One of the inherent weaknesses of this evangelisation process was the imposition of Western ways of believing and thinking on the African people of God.

However, since every church is its own missionary, it cannot live its faith by proxy (cf. Ad Gentes, Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, § 22).

This is why Saint Pope Paul VI, during his trip to Kampala in July 1969, made this call: "Africans, be your own missionaries."

Fifty-five years later, Paul VI's exhortation is even more relevant today: to evangelise Africa by and for Africans. This requires a true conversion to mission.

Converting to mission

At the level of each local church, we must assess to what extent our practices are truly missionary and revise them accordingly.

Too often, the tendency of most African bishops is to perpetuate the status quo, which does not encourage a shift from a logic of mere reproduction to one of innovation and creativity.

This also explains the pastoral ineffectiveness of the theology of inculturation. A community that is overly concerned with its image will inevitably lose its dynamism.

"I do not want a church preoccupied with being the center, which ends up trapped in a web of obsessions and procedures," says Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium, § 49).

"At the level of each local church, we must assess to what extent our practices are truly missionary and revise them accordingly."

Each baptized person must renew their understanding of mission. It is not just about traveling to the ends of the earth. Everyone is a missionary wherever they are.

In this sense, Pope Francis speaks of the "missionary disciple." It is important to deepen the Pauline principle that one cannot be a disciple of Christ without being a missionary (cf. 1 Cor 9:16).

Encounter and testimony

Mission, therefore, is not limited to a physical sending forth or a formal proclamation of the Gospel. It is a testimony of life, a meeting that requires dialogue and respect for others and their culture.

"Every true and profound encounter involves an intercommunication for the benefit and gift of both parties.

The evangeliser receives as much as they give, not only on a human level but also in terms of understanding the Good News," the late Archbishop Isidore de Souza of Cotonou said in his article "What If Africa Evangelised Europe?" (In Savanes-Forêts, No. 12, 1977).

The dynamics of mission are rooted in God, who is love. He invites us to bear witness to His love for the peoples of Africa by proclaiming the Good News of salvation.

• First published in La Croix
• Father Serge Bidouzo is a priest of the Archdiocese of Cotonou (Benin) and the former director of La Croix du Bénin (not affiliated with La Croix International).

They must find ways "to get by" Father Augustine Anwuchie from Nigeria said on July 19.

He was speaking during the latest of a series of digital meetings with theologians and other experts in Africa.

The meetings aim to deepen understanding of the Synod on Synodality 2023 synthesis report.

Better formation needed

Anwuchie said he wants institutions forming future priests to encourage better communication. He decried the "lack of authenticity" in priestly formation in Africa.

"I saw ‘survival mentality' where seminarians, because of how formation is structured, adopt ways to survive around their formators — how to survive around bishops, around Christians and in Christian communities.

"I have been a vice-rector at a seminary and I saw a lack of openness. You see lack of authenticity."

Copying everything that is done in Europe is unnecessary, he said. There are aspects formators in Africa can borrow from other places though.

These include encouraging openness, communication and authenticity with seminarians. Priests who are not formed "to be authentic" find relating to other Christians difficult.

"Instead of becoming men, we continue to live as boys and this is not helping in our pastoral work."

Many major seminaries in Africa neglect aspects of human formation and the expansion of emotional intelligence, he said.

Seminarians are taught what they "ought to do" and how they "ought to behave". They then become reactive to situations, which continues when they become priests, he said.

Crises between clergy and laity in most African parishes stem from having "emotional intelligence" overlooked during their formation.

Connecting with the synod

During the online meeting participants concentrated on the theme "The Revision of Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis in a Missionary Synodal Perspective".

In this they were guided by the December 2015 document of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy translated as "The Gift of the Priestly Vocation".

Structuring their discussions around present-day seminary formation in Africa, participants considered what does and does not work according to their experiences in different parts of Africa.

Priests overwhelmed

Ugandan-born Sister Dominica Dipio told the online meeting there is a disconnect between seminaries and the life of priests in parishes and communities.

Dipio - a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Culture and university professor - is concerned that many priests do not continue with formation.

It should be ongoing, meeting participants agreed.

Dipio told the online meeting that most priests she meets are overwhelmed and quickly burn out.

"They hardly have time to engage in their own formation, which is supposed to be ongoing" she said.

"I have met priests in retreats who have for years not had the experience of retreat.

"The involvement in mission takes all their time and burns them out" Dipio said.

She wants bishops to allow priests "to reconnect with God as the centre".

Cape Town's Cardinal Stephen Brislin reminded participants that ongoing priestly formation is a matter each episcopal see and religious order is responsible for.

Seminarians should be involved in the joys and struggles of ordinary people, he said.

Source

• CNA

A native of the West African nation of Togo and member of the Sisters of St. Catherine of Alexandria, she's done extensive research on this taboo subject, including her doctoral dissertation.

Lembo is a psychotherapist who teaches courses at the Safeguarding Institute of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and does workshops for seminaries and religious houses in Africa. In this exclusive interview with La Croix's Christophe Henning, she explains what she has discovered in her research and work with abused women religious.

La Croix: You are a Togolese sister and have just published the results of your investigation on abused nuns in Africa. How did you come to work on this issue?

Sister Mary Lembo: As an educator and trainer, I have led sessions on affective and sexual maturity to help religious sisters live their commitment. In this context, I met with consecrated women who were talking about their experience with an abusive priest. At the time, I felt that they could say no to these abusive relationships. As I listened to them, I realized that they were not free.

How do they find themselves in this state of submission?

These consecrated women are adults, but live in vulnerable conditions. When they wonder about their vocation, or feel doubts about their commitment, they confide in a priest and expose themselves spiritually and humanly.

This can also be in the context of collaboration in the life of the parish: the priest is the one in charge and they are not in a position of equality. Slowly, the relationship passes from fraternity to familiarity, and they can no longer defend themselves.

Is it the status of the priest that gives him this superiority?

In sub-Saharan African society, the priest is a person of reference, a wise man, a leader. He is the man of God, feared and respected. What he asks, the sisters do, for fear of God and for fear of the priest who speaks in the name of God.

You have had difficulty in gathering testimonies: are the victims not yet able to speak up?

"This is the first time I have spoken about this situation," the sisters I interviewed told me. "I didn't know; I now realize how naive I was," one of them told me.

Talking gives you the strength to continue. Telling the story of one's life allows one to distance oneself from the suffering.

Are we talking about something that is systemic in nature?

I conducted a qualitative study based on the testimonies of the sisters to understand the dynamics of abuse. But there is no statistical study to date.

Yet, anyone who lives and works in Africa can see that women are submissive. And the consecrated woman gives her life to God. The conversations I have had with community leaders and people who accompany consecrated women are quite worrying.

How can we avoid this ambiguous relationship in pastoral responsibilities?

Working together creates a certain familiarity and can generate affective desires, and sexual impulses.

If people are trained humanly, they will be able to set boundaries to protect their religious vows. And it is primarily up to the priest in charge not to invade the intimacy of the person. Sexual abuse creates confusion, and the aggressor uses blackmail, threatening to reveal everything, and it is the sister who will be sent away.

Are the bishops and leaders of the Church aware of the abuse?

Some priests are aware. Most often, the bishops support the priests. The laity who observe the movements of the religious sister, know and say nothing. No one dares to say anything about the priest.

In some communities, the superiors are not able to handle these situations. It is the abused sister who is not faithful to her commitment. Her community does not understand. She has no choice but to remain silent or leave...

Can we measure the consequences of these assaults?

Rape, aggression, unwanted pregnancies... There are first of all physical consequences, but also psychological ones: shame, guilt, sadness, anguish, confusion, revolt, isolation. There are also consequences in community and relational life, as the victim no longer trusts.

Finally, there are spiritual consequences: abandonment of religious life, revolt against God, spiritual lukewarmness, and ineffectiveness in the mission. Darkened, they live without living.

Are there any legal proceedings against the aggressors?

Laywomen who suffer abuse by certain priests are organizing themselves, for example in Cameroon. But the religious sisters are still timid.

While there are condemnations of certain priests obtained by NGOs that defend underage girls or even canonical procedures, I do not know of any trials related to assaults on religious sisters. They are afraid they would be rejected by their community, their family, the village...

In order for them to file a complaint, they would need to be supported.

What is the future of these consecrated women who have been assaulted?

Some leave religious life, but not the Church. They find it very difficult to pray, they no longer want to hear about confession, they no longer consider the priest as sacred.

This is what I still hear from a consecrated woman who lives with her child: "My heart is still that of a sister." Those who remain feel unworthy, still under the control of the priest. It takes strength to say to the abuser, "you can do whatever you want, you can blackmail me, you can tell whoever you want, I refuse this relationship".

It is only through training that someone will get out of submission. Formation helps us to know ourselves, to understand our emotional reactions. Pastoral relationships should also be more professional.

You emphasize the dynamism of the Catholic Church in Africa: can this crisis be overcome?

I hope so. The African Church is young, dynamic and still growing. And Africans are religious, they believe in God, want to serve God, and there are many vocations. If all of us become aware of the problem, we will be strengthened in our faith in Jesus Christ. The Lord will use us to strengthen his Church.

• First published in La-Croix International. Republished with permission.

The continent is facing a looming food crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

In better times, between 2018 and 2020, Africa imported 44 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

"A striking phenomenon is the link between food insecurity, violence and climate change," says Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, Aloysius John.

"They are interlinked. When people find themselves in extreme conditions and highly vulnerable, survival becomes the motivation for any kind of activities and often ends in violence and conflict."

The situation is worst in the Horn of Africa and the arid Sahel region, John says.

"In the Sahel region, more than 12.7 million people are exposed to a highly vulnerable situation of hunger as well as exile from their rural homesteads," he says.

Caritas - a confederation of Catholic relief and development agencies - is concerned about Africa's reliance on food imports.

"Africa has been the dumping site for the surplus of large-scale industrial production of food," says John.

"It's destroyed food supply chains and local traditional farming - and needs immediate and quick attention."

Of the 160 million people living on the Horn of Africa, 45 percent will be affected by food insecurity, he says.

The formerly "fertile land of the Nile" is worst affected by severe drought and scarce rainfall.

Violence and conflict in the region compound the problem.

One percent of the land is irrigated. It's "totally insufficient" to feed the population.

People are on the move.

They and their livestock have been forced to leave their traditional homelands in search of humanitarian aid or any means to sustain their survival.

"A recent Caritas report calls for "the implementation of just food systems - from production to consumption" as "key for the development of global South nations".

Food injustice has been meted out in different forms, John says.

Traditional agriculture has been destroyed and replaced by vested interests. Market-oriented, large-scale agriculture is suffering today due to climate change and droughts, he says.

In some parts of Africa, cheap industrially-raised imported chicken, milk and meat are endangering locally raised produce.

Restoring justice to the global food systems means stopping using Africa as a dumping site.

Promoting and socialising local communities to water harvesting, natural fertilisers and pest control is also vital.

The Ukraine-Russia war shows how the global South needs to take ownership of its own food chains, John says.

"It is important to develop local agriculture, traditional farming, identify local food habits and mainstream them into development projects.

"A community-oriented and community-based development paradigm which takes integral ecology into account needs to be developed.

"This will help promote local food systems and supply chains leading to food independence," he says.

Source

• Crux Now

My first reaction was: what is synodality?

"Synodality means walking together," we were then told.

But this had to be explained several times, and not only to those less educated.

Synodality is a strange word, even for the more literate.

So, I have a problem with the word used to describe the theme of the Synod because talking about a synodal Church does not attract much attention. It does not make people want to participate in the discussions.

I think this is the case for many laypeople.

Therefore, we should start by translating this somewhat "learned" word into something that is immediately understandable, even into a slogan that will excite people.

Only then will everyone be eager to contribute something to the common journey.

Walking together

It seems to me that "walking together" is, first of all, a source of deep joy.

And during this synod, it is this joy that I would like us to begin expressing, to make it clear that what counts is the journey with the one who is the only source of all joy, the one who came to dwell with us, among us, in us.

Our Church will be synodal because it brings this good news to the people of the third millennium.

But I think that while our joy is focused on the word "together", we should also be interested in the journey.

Indeed, though it is relatively easy to demonstrate to African Christians how their faith liberates them, it seems to me more complicated to show how the Church concretely removes the obstacles that prevent us from journeying.

Yes, we can consider that poverty is our first problem, but I believe that our freedoms, stifled on a daily basis, shackle us even more.

We don't feel that our Church is taking charge of this.

Sometimes, when the people who are primarily responsible for this situation (heads of state and members of government) are received in Rome by the pope, and they then boast about it, it disturbs us and even hurts us.

So, I cannot help but take up this sentence of a Togolese laywoman: "Has the pope forgotten us? Why do his messages never mention our country?"

Of course, the pope must receive everyone.

And, obviously, he cannot speak about all countries, but this synod could be an opportunity to deal with political issues in Africa.

In this way, the whole Church will take charge of the situation of this continent which has already been wounded by slavery and colonization, and which continues to suffer because of inhumane systems of political management.

Pope Francis went to Lampedusa.

He never forgets the migrants.

That moves us, but one day - in all transparency - we will have to talk about the roots of migration, what pushes young people to leave Africa.

If we leave this Synod with the promise of taking charge of this problem, then our Church will become more synodal.

Focusing the problems on the West and on priests

Much has been done since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) to make it possible for everyone to see themselves in the problems that the Church takes to heart.

But it seems to me that the way in which these problems are posed still reflects a certain focus on priests and on the West.

This is the case with all the questions concerning sexuality.

Yes, sexuality is a reality that is at the heart of human life.

Yes, sexual abuse is a problem for us in Africa as much as anywhere else, but the angle from which sexuality is considered obscures certain realities of Africa.

For example, there's the question of procreation for the Christian couple, or the place of the child when a woman is forced to conceive before marriage, or family cohesion that is based first of all on biological bonds, etc.

It is true that Africans themselves could take up all this at the local or regional level, but then why create commissions throughout the Church to deal with sexual abuse and not leave it to certain Churches alone to deal with this?

Finally, I believe the Church will be synodal when it is no longer considered normal that Africa is always in some way invisible, at the back of the queue in the Church's journey.

• Maryse Quashie, a lecturer in educational sciences at the University of Lomé (Togo), is a member of the Diocesan Synodal Advisory Team of Lomé.

The claims were made by the Rev Deacon Michael Phelan, a retired Permanent Deacon in the diocese of Northampton, who raised concerns amid what some people deem an international shortage of Catholic priests.

In a letter to The Tablet, the international, weekly Catholic publication, he said: "At a time when this country is extremely short of priests it is disconcerting that our Cardinal and bishops see it as a solution to rob dioceses in Africa and elsewhere of their equally scarce resources of priests.

"This leads to our laity having many foreign priests with poor English or accents that cannot be understood, coupled with very different cultural backgrounds." Continue reading

The Burundi Conference of Catholic Bishops, message was read out in churches on Sunday.

It expresses the bishops' concern about the country's next election, which is set for May 2020.

It will be the first election since President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term plunged the country into crisis in 2015.

The bishops' letter told congregations of their concern about efforts to "suffocate and assault certain political parties and to persecute their members.

"Criminal acts go as far as murders with political motives ... perpetuated against those with different opinions of the government," the letter says.

It also draws attention to the ruling party's youth league, which the bishops say has "taken the place of security forces".

Called the Imbonerakure, the United Nations has accused youth league of committing atrocities.

Presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe posted outraged tweets about the bishops after the message was leaked on social media ahead of church services.

"Some bishops should be defrocked because it is becoming a habit: on the eve of elections they spit their venomous hatred through incendiary messages", he wrote on Sunday.

Also to accuse the bishops of sowing division is the secretary-general of Burundi's ruling party.

"It is shameful to spread hatred among the faithful," he told a political gathering.

Earlier this month a UN commission spoke out about the prevailing climate of fear in the lead up to next year's elections.

Crimes against humanity and other serious violations are continuous and committed with "impunity" they reported.

"The commission found that the eight common risk factors for criminal atrocities are present in Burundi."

In the commission's view "the evolving situation must be monitored with the greatest vigilance".

At least 1,200 people were killed in violence after the 2015 election and over 400,000 were displaced.

Nkurunziza announced in June last year he would not stand for election in 2020, confounding critics who accused him of working to extend his grip on power.

Source

• AlJazeera
• Image: RUSHYASHYA

Relations soured between the the Catholic Church and the government of Nkurunziza, a devout evangelical, after the Church opposed his third-term bid in 2015.

"Getting a second or third wife is not a sin before God," said Wandera, 38, who was a catechist, or Catholic religion teacher, for 10 years before the Church expelled him in 2013.

"Men should go ahead and marry multiple wives like the biblical Solomon, who married many wives candidly."

Polygamy is common in traditional communities in the East African country. But increasingly, many other Kenyan Christians share Wandera's point of view.

In 2014, President Uhuru Kenyatta signed a law legalizing polygamy, despite criticism from women's groups. Since then, proponents have called on male Kenyans to marry many women.

"If you can sustain five wives, have them," said Gathoni Wamuchomba, a lawmaker from Kiambu in central Kenya and an aide to Kenyatta.

"If you are a man and you are in a position to bring up many children, do it."

Wamuchomba said raising children in the absence of their fathers leads to serious social problems, including increasing numbers of families living on the streets.

"We need to be honest. These children who are raised by single mothers, where are their fathers?" she asked.

But Catholic leaders in Kenya, where about 9 million of the country's 47.6 million people are Catholic, oppose the practice.

Polygamy "is against the will of God and we must desist from it," the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a recent statement. "We should uphold human dignity, and especially the dignity of the woman."

Noting that the Church upholds the "sanctity of the family unit," Bishop Philip A. Anyolo of Homa Bay, conference chairman, (photographed along with Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Balvo), said Kenya's leaders should work on "better ideas of promoting and protecting family values."

It is "not proper for some of our leaders to purport to propose solutions (to social problems) by suggesting alternative forms of family," he said at a news conference at the end of the bishops' April plenary meeting in Nairobi.

"The dignity of the family must not be distorted by any human power, nor be changed for personal or social pleasure," the bishops' statement said, noting that the "protection and respect of the institution of the family is a responsibility of the state and the church."

"Every citizen must learn to respect the family," it said.

Archbishop Martin Kivuva Musonde of Mombasa said a sin is still a sin even if it is committed by many people.

"If everybody is stealing, does that mean we have to make it legal?" he asked at the news conference.

In the Catholic Church, polygamists may not receive the Eucharist, and polygamists who wish to be baptized must abandon the practice first. However, some other Christian churches take a different approach. Continue reading

• Image: Crux

She is a seamstress and owns a small retail shop. He is an accountant. The couple live with Mike's family, where Adoley sometimes feels she's blamed for the couple's childlessness after having three miscarriages.

When they visited our home in Accra one Sunday in December 2015, Adoley complained about a few things, such as Mike refusing to carry her handbag in church while she went to the bathroom, because - as he explained - "a man doesn't carry a woman's bag".

This anecdote points to a bigger story about the church in Africa today, and the messages that some of its influential male leaders promote about masculinity, marriage and gender roles in society more broadly.

"Men of God" are powerful
While churches in the economic north are emptying out those in the Global South - and especially Africa - are growing.

Pentecostal and charismatic churches have mushroomed, many influenced by a wave of American-exported evangelicalism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Churches also carry out important social functions the state has neglected. They are involved in addressing HIV/AIDS, building hospitals and establishing universities.

This kind of work - sometimes called the "social gospel" - makes the church much more than simply a religious space. The modern African church promises a life that is abundant and prosperous - both spiritually and materially.

African church leaders - the bishops and archbishops, prophets and overseers, pastors and deacons, benignly referred to as "men of God" - are powerful.

Their teachings have a wide reach that is not limited to Sunday mornings and mid-week services. There are TV and radio programmes, audiotapes and books, international branches and YouTube videos that reach a wide audience beyond their own congregations. Continue reading

Sources

• Quartz Media article by Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of Ghana
• Image: Reuters

The president of West Africa's regional bishops conference, Cardinal Theodore-Adrien Sarr, said Africans must be alert to any indoctrination from the West to accept same-sex marriage.

Cardinal Sarr said some Americans behave "like people who have to think for the rest of the world . . .".

While homosexual people should not be condemned, Africa needs to proceed based on its own traditions and cultures, he said.

The cardinal's comments came ahead of a plenary assembly of west African bishops.

Continue reading

In the 1990s, Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa led opposing, armed militias, dedicated to defending their respective communities as violence broke out in Kaduna, northern Nigeria.

In pitched battles, Pastor James lost his hand and Imam Ashafa's spiritual mentor and two close relatives were killed.

Now the two men are co-directors of the Muslim-Christian Interfaith Mediation Centre in their city, leading task-forces to resolve conflicts across Nigeria.

The Imam and the Pastor tells how they made this remarkable transition. It is both a moving story of forgiveness and a case-study of a successful grass-roots initiative to rebuild communities torn apart by conflict.

Read more

Following the screening, there will be light refreshments, and a group discussion.

This evening has the full support of the NZ Catholic Bishops Committee for Interfaith Relations.

When: Friday evening, 12 February 2016, 6pm
Where: Wellington Islamic Centre, 7-11 Queens Drive, Kilbirnie

You can download a poster to help spread the word.

Supplied

Writing in L'Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Robert Sarah took aim at offertory processions in some African countries that include "endless dances".

"One has the impression of being present at a folklore exhibition," the cardinal wrote.

Cardinal Sarah comes from the African nation of Guinea.

In his article, the cardinal also stressed the importance of moments of silence in the liturgy.

"External silence is an ascetic exercise of mastery in the use of the word," he said.

Continue reading

The visit to the three African countries was replete with gestures of reconciliation and peace.

He pushed all the right buttons on religious liberty, climate change and reforms to the annulment process of divorced Catholics.

The visit came soon after he recently met Fidel Castro in Cuba and his visit to the US, where he celebrated mass.

Pope Francis took a stand against poaching in Africa as well as corruption. He even visited a mosque in Central Africa. This had particular significance given the ongoing inter-religious conflict and violence in the region.

The pope's visit has been profiled as a "message to the world". The explosive growth of the Catholic population in Africa despite religious, ethnic and political conflicts is a hint of the growing significance of Africa for the Catholic Church.

According to the Pew Research Centre, the Catholic population in sub-Saharan Africa grew from 1% in 1910 to 16% in 2010. Globally, 31.5% of people are Christians.

Given the phenomenal growth of Catholicism on the continent those of us who live in Africa need to be asking some important questions. These include:

• What does Pope's visit mean for Africa? Is it merely a goodwill visit or will it have any fundamental impact?
• Will the Catholic Church lead us through a path of a greater socialistic view of society in Africa?

The Catholic church and socialism

Jesus of Nazareth could easily have been construed as a socialist in his approach to society.

But the church that became so powerful in the aftermath of the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312AD has not only been at the helm of holy wars - in the postindustrial revolution it became an ally of capitalism.

In more recent times, the modern church - including the Catholic denomination - has also been at the forefront of liberation movements in Latin America, notably Columbia and Peru. Continue reading

• P. Pratap Kumar is Professor of Hinduism and Comparative Religion, University of KwaZulu-Natal.

The Pope answered the question during a session with reporters on his plane flying back from the Central African Republic on November 30.

The journalist asked if the Church should consider changing its stance on artificial contraception - particularly on the use of condoms - given the continuing spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

"The question seems too small to me," the Pontiff responded.

"It seems to me also like a partial question."

"The morality of the Church is found on this point, I think, in front of a perplexity," he said.

"Fifth or Sixth commandment? Defend life, or that sexual relations be open to life? This is not the problem. The problem is bigger."

"This question makes me think of what they asked Jesus one time: 'Tell me, master, is it licit to heal on the Sabbath?'" Francis continued.

"Malnutrition, exploitation of persons, slave work, lack of drinking water," he said.

"These are the problems."

"I do not like to descend into reflections that are so casuistic when people are dying," he continued.

"I would say to not think if it is licit or not licit to heal on the Sabbath. I say to humanity: Make justice, and when all are healed, when there is not injustice in this world, we can speak of the Sabbath."

During his three-nation African visit, Pope Francis visited HIV-infected children at a Uganda hospital and kissed each one.

He also listened to moving testimony from a girl born with the virus and thanked the Church's healthcare workers for caring for those infected.

During the session with reporters, Francis also spoke out strongly again against religious fundamentalism.

He said that fundamentalism exists in all religions and should be combated with efforts at friendship.

He said he prefers not to speak of having tolerance for other religious, but "living together, friendship".

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Guardian
• Full text of the Pope's comments on the plane trip from Africa
• Image: Catholic Weekly

Björn Odendahl said this on Katholisch.de in an article entitled "The Romantic, Poor Church".

"Of course the Church is growing there. It grows because the people are socially dependent and often have nothing else but their faith," he wrote.

"It grows because the educational situation there is on average at a rather low level and the people accept simple answers to difficult questions [of faith].

"Answers like those that Cardinal Sarah of Guinea provides."

Continue reading

Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya, the Pope said fear and mistrust spring from the same source.

He also re-iterated his view that the protection of the environment needs to take place alongside building a more "just and equitable social order".

This, the Pope explained, means combating all divisions facing societies whether they are religious, ethnic or economic.

He stressed how the values of stewardship are "deeply rooted in the African soul".

Continue reading

Speaking on the BBC's Costing the Earth programme, Sir David was asked if he supported the right to die.

"I suppose I do really, but [only] if you could solve all the problems of dealing with the misuse of such a right," he said.

He added: "When you see poor people, poor in the sense of having some wretched disease, pleading for their lives to be brought to an end. . . It's difficult to think that they don't deserve to have that right."

Asked if he would consider ending his own life, he said: "I think if I was compos mentis and I was really having a wretched life."

His comments came two months after UK MPs overwhelmingly voted against changing the law to allow doctors to help terminally ill people end their lives.

Sir David acknowledged the complexity of the subject, saying: "These issues of how long people should live are very complicated and involves not only medical issues but philosophical issues."

The 89-year-old broadcaster also repeated his concern about rapid population growth, pointed out that the number of people on the planet had tripled since he started making TV programmes in the 1950s.

Asked what message he would deliver to world leaders due to gather at the upcoming climate summit in Paris, Sir David said: "I would say, ‘Please allow your population to choose whether they have bigger families or smaller families: to give the right to say how many children you will have to women.' If all the women in the world had that choice I'm fairly convinced that the birthrate would fall."

He said he would have no hesitation in delivering that message to the Pope.

Asked if the Catholic Church had got it wrong on contraception, Sir David said: "Yes I do. I think it is an extraordinary blind spot."

In 2013, Sir David said of Africa: "They are too many people for a too little piece of land. That's what it's about. And we are blinding ourselves."

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Telegraph
• Image: The Guardian

Archbishop Fisher's comments came after an address by Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia on September 24.

Archbishop Fisher, who attended the address said: "Cardinal Sarah spoke on the family as a light in a dark world."

"Just as in the days of St Augustine and Athanasius, we rely on the African bishops to help us steer an orthodox course in confused times," the Sydney prelate said.

"[Cardinal Sarah] said we should not put the magisterium, the teachings of Christ and his Church, in a 'pretty box' as if they were irrelevant to pastoral practice and daily life.

"He said God's law for the human person and relationships does not 'confine' us: it opens up exciting new possibilities and ultimate happiness.

"This is not moralising, not finger-pointing, not being judgemental towards others, but authentic family life shines as light in today's darkness."

Cardinal Sarah cited Pope Benedict as saying the light of family life was being "snuffed out" due to modern culture.

"Even members of the Church can be tempted to soften Christ's teaching on marriage and the family," Cardinal Sarah said.

Separating what comes from the magisterium with pastoral practice, changing it in "accord with certain circumstances, is a form of heresy", the cardinal emphasised.

"Welcome the mercy of God," he told the audience. "This mercy has a name: Jesus Christ."

"This Spirit, the Holy Spirit charity — love until the end — can overcome all that seems humanly impossible within the family."

"All those wounded by personal sin and the sin of others — the divorced, the separated, those who have cohabitated, who get closed in on themselves and those in same-sex unions — can and must find in the Church a place for regeneration without any finger pointed at them," he stressed.

Sources

• Sydney archdiocese
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Allentown diocese

Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah said this in a book length interview "Dieu ou Rien" (God or Nothing) published in France last month.

Italian Vatican commentator Sandro Magister has suggested that Cardinal Sarah might be in the conversation as to who could be the next Pope, after Pope Francis.

Cardinal Sarah was appointed prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis in November.

The African cardinal stated in the interview that "the martyrs are the sign that God is alive and still present among us".

"[But] while Christians are dying for their faith and for their fidelity to Jesus, in the West there are churchmen who are seeking to reduce the demands of the Gospel to a minimum".

The former secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples was especially critical of responses at last year's extraordinary synod on the family.

Cardinal Sarah stated that "while hundreds of thousands of Christians live every day in bodily fear, some want to prevent suffering for the divorced and remarried, who are said to feel discriminated against in being excluded from sacramental communion".

Cardinal Sarah vowed that the "Church of Africa will firmly oppose any rebellion against the teaching of Jesus and of the magisterium".

He also questioned the approach by some at the extraordinary synod regarding pastoral practice towards homosexual people.

"In reality, the true scandal is not the existence of sinners, since mercy and forgiveness always exist for them, but rather the confusion between good and evil that it made by Catholic pastors," the cardinal said.

He warned that if pastors are "no longer capable of understanding the radical nature of the Gospel", then that leads to an absence of true mercy.

Cardinal Sarah also noted that the Church can "no longer hold back from a practical reflection on subjectivism as the root of most of the current errors".

Sources

• L'Espresso
• Image: VisionGuinee

Gender ideologies from the wealthy Western world are being imposed on developing nations by tying them to foreign aid and education,

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, affirmed that what Pope Francis recently described as "ideological colonialism," meaning efforts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies to force the developing world to adopt a liberal sexual ethic on matters such as abortion and contraception, is not just a hypothesis.

"It's very real, 100 percent. The pressure is definitely there," he said. "It's coming from the World Bank, the [International Monetary Fund], the [United Nations] Population Fund … all of them come with these ideologies."

"It's so secular, it's almost anti-religious, and it's espoused by all these agencies and NGOs," he said, and that when he led Ghana's smaller Koforidua diocese in the 1990s, he was responsible for four hospitals and 11 clinics, with a client base that was 85 percent non-Catholic and concentrated among the country's poorest and most rural people.

Yet he couldn't get UN support, because his facilities didn't distribute contraception or offer abortion.

"I couldn't get money to take care of malaria because we didn't have the right positions on gender and so on," he said.

Nigerian Archbishop Kaigama decries aid linked to unwanted population control measures with international organisations linking financial aid to population control.

He stressed that what is being offered to the Africans—condoms and artificial contraception—is not what they want.

"We want food, education, good roads, good health and so on," he said, adding "but we are given certain things and we are expected to accept just because we are poor."

Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria, is convinced African nations are under threat from what Pope Francis has called an "ideological colonization" that is seeking to destroy the family.

It's so bad, he says, that the United States has made clear it will not help Nigeria fight the Boko Haram terror group unless the country modifies its laws regarding homosexuality, family planning and birth-control.

Bishop Paul Kariuki of Kenya, chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops' health committee, who were shocked to find a tetanus vaccine aimed at women in their childbearing years was laced with a birth control hormone called beta human chorionic gonadotropin.

The government insists the vaccine is safe. So too does the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The two groups issued a statement saying the vaccine, which has been used by 130 million women in 52 countries, is safe.

"These allegations are not backed up by evidence, and risk negatively impacting national immunization programs for children and women," the WHO and UNICEF statement said.

"What is immoral and evil is that the tetanus laced with HCG was given as a fertility regulating vaccine without disclosing its abortion and contraceptive effect to the girls and mothers," said Dr. Wahome Ngare, a member of the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association.

Antibodies produced by this combined vaccine neutralize natural HCG from the fertilized egg and lead to shedding, in other words it is an abortifacient and this tetanus/b-HCG vaccine induces antibodies which provide prolonged infertility.

If you want our help then hold your nose and take the medicine!

• Joe Hannah