In an interview with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church
in Need (ACN), the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal
Robert Sarah, speaks about the contribution of the Church in Africa to the
Universal Church, about Islam in Africa and the world, about relations between
the Church and politics and the challenges facing the Church in Africa. The
cardinal insists that "the Church needs unity of faith, unity of doctrine,
unity of moral teaching. It needs the primacy of the Pope."
By Jürgen Liminski
What is the
relationship between the African Church and the Universal Church?
Your question, as you put it to me, presents me with
something of a difficulty, because in reality the Church here in Africa is part
of the Universal Church and thus forms together with it a sole and single
Church. Hence there is no such thing as an "African Church" and, as
distinct from it, a "Universal Church."
Your question makes it appear as if ecclesiology
depends on a communion between the Churches, and in this you are correct.
Nonetheless, we need to remember that the Universal Church is not a sort of
federation of local churches. The Universal Church is symbolized and represented
by the Church of Rome, with the Pope at its head, the successor of Saint Peter
and the head of the apostolic college; hence it is she who has given birth to
all the local churches and she who sustains them in the unity of faith and
love.
As Saint Ignatius of Antioch tells us (circa 110 AD)
the Church of Rome is the “All-pure Church which presides in charity.” Thus it
is the profession of our common faith and our fidelity to Christ and his
Gospel, in union with the Pope, that enables the Church to live in communion.
Is this absolutely essential in order to avoid
confusion? Can there not also exist national Churches ?
Without a common faith, the Church is threatened by
confusion and then, progressively, she can slide into dispersion and schism. Today,
there is a grave risk of the fragmentation of the Church, of breaking up the
Mystical Body of Christ by insisting on the national identities of the Churches
and thus on their capacity to decide for themselves, above all in the so
crucial domain of doctrine and morals.
As Pope Benedict XVI tells us: “It is clear that a
Church does not grow by becoming individualised, by separating on a national
level, by closing herself off within a specific cultural context, by giving
herself an entirely cultural or national scope; instead the Church needs to
have unity of faith, unity of doctrine, unity of moral teaching. She needs the
primacy of the Pope, and his mission to confirm the faith of his brethren.”
Besides, Africa has always considered and seen the Church as a family, the
family of God.
And what is the
contribution of the Church in Africa to the Universal Church today?
In this we are faithful to the ecclesiology of the
Epistle to the Ephesians: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but
you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God”
(Eph. 2:19). And even though the Church in Northern Africa is very ancient, yet
today the Church in sub-Saharan Africa, sees herself as the missionary fruit
and the daughter of the Churches of the West.
She still needs to be able to rely on the theological,
liturgical, spiritual and in particular the monastic experience, and also on
the financial support of the Churches of the ancient Christianity of the West.
For her part the Church that is in Africa can humbly
offer the West the marvels that God has worked in her through the Holy Spirit,
and the tribulations that Jesus continues to endure in the sufferings and
material needs of his faithful there.
What are the needs of the Church in Africa?
They are many: disease, wars, hunger, the critical lack
of educational and healthcare structures. Then there are the toxic temptations
of Western-born ideologies – communism, gender ideology... Africa has become
the dumping ground of contraceptive products, of weapons of mass destruction. She
is also the scene of the organized theft of primary mineral recources: it is to
this end that they organize and plan the wars and foster disorder on the
African continent. So it is that they exploit her natural resources in the
absence of any rules or laws.
The world economic powers must stop pillaging the poor.
They take advantage of their poverty and lack of education, and their own
technology and financial wealth, in order to foment wars and loot the natural
riches of the weaker nations without financial resources.
Does Islam represent a threat to the survival of the
Catholic Church in Africa?
For many centuries sub-Saharan Islam has coexisted
peacably and harmoniously with Christianity. On the other hand the Islam that
takes the form of a political organization, intent on imposing itself on the
whole world, is indeed a threat, and not just to Africa. In fact, it is above
all a threat to the societies of the European continent which too often no
longer have a true identity or a religion.
Those who deny the values of their own tradition,
culture and religion are condemned to disappear, for they have lost all their
motivation, all their energy and even all the will to fight to defend their own
identity.
In what way can ACN, as a pontifical foundation, still
better help the Church in Africa?
Today all the charitable organizations, even the
Catholic ones, are focused unilaterally and exclusively on addressing
situations of material poverty, but “man
does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of
God,” as Jesus tells us (Mt. 4:4). I therefore encourage ACN to give aid
for the formation of priests, seminarians, male and female religious, for
catechists, for the construction of churches and seminaries and for spiritual
retreats for bishops and priests.
I humbly beg all the friends and benefactors of ACN to
continue generously supporting the great missionary work of ACN throughout the
world and particularly in Africa. For it is true that those bishops and priests
who do not take the time – at least for a few days – to place themselves in the
presence of God in solitude, silence and prayer, risk dying on the spiritual
level, or at the very least, drying out spiritually within. They will no longer
be capable of providing solid spiritual nourishment to the faithful entrusted
to them if they themselves do not draw strength from the Lord in a regular and
constant manner.
Should we also speak of the political problems?
The Church is gravely mistaken as to the nature of the
real crisis if she thinks that her essential mission is to offer solutions to
all the political problems relating to justice, peace, poverty, the reception
of migrants, etc. while neglecting evangelization. Certainly, like Christ, the
Church cannot disassociate herself from the human problems. Besides, she has
always helped here through her schools, her universities, her training centres,
her hospitals and dispensaries...
Nonetheless, I would like to cite to you the words of
an Italian who has converted to Islam (and there are over a hundred thousand
like him in Italy). His name is Yahya Pallavicini, and today he is an imam, the
President of CO.RE.IS (the Islamic
Religious Community) and a professor at the Catholic University of Milan: “If the Church, with the obsession she has
today with the values of justice, social rights and the struggle against
poverty, ends up as a result by forgetting her contemplative soul, she will fail
in her mission and she will be abandoned by a great many of her faithful, owing
to the fact that they will no longer recognize in her what constitutes her
specific mission.”
With picture of school children in Wau, South Sudan; Cardinal Sarah; (© ACN)
Editor’s Notes:
Directly under the
Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports
the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.
ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through
prayer, information and action.
Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul
II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work
in over 145 countries throughout the world.
The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including
providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church
buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since
the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed
worldwide.
For more information contact Michael Varenne at
michael@churchinneed.org or call
718-609-0939 or fax 718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard
Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.
www.churchinneed.org
