Does the Catholic Church Care about Africa?

This article is from part of a book review I wrote on a Philip Jenkins work called The Next Christendom. I wont post the whole review because it’s too long, but I will say that it’s a very informative book although it can be a chore to read. I know this is a pretty long post, but if you read it I think you will learn some things you may not have known before.

In 2005, following the death Pope John Paul II, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze was considered to be a top candidate in the running for Pope. Although he did not get the position, many see a time soon coming when an African, Asian, or Latin American will assume the position as Pope. They believe this because of the explosive growth of the Catholic Church in the southern hemisphere.

In an April 5, 2005 article entitled, “Global South as growing force in Catholic Church,” the Christian Science Monitor claimed that about two thirds of the worlds Catholics are located in the “south.” Christianity is rapidly growing in the southern hemisphere, particularly in Africa, at rates never seen before.

An article entitled, “Africa and Catholicism,” in the March 10, 2006 issue of the National Catholic Reporter stated that Catholic Church membership in Africa grew 6,708 percent (6,708%) from 1900 to 2000.

A Los Angles Times article entitled, “African Catholics Seek a Voice to Match their Growing Strength,” dated April 16, 2005 said that Nigerian Catholic Churches are overflowing even with five or six Masses on Sunday.

If priest shortages are considered a problem in North America and Europe they are a crisis in Africa and Latin America.

In Phillip Jenkins book, The Next Christendom, he states that North America and Europe have thirty-five percent of the believers and sixty-eight percent of the priests, while Latin America has forty-two percent of the believers but only twenty percent of the priests (Jenkins, 213).

The reality of the above statistics and situations made the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI’s first Cardinal selections this past March interesting if not controversial. Of the fifteen newly named Cardinals ten were from the U.S. or Europe, only one was from Africa, one from Latin America, and three from Asia. In selecting his Cardinals Pope Benedict simply maintained the status quo of two-thirds leadership from one third of the flock.

On the March 24, 2006 broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered” news program, a story entitled, “Benedict XVI Installs 15 New Cardinals,” suggested that this first round of Cardinal selections is reflective of Pope Benedict’s focus on revitalizing Europe and the U.S. and evangelizing Asia. Adding credibility to the story is the Catholic Church’s own peculiar practice of filling parish vacancies in the “north” with priests from the already desperately under staffed “south.”

In speaking about the lopsided Catholic leadership allocations Jenkins says, “The Devil himself could scarcely have planned it better (Jenkins, 213).” Currently about one-sixth of the priests serving in American parishes have been imported from other countries (Jenkins, 204). In the March 26, 2005 issue of the German magazine Spiegel, an article entitled, “The Pope’s Contradictions,” claimed that currently 1,400 of Germany’s priests are from Poland, India, and Africa.

Looking at this situation begs the question, “What about Africa?” Why is Pope Benedict seemingly ignoring an area of the world experiencing the highest conversion rates the Catholic Church has ever seen?

Why aren’t U.S. and European priests being sent down to Africa and Latin America where they are needed most?

Verbally the Pope may support the “south” but his resources are far from them. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (NRSV).” This saying would seem to apply to Pope Benedict literally and figuratively. It appears that he is chasing money, at the expense of poor Africans and Latin Americans. My assumption is aided by Jenkins comment that the “North” provides a hugely disproportionate share of Church finances (Jenkins, 195).

Another factor influencing Pope Benedict’s decision-making process is most likely cultural.

The Catholic Church is dying in Europe and struggling in the U.S. According to the aforementioned Spiegel article, in Pope Benedict’s home country of Germany the number of newly ordained priests has dropped from 366 in 1990 to 161 in 2003. According to Jenkins, from the years 2000 to 2025, if current trends continue, Europe is projected to lose about ten million Catholics while Africa alone is projected to gain about one hundred million.

During the same time period the U.S. is only expected to gain ten million more Catholics, while Latin America is expected to add one hundred forty-five million to its number (Jenkins, 195).

Looking at these projections one must ask, “How does a church that is interested in saving all human souls, turn its back on the challenge of managing the unprecedented growth of the “south” by focusing the majority of its leadership and resources on the stagnant “North”?

If we look at the leadership of the Catholic Church we can begin to speculate about reasons, other than financial, for the focus on the “north” despite the overwhelming growth opportunity in the “south.”

The top leadership of the Catholic Church is primarily made up of the Pope and the Cardinal Deacons of the Roman Curia. The Curia is the Pope’s advisory and administrative branch of the Catholic Church. Of the thirty-two Cardinal Deacons that run the Roman Curia, twenty-three are from Europe, three are from the U.S., four are from Latin America, one is from Japan, and only one is from Africa.

With that large a European representation in the upper leadership of the church, heightened by the historical relationship the church and Europe have shared, it is only natural that the majority leadership would be worried about the status of its own backyard.

It must be troublesome to the Pope and the majority leadership to watch their homeland sink slowly into the hedonistic mire of secularism and materialism.

I believe it is clear that the majority leadership’s sentimental attachments to Europe and financial attachments to the U.S. are being allowed to overshadow their greater obligation to spread the good news and shepherd the flock of the willing.

Jenkins describes the current staffing policies of the Catholic Church as being at best shortsighted, and at worst suicidal for Catholic fortunes (Jenkins, 214). He declines to speculate about the motives of the Catholic leadership…

Interesting huh?