By DON FIER
Part 1
(Editor’s Note: His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, recently traveled to the United States to speak at The Church Teaches forum in Louisville, Ky.
(At the forum, he delivered an outstanding presentation on the role of the Sacred Liturgy in developing a Catholic conscience. His Eminence graciously agreed to grant an interview to The Wanderer in which he shared his insights on reasons for the remarkable growth of the Church in his native continent of Africa [which includes 54 independent countries], the historical background of Catholic Christianity in Africa, the challenges and future hopes for Catholicism in Africa, and the continent’s expanding role in missionary activity throughout the world.
(Because of the length of the interview, we are presenting it in two parts.
(The second part will appear in next week’s issue. In part two, His Eminence talks about African clergy serving as missionaries in other parts of the world and about African Traditional Religion.)
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Q. The Catholic population of the Church in Africa has grown from two million to approximately 200 million during the last century. Please reflect on the reasons for such exponential growth.
A. Growth in faith falls under the umbrella of Divine Providence — in the final analysis only God can give us an adequate answer. Nevertheless, we human beings, with our little brains, can reflect a bit.
First of all, we must pay tribute to the missionaries that have come to parts of Africa (generally south of the Sahara Desert) over the past 500 years, primarily during the last 200 years. They have done outstanding work. Many congregations contributed — in my own country of Nigeria the Irish missionaries have been particularly instrumental. Divine Providence prepared the people of Africa for the reception of Christianity through their prior religious background. The missionaries promoted school education, including religious instruction, which became a key to the all-around development of the people.
We must also thank the first Africans who received the missionaries: the local chiefs, those who provided the land, the teachers and catechists, and, of course, the first generation of clergy and religious brothers and sisters. We thank them all, including the early Christian families. All of this helps explain why to be a Christian is good news in Africa today, and why the experts are able to tell us that of all the continents in the world, Africa has the highest percentage growth rate for Christianity.
Q. Approximately a year ago, an excellent book to which you contributed was published: Christ’s New Homeland — Africa. Do you have any insights as to how it has been received, on what impact it has had?
A. I really cannot tell how it has been received — I have no particular way to monitor the public’s response. But certainly it has helped all those who have read it to understand what many of the bishops of Africa think. The dozen or so bishops who contributed to the book are representative of the many, and they were able to extol the maturation of faith that has taken place in Africa. It is a sign that Divine Providence is contributing to the general patrimony of the Catholic Church worldwide, including Africa.
Although the Gospel of Christ does not increase in content over time, it can increase in the number of voices that proclaim the Gospel, in the number of hearts that absorb the Gospel, in the number of ways the Gospel can be lived. As the pastors of Africa reflect on marriage and the family and the many considerations surrounding married and family life, it is a happy thing that such a book has emerged.
Indeed, many people who live far away from Africa and whose knowledge of the continent is limited to news items (e.g., political tension, a special need for money to alleviate extreme poverty, etc.) can learn much about the inner content of African Church life by reading the book. The Church has been good news in Africa, and this book is a symbol of that.
Q. How does Your Eminence think the African Church can best counteract the cultural imperialism that makes foreign aid contingent upon acceptance of contraception and other anti-life and anti-family measures?
A. Unfortunately there are organizations, even governments, that as a condition for providing financial aid to Africa, want us to accept anti-Gospel convictions, especially with regard to the family. They want what us to accept and practice “birth control,” which is really an attitude toward children that is negative. It regards children as troublesome, with the expressed idea that the fewer children there are the better.
Rather than rejoicing at the arrival of new life, Africa would then be ready to take action against the arrival of new life either by killing the unborn child (abortion) or by preventing the conception of the child (contraception). There are many pills and medicines, some of which I do not even understand, which arise from those ideas. It is a reality that there are organizations and governments which try to persuade government bodies in Africa to accept these measures.
When I say “try to persuade,” I mean that they try not only to propose, but to impose. Recall that when Pope Francis visited the Philippines in January of 2015, he used the words “ideological colonization.” So it is a fact that this is happening.
You ask what the African Church can do to counteract these actions. There are many things.
First, encourage fidelity to the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to us not from the Vatican, but from Heaven. Popes, bishops, priests, deacons — all of us — are called to share it, to spread it. So, again, fidelity to the Gospel is the first way. The teaching authority of the Church is a guarantee by Christ that the Pope and his bishops will not mislead His people in what to do and what to believe in matters of faith and morals. Therefore, fidelity to the teaching authority of the Church is important: the whole Sacred Tradition of the Church, the reading of the Gospels and all of Sacred Scripture, and its magisterial interpretation.
The Church in Africa is making an immense effort to build up Christian families, families with true Christian convictions. I remember the priest who baptized me in 1941 who now is Blessed — Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi.
He was just a humble parish priest who had as his priority the sanctification of Christian families: attention to women, attention to educational formation, attention to the forming of truly Christian families. He was committed to convincing men of the necessity of training for their wives.
In other words, he focused on the building-up of laypeople for family life. The fruits of his work remain.
This brings me to another point I wish to emphasize: the contribution of laypeople. The Second Vatican Council spoke of what it called the “layperson’s distinctive role.” [Editor’s Note: Cardinal Arinze authored an important book in 2013 entitled The Layperson’s Distinctive Role, published by Ignatius Press.]
In Vatican II’s famous document on the Church in the modern world, Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 43 states that the layperson should not expect from the clergy a ready-made answer for every question that arises, for example, in economics, in politics, in government, in trade, in recreation, in the mass media.
The layperson, if instilled with Gospel values, can assess challenges in these and other areas from a Gospel-centered point of view. It is the witness of a layperson — in government, in Parliament, in Congress — on family matters, abortion, contraception, the number of children a married couple should have, etc., that is more decisive, in a sense, than the witness of a cleric.
If a priest or bishop speaks on abortion, the people say, “Of course, that’s what we expect him to say.” However, if it is a layperson like themselves who speaks, a person who shares with them the rough-and-tumble experience of daily life and the challenging problems of raising a family, it makes them think twice. They come to realize that Christianity is not just an ideal, not just a theory that is beautiful to behold, but that it is real life, a way of life that can truly be lived. So the formation of laypeople is absolutely crucial in these matters — it is laypeople in government positions who make decisions.
Then, of course, there is economic development. If a country is poverty-stricken, it does not have good roads and steady electricity, its schools are not adequate, civil servants are not well paid, etc. The result is that the government becomes quite weak and can easily succumb in the face of pressure from international organizations and rich foreign governments that not only propose but attempt to impose anti-life, anti-family practices. Therefore, economic development must be encouraged.
It is not, however, the work of the Catholic Church to promote economic development. Rather, the Church must be involved in forming the mentality necessary for those in positions of authority — in government, commerce, entrepreneurship, and private people in both big and small organizations — to make correct, Gospel-centered decisions in terms of justice and impartiality, and which instill cooperation among the various peoples in the country.
This is important because the people from countries in Africa come from backgrounds of diverse languages, cultures, and tribes. Therefore, the layperson’s role in economic development becomes necessary, and the contribution of the Church is to motivate people.
At the end of Mass, the priest says, “Go, the Mass is ended.” He does not say, “Go and rest” but “Go, now, and practice what we have prayed, sung, read, meditated upon, and enjoyed. Go and live it.” If people live what they have celebrated, the Eucharistic Celebration becomes very dynamic.
It is in all these ways that the Church makes an effort, never boasting that we have been 100 percent successful.
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