Pope Benedict XVI undertakes his new and weighty responsibilities in a
world characterized by growing poverty and inequity, materialism and
consumerism, the supremacy of the profit motive, considerable religious and
cultural pluralism, extensive moral relativism, and an almost irreversible
global descent into ecological disaster.
In this intimidating climate, the new Pope’s task is to ensure that the
Church embodies and expresses the presence of the Kingdom of God
to all men and women. At times our
world seems to be deaf to what the Kingdom of God could mean for it. But
paradoxically, at other times it seems to be full of yearning for the coming
of that Kingdom. What does this
mean for Africa and in particular for the
Church in Africa?
I believe that the main challenges that the Catholic Church faces in
Africa during the new pontificate, and indeed through much of the 21st
century, are to ensure that at the heart of its being it becomes and remains
unmistakably African; fully global; liberating in every dimension;
sanctifying; and open to the values and practices of people of good will,
whether these belong to non-Christian faiths or whether their commitment to a
religious approach is not immediately manifest.
AFRICAN
The Church must express and maintain its identity as a fully African
Church that is not dominated by values, practices, and understandings
prevalent in other parts of the world. Instead,
it must develop its own thinking and practices on the basis of its African
heritage and understandings.
This is not to be narrowly understood as referring merely to liturgical
expression but must be something that imbues the entire life, thinking,
activity and organisational structure of the Church in
Africa. At
the same time,
it must develop a mature capability to evaluate, select, modify and assimilate
into itself practices, understandings, and structures from outside that it
sees as relevant to its own situation and charism. In
effect, this means that it should strive to promote and maintain its African
identity in the face of all forms of globalisation, be they economic, social,
cultural, or ecclesial.
GLOBAL
The Church in Africa must ensure that it does not allow itself to become narrowly regional. Instead
it must see itself as a major player on the world stage. It
needs to become a Church that is aware that it has a responsibility towards
the rest of the world -- spiritually, morally, in terms of human resources,
and even materially (notwithstanding Africa’s current poverty). The
Church in Africa
has its own unique message of good news for the whole world and, using all the
resources available to it, needs to be prepared to share that message with
every part of the world.
LIBERATING
In its teaching, leadership and practice, the Catholic Church in Africa needs to be a Church of
liberation from all forms of oppression: poverty, female subordination, poor
health (including HIV/AIDS and malaria), unbalanced north-south relations,
corruption, denial of human rights, and the violation of the earth. It
must take positive steps to ensure that the Gospel message of Jesus Christ is
really good news for every person, regardless of gender, age, sexual
orientation, faith adherence, or social status.
Therefore the Church must promote the full
and equal dignity of women and children as human persons. It
must speak out fearlessly against all forms of corruption in public life (and
ensure that none of its works is ever supported by resources originating in
corruption). It must side with the
poor and with the earth, and be prepared to suffer so that the poor may become
less poor and the earth less degraded. It
must be implacable in working against the unjust structures in society at
local, national, regional and international levels, and be as fearless in
denouncing these as it is in promoting the personal moral behaviour of
individuals.
SANCTIFYING
The Church has always faced the daunting challenge of
making holy, sanctifying, transforming society so that it reflects a world
that accords with what God would wish for it, supporting individuals in their
efforts to hear the Spirit speaking within them and to live according to what
the Spirit is saying to them.
Cultural transformations, growing materialism in which
the ethic of the market and material prosperity reign supreme, and the
spiritual emptiness of value systems purveyed through the media and
entertainment industries, make it increasingly difficult for people and
society to hear what the Spirit is saying to them. Despite
some significant exceptions, the voice of the Spirit tends to be drowned out
in a world of increasing technology, high speed communication and consumer
values. The years to come will see
Africa
increasingly exposed to this threat.
All the more reason, then, why the Church in Africa will
have to work hard to discover and promote the divine dimension in every aspect
of human endeavour. The challenge
will be to maintain the spiritual perspective of traditional African
world-views, to promote the sacred nature of all that is, to help individuals
find and love God in all things and them all in God, and to enable
individuals, communities and society achieve integrated spiritual, moral,
emotional and material well-being, so that they may manifest in themselves the
perfection of their heavenly Father.
OPEN
The Church is challenged to be open along three dimensions: to the
Spirit, to the young, and to other faiths.
The Church needs to be open itself, and to promote openness throughout
society, to what the Spirit of God may be saying to it and to society on
various structural, organisational and moral issues, such as clerical
celibacy, the ordination of women, corruption, political oppression, ethnic
conflict, and the preservation of the earth and universe.
To young people, the Church must show that it is welcoming, challenging,
attractive and inspirational, responding to their vitality and enthusiasm,
channelling their energies, and respecting their initiatives and independence.
Finally, the Church in Africa must be willing and able to assume moral leadership and to cooperate
wholeheartedly with other Faiths, while always respecting them and never
subordinating them. At the same
time, it must be prepared to move even beyond faith dimensions and show itself
ready to work with every person of good will in promoting peace, justice,
harmony, human rights, and respect for all of God’s creation
GOALS
If these issues were organised in the order Global, Open, African,
Liberating, Sanctifying, they would give the acronym GOALS as indicating the
challenges that the Church should address in the years ahead. If the Church in
Africa could work towards these GOALS,
it would become more global, more open, more African, more liberating and more
sanctifying. Then it would surely
be a significantly better Church. We would have a significantly better Africa, and this would be a
significantly better world.
Michael J. Kelly, S.J.
Luwisha House
Lusaka
