for the poor as Jean-Marc Ela and pope Francis have continuously repeated. Being a Church of the poor and for the poor requires also examining honestly the lifestyle of the African church leaders and ministers (bishops, priests, religious…). Indeed, they are sometimes confused with the “ruling class” of many African countries. Here again, says Stan Chu Ilo, the lifestyle of Pope Francis is still an inspiring model. It’s said that when he was cardinal in Argentina, he took public transport, cooked his own meals and so on (p. 33).

c) A Church with an incisive presence of women

“We need to create still broader opportunities for more incisive female presence in the Church” (Evangelii Gaudium, n°103). This appeal of Pope Francis is taken seriously by many contributors of the Church we Want in Africa, especially women (Josée Ngalula (DRC), Alison Muro (South Africa), M. Akossi-Mvongo(Ivory Cost)…). Is the highly patriarchal African church ready to be part of the new future for the world by promoting and allowing the gfts of women on the african continent to flourish? (p. 151) This is the question asked by sister Anne Arabonne, from California/ USA.

Beyond good intentions, all the speakers plead for a deep conversion of mentality and behavior in the Church of Africa where the hierarchical and patriarchal cultural prejudices do not allow women to express their talents and skills in the life of the Church. Because of what J. Ngalula calls “theological illiteracy” which affects the majority of Catholic faithful, including clerics, there is an urgent need to make provisions for the biblical literature and the major texts of the Catholic Church on the dignity of women to be made available and internalized (p. 181). This rich treasure may shape the African clericalism and empower African women in order to help in building up the Body of Christ, as they are already doing in the daily life of many Christian communities.

Both Pope John Paul II (Ecclesia in Africa n°104) and Pope Benedict XVI (Africae Munus n°56-57), at their time, reminded the Church in Africa its duty of promoting female dignity and emancipation. They asked the members of the Church in Africa to be an example and model for the whole African society. Since then, few actions have followed. Is there a hope that in the Church wanted in Africa, Pope Francis’call for an incisive female presence in the Church will be heard and expressed in actions? Actually, that is the wish expressed by African theologians.

d) A Church where authority and leadership are service and not power

The Church in Africa, through her leaders, is known to be a strong voice in criticizing those in political powers because of their misuse of power and leadership. In the Church we want, the Shepherds of the Church in Africa are called to examine their conscience because, while criticizing statesmen, the Church in Africa is like a mirror of the African malaise, says Anthony Egan, a Jesuits from South Africa (p.250-251). Thus, according to him, the Church in Africa is far from being an alternative to what is lived in the society in terms of power, leadership and management. The Church in Africa still needs a pneumatology clear enough to convict the hierarchy of usurpation of the place of Christ in the Church. Such a vibrant pneumatology is a sine qua non, for the future of ordained and non ordained ministries conceived as services, in the Church in Africa, says Mercy Amba Oduyoye, a Methodist from Ghana (p.335).

Obviously, the confusion between power and authority, an exercise of leadership exempt of tribalism and nepotism is not the whole picture of the Church leaders in Africa. Emmanuel Katongole, a priest from Uganda, quotes the case of Bishops Christophe Munzihirwa and Emmanuel Kataliko, both ministering during the most intense periods of civil war in Bukavu (DRC) (p.198), as African models of how Christian authority and leadership may look like: humble and wise service, care for the human dignity and builder of communion among tribes and nations.  Bishop Antoine Kambanda from Rwanda, in his article with a provocative title: “He who wants cows must sleep like cows: The bishop in the Church of Pope Francis” (p. 46-57), also highlights this vision authority and leadership when he describes the African bishop as someone who should be compassionate, lover and concerned for the poor and closer to the people.

e) A discipleship and missionary Church

In order to serve the whole Africa, the Church in Africa needs to work hard for her own conversion both in her different members and her structures. However many are its challenges, it must be clear that the Church does not exist for its own welfare. A self-centered Church, a Church which is not a community of missionaries discipleship (Evangelii Gaudium n°24) betrays its identity and is not faithful to the mandate received from the Lord Jesus: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16: 15). In the Church we want in Africa, this face of the Church appears in the meditation made by Bishop Rodrigo Majia Saldarriaga, a Jesuit bishop from Colombia who has served in many African countries, reflecting on the mission of the African bishop in the pastoral programme of Pope Francis (pp.58-68). If the bishop we want in Africa, is the one helping the Church to be “permanently in a state of mission (Evangelii Gaudium n°25) and a “Spirit-filled evangelizer who prays and works” (Pope Francis, Address to the Congregation for bishops, February 27/2014) (p.66), it becomes clear that the Church we want in Africa is a discipleship and missionary Church. If not, it is not the Church wanted by its Founder Jesus Christ and which we want in Africa.

The Church we want in Africa is a heavy task. It implies strong and deep human and spiritual resources. In terms of numbers of Christians, the Church in Africa is well equipped. But Emmanuel Katongole advises us not to focus so much on the demographic growth of the Catholicism in Africa when thinking about what Africans may expect from “convinced Christians” (p. 191). The future of the Church in Africa needs a real and deep spirituality (Laurenti Magessa, p. 137) well rooted in the Holy Scriptures, the celebration of faith and the daily life. In his introductory, Fr. E. Orobator noticed that the weakest point of all the essays is the less use of the Scripture. If Christ is the foundation of the Church, he says, the Scripture remains normative in retrieving and applying the meaning of the Church in Africa and in the World (p. 24).

Further to this weak point, I consider a clear theology of sacraments, attentive to the social dimension of sacraments, wider than what is done in the book by Laurenti Magesa (p. 141-142) as highly needed in Africa. If the Church we want in Africa truly confesses Christ as its head (Col 1: 18), we cannot presume the Church to be merely the Church of our wishes and imagination. The Church lives of what it receives from Jesus through sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, which, according to Henri De Lubac, “makes the Church”. Consequently, before reflecting on the Church we want in Africa, the reflection on the faces of Jesus in Africa is of a great help because it enables us to understand that the life given by Jesus to his African disciples, is the same life they are called to share today. Actually sacraments are signs of Jesus’given life.

As cardinal J. Ratzinger clearly puts it out: “Church and sacraments stand and fall together; a Church without sacraments would be an empty organization, and sacraments without a Church would be empty rites without meaning or inner cohesion”. (J. Card. Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, New edition, San Francisco, Ignatius, 2004, p. 338). If African theologians want to serve the Church we want in Africa, they cannot escape their commitments and duties to reflect, in the light of faith, on the foundations of the Church which are, in this perspective, christological, pneumatological and sacramental.

 

[1] The title of the volume is: The Church we want. Foundations, Theology and Mission of the Church in Africa. Conversations on Ecclesiology , A. E. Orobator, sj, (Editor), Nairobi, Paulines, 2015, 343p.

[2] Idid., p.10.

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