Forge of the Third Millenium Church
The continent where the Catholic Church is growing fastest will provide important new candidates — and perhaps a different orientation — to the "Senate" of the Roman Catholic Church

BY FILIPPO DI GIACOMO

In recent years, African drumbeats have frequently accompanied liturgical events in St. Peter’s Basilica. This was the explicit wish of Pope John Paul II, who also convened the first synod of bishops to be entirely dedicated to the African continent.

"Good Morning, Africa!"? On Kenyan radio in 1960 — 37 years ago now — an anonymous speaker thus welcomed the new geopolitical reality which, in a mere 11 months that year, transformed 17 colonial African territories into the same number of sovereign independent states. Between 1960 and 1987, the 40 countries of sub-Saharan Africa doubled their populations, from 235 to 470 million inhabitants. If these countries continue their present 3.3% growth rates (the world’s highest), they will count 1.5 billion inhabitants by the year 2015.

In this forge of future humanity, the growth of the Catholic Church continues to be a sign of hope (although the cases of Rwanda and Burundi tragically demonstrate that statistics of Church growth do not always indicate true Christian conversion.) And, as the "millennium of Europe" draws to a close in the political sphere, it is likewise drawing to a close in the Church’s College of Cardinals. Even without taking into account the likely creation of additional African cardinals in the Consistory most now expect to be held in the summer of 1997, the African continent is entering the new millennium with an unprecedented 14 red hats in the College of Cardinals.

Two cardinals, Laurean Rugambwa of Tanzania and Paul Zoungrana of Burkina Faso, represent the early post-colonial Church. Called to the cardinalate between 1960 and 1965, they entered the scene along with the new leaders of independent Africa (who emerged at the Bandung Conference in April, 1957). In the decade that followed, Hyacinthe Thiandoum of Senegal, Maurice Otunga of Kenya and Bernardin Gantin of Benin were elevated to the cardinalate by Paul VI. These prelates, formed in the years of Africa’s de-colonialization, today represent, both in Rome and in Africa, the only living continuity with the idealistic fervor which marked the epochal period of the 1960s.
Cardinal Gantin was called to Rome by Paul VI to be Secretary of the Congregation Propaganda Fide. Under John Paul II he was given the extremely important and delicate post of Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, a position he still holds.

John Paul’s trust in the pastors of the Church in Africa was displayed again in his choice of the Nigerian Francis Arinze, former Bishop of Arusha (one of Islam’s holiest cities in sub-Saharan Africa), to be President of the Vatican Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, and by his assigning of Angolan Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento to sensitive negotiating tasks in his war-torn region.

The African cardinals chosen by John Paul II speak a new language of "inculturation" and "evangelization." Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra (Madagascar), Emmanuel Wamala (Uganda), Frederic Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi (Zaire), Alexandre dos Santos (Mozambique), Jean Margeot (Mauritius), Paulos Tzadua (Ethiopia), Bernard Yago (Ivory Coast), and Christian Tumi (Cameroon) all represent Churches which the Second Vatican Council wished to welcome into the Catholic fold with their own cultural identities. These cardinals are strong spokesmen against any further moral or social impoverishment of the societies they represent.
Were a conclave to be held, the "older" African elector cardinals would be the Gantin, do Nascimento, Tzadua, Otunga, dos Santos, Thiandoum and Razafindratandra (in their 70s) and the "youngsters" (in their 60s) would be Arinze, Tumi, Etsou and Wamala.

All four of the latter could, in theory, be considered "papabili." Arinze is highly respected by his cardinal colleagues. Tumi derives his Roman ascendancy from the fact that, during the Pope’s first visit to Cameroon, he was the newly-elected President of the Cameroon Bishops’ Conference, approved by state authorities as the only "ethnically correct" Cameroon prelate. Etsou-Nzabi-Bamungwabi, a pious and zealous priest, suffers from inevitable comparisons with his predecessor at the Kinshasha helm, the great Cardinal Malula.

Only time will tell whether the Holy Spirit will entrust the See of Peter to an African Pope. Meanwhile, we may ask along with the Burkina Faso Catholic historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo: "Is it reasonable to ask Europe again to ignore its own interests in efforts to save Africa?"

Papal information – Home