Paul KeenanAfrican prelates are holding the line against Western mores, writes Paul Keenan
Is Africa the key to the renewal of both family values and the Church’s fortunes around the world?
Until now, as the universal Church approaches the synod on the family in Rome this October, our Western-influenced media has offered something of a hemispheric-bias in anticipating those key battles that may elevate the gathering to prime-time coverage, spotting in them much to be hoped for in the ‘dangerous’ rumblings from within the German bishops’ conference, and seeking out division and red lines even before the first prelate lands in the Eternal City.
Readers of this newspaper may well be aware of one response to those rumblings, a publication from Ignatius Press due for release this September 15. Eleven Cardinals Speak on Marriage and Family is a document drawn up by prelates from nations including Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Venezuela, India, Germany, the Czech Republic, Guinea and Nigeria. The authors have timed their publication to be read as a ‘prologue’ of sorts to the October synod on the family in Rome, and, perhaps, as an antidote to some of the worrisome noises coming from Germany, on the issue of divorced Catholics and Communion, for example.
As important as such an intervention is, however, it is far from the only story.
Alternative
To find the alternative narrative, one must turn attention towards the ‘geographic south’ and the African continent, where, in these final weeks before the synod, Catholic voices have grown louder, promising to offer news leads of quite a different flavour by synod’s end.
One of the strongest voices quoted in publicity for Eleven Cardinals has been that of Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria (the other African author being Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea). Archbishop Onaiyekan argues forcefully in his contribution that “neither the great schism that gave rise to the Orthodox churches nor the Protestant Reformation that gave rise to the many Protestant churches tampered with the essential properties of marriage. All agreed that marriage is between a man and a woman, in unity and indissolubility.” In itself a clear and strong message.
Yet, both Archbishop Onaiyekan and Cardinal Sarah have collaborated on a work to emerge later in September (and also from Ignatius) which has not received as much hype as Eleven Cardinals. Together with eight other African prelates, the archbishop and cardinal have produced Christ’s New Homeland, a work in defence of traditional marriage also intended as a ‘prologue’ to the synod.
Response
At the same time, Homeland can perhaps be viewed as the African Church’s first concrete response to Cardinal Sarah’s call in June, when, addressing cardinals and bishops at a gathering in Ghana in preparation for the synod, he urged them “to speak with clarity and with one credible voice and with filial love of the Church. Be conscious of the mission of the Church; protect the sacredness of marriage which is now being attacked by all forms of ideologies that intend to destroy the family in Africa. Do not be afraid to stress the teaching of the Church on marriage”.
The pointed use of ‘ideologies’ gives a clear indication that Cardinal Sarah was echoing the message delivered by Pope Francis just months before during his January visit to the Philippines when he issued the clarion call to “Protect your families!”
“In our time,” the Pontiff said on that occasion, “God calls upon us to recognise the dangers threatening our own families and to protect them from harm. We must be attentive to the new ideological colonisation.
“Beware of the new ideological colonisation that tries to destroy the family… it comes from outside and that’s why I call it a colonisation. Let us not lose the freedom to take forward the mission God has given us, the mission of the family. And just as our peoples were able to say in the past ‘No’ to the period of colonisation, as families we have to be very wise and strong to say ‘No’ to any attempted ideological colonisation that could destroy the family… Our world needs good and strong families.”
A crucial element in the Pope’s message in January was timing. As he addressed Filipino Catholics, the Pontiff was no doubt mindful of the fact that the Philippines had already passed legislation to make contraception more freely available to poorer families, while the debate on same-sex marriage was already in train.
Traversing continents to reach the ears of Catholic prelates and faithful across Africa, the Pope’s words undoubtedly found solid purchase in a faith community still solidly resistant to the ideologies that have overtaken other regions. In early September, for example, during a Mass to welcome newly-ordained priests in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Bishop Camillus Etokudoh specifically referenced Ireland and America in relation to same-sex marriage before calling on his congregation to resist challenges to the traditional family.
It is for such reasons that Cardinal Sarah feels confident enough to proclaim that Africa will make a vital difference in the Church’s struggle with ‘ideological colonisation’.
“I have absolute confidence in African culture,” he told a Catholic newspaper in Benin recently. “I have absolute confidence in the faith of the African people, and I am sure Africa will save the family.”
Interview
It is interesting to note that the cardinal’s interview was given in promoting another publication, a semi-biographical series of interviews he offered on his own faith as well as responses to challenges faced by the Church, including on the issue of marriage.
The book is unashamedly titled God or Nothing and its publication resulted in an intriguing review from the noted Vatican-watcher John Allen Jnr, who wrote: “There’s an ‘African moment’ unfolding in Catholicism, and Cardinal Robert Sarah is among its most important voices. If you want to understand the forces shaping the Church’s future, you need to read this book.”
Allen’s words are laudatory indeed, but also predictive of a near future in which Africa is a bulwark for a Church tackling challenges on all other fronts.
Viewed in this light, the importance of the African intervention during the synod cannot be overstated. As the Eurocentric Vatican was ‘shaken’ in 2013 by the appearance of a Latin American Pope on the balcony at St Peter’s, the rising voices of African churchmen at the Rome synod will be simultaneously a countervailing bloc to liberal prelates and the first clear roar of unity from the African Church.