Editorial:
A Synod of Bishops is an event of the universal Church, even when it focuses on a specific region, as with the October 2009 Synod for Africa. This is particularly so when we reflect that Africa is destined to have an ever-greater influence on the global church. The number of Catholics there has mushroomed from 1.9 million in 1900 to some 165 million today. And there’s a youthful, optimistic spirit about the faith in Africa, coupled with a rising generation of clergy, religious and lay activists determined to see Africa make its mark on the world stage.
Here in Britain we have a growing number of African clergy in our parishes, and indeed Africans in the pews as migration from the continent increases. So, what are some of the issues in the African Synod that are relevant for us?
Firstly, Africa’s bishops are urging Catholics around the world to be more engaged with social and political concerns. If the African bishops seem to be asking for one thing from their counterparts it’s not so much more money – appreciated though that is – but more solidarity.
They’re asking us to ponder how choices made in policy centres such as Brussels or London affect Africa, and then to deploy the resources of the church to try to shape those policy decisions in a more just, humane way.
Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, commented during the synod, that ‘we might ask the American bishops to approach an American mining firm that’s causing mayhem in Ghana or we might ask the Australian bishops to talk to an Australian firm that’s causing an ecological disaster in Ghana’. He hoped that ecclesial solidarity would ‘move onto a more activist plane, a lobbying kind of plane’. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Cape Coast, Ghana, pointed to a range of global justice issues where western churches could assist with advocacy, particularly unjust trade, arms sales to Africa, and the ‘pillaging’ by multinational corporations of Africa’s resources.
The second issue that struck me at the Synod was the tone of the debate regarding issues of the family and sexual morality. Several archbishops, including ArchbishopJoseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg, president of the South African Bishops’ Conference, felt there’s ‘a deliberate campaign’ from the West to push Africa towards acceptance of practices such as abortion. The ‘Africa effect’ on issues of family and sexual morality is likely to strengthen the traditional position, but it will also challenge the tendency to focus nearly exclusively on the life issues at the expense of other matters of social concern.
Thirdly, a self-critical spirit was another feature of this synod. There was willingness to examine justice within the church. Of particular interest to me was concern about insufficient appreciation for the role of women and youth. Cardinal Turkson declared that the synod fathers ‘have heard the cry of women’. There was a commitment towards empowering African women both in society and in the church, including recommendations for hiring more talented women to play leadership roles in the church and setting up women’s affairs offices in African dioceses. There was concern, too, about church employees being treated justly. Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze provided a memorable sound-bite when he lamented that too often church employees are forced to get by ‘only with holy water at the end of the month’.
Finally, the Synod expressed deep appreciation to the many missionaries, clergy, religious and lay faithful from other continents who have worked in Africa.
Special thanks went to those who have remained with their communities even in times of war and crisis. It was acknowledged that ‘some have even paid for their fidelity with their very lives’.
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