Five reasons the papal trip to Africa is important

[shrike]

I found this interesting.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/five-reasons-papal-trip-africa-important

Africa is the future: The single most important Catholic story of the 20th century -- more consequential in the long run than the Lateran Pacts, Pius XII, the Second Vatican Council, and even John Paul II – was the shift in the church’s center of gravity from North to South. In 1900, just 25 percent of the Catholic population lived in the southern hemisphere. Today that figure stands at 66 percent, or two-thirds of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, and by mid-century the southern share is projected to be 75 percent. As Auguste Comte reputedly once said, “Demography is destiny.” The tone in the Catholic church increasingly will be set by bishops, theologians, and lay activists from the south, especially from Africa. During the 20th century, the Catholic population in sub-Saharan Africa exploded from 1.9 million to 130 million, an astonishing growth rate of 6,708 percent. There’s a youthful energy about the church in Africa, as well as a sense that its historical moment has arrived. For all its travails, Catholicism remains in the realm of religion what the United States is in geopolitics, i.e., a super-power, and to a large extent the destiny of that superpower will be forged in Africa. For an object lesson in the upheaval this transition is likely to generate, look no further than the current crisis in Anglicanism over gay bishops and homosexuality.

snip

While in Cameroon, Benedict XVI will meet a delegation of African Muslims, offering his first comments outside Rome about Christian-Islamic relations since his 2006 trip to Turkey. In Angola, he’ll meet with movements involved in fighting for women’s rights. The Angola portion of the trip also takes Benedict to the world’s eighth largest oil-producing nation, pumping out 1.9 million barrels per day of high-quality crude. Angola fought a bloody civil war from 1975 to 2002 precisely over control of those resources. Cameroon, meanwhile, is home to one of the longest-serving strongmen in Africa, President Paul Biya, who through intimidation and pay-offs has managed to stay in power since 1982. The 76-year-old is widely expected to prevail again in faux elections in 2011, despite the fact that he now spends considerable portions of every year abroad in semi-seclusion. (A favorite hangout is apparently the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva.)

snip

Benedict and Barack can do business: The Africa trip also offers an intriguing angle on church-state relations in the Age of Obama, at a moment when the administration’s policies on the “life issues” seem to be setting the stage for protracted cultural war. When it comes to Africa, the pope and the president share a common concern for peace, development, and social justice; moreover, they each bring unique resources to making things happen. Catholicism’s massive 20th century gains across Africa have generated important political and social capital, while Obama’s biography and popularity make him virtually the uncrowned king of Africa. Together, the pope and the president might be able to move the ball in terms of cajoling the international community, as well as African leaders themselves, to get their act together.

[hedgehog]

1. I have a lot of questions as to the state of the Church in Africa

For example, the African bishops and cardinals seem to be conservative, being interviewed to say that priestly celibacy is the unchanging law of the church. Yet, I've heard people claiming there are African bishops with multiple wives. Others claim that nuns have been raped by priests wanting to avoid AIDS. African Catholics murdered other African Catholics by burning them alive in churches in Rwanda.

Of course, in the West we have many priests who don't honor the vow of celibacy. The pedophilia scandal shows that rapists were shielded by the hierarchy here. It was only 60 years ago that Western Catholics were in opposing armies.

While the Church has the opportunity to be a beacon for people in desperate need, I fear that the African Church may be turned in to a club to bring Western Catholics into line with a growingly conservative Vatican.