Africa’s “Catholic moment”

Africa’s “Catholic moment” January 7, 2015

From George Weigel via The Pilot: 

According to an old Vatican aphorism, “We think in centuries here.” Viewed through that long-distance lens, the most important Catholic event of 2014 was the dramatic moment when Africa’s bishops emerged as effective, powerful proponents of dynamic orthodoxy in the world Church.

george-weigel-232x300The scene was the Extraordinary Synod of 2014, called by Pope Francis to prepare the Synod of 2015 on the theme, “Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization.” The dramatic tension was provided by northern European bishops (principally German) and the Synod secretariat, who worked hard to reframe Synod 2014 as an inquest on a question long thought settled by the rest of the Church: the question of admitting the divorced and civilly remarried to holy Communion. The subplot in the drama came from the fact that the Church in Africa–rich in evangelical energy, firmly committed to orthodoxy, but very poor–is funded in large part by German Catholic development agencies (themselves the beneficiaries of the “Church tax” collected by the German federal government). 

So it took considerable courage for African bishops at Synod 2014 to challenge the Germans and their allies. It’s not a big secret that there’s a lot of racism left in Europe, where the best and the brightest often imagine themselves beyond the “taboos” that beset Africans (as one German cardinal inelegantly put it). Nor is it a secret that African prelates are too often regarded by some first world Catholics as second-class citizens: charming, you know, but not-quite the A-team. Thus it doubtless came as a surprise to those pressing to change-what-cannot-be-changed in the Church’s ancient sacramental discipline when the African bishops declined to defer to their former European masters and determinedly made two points.

Read on to learn what those points are.


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