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Africa: Cardinal Pengo Appeals to Europe for Mutual Help Print E-mail
Written by CISA   
Tuesday, 07 October 2008
The Church in Africa, endowed with huge numbers but lacking in material provisions, is in need of the continued generosity of Europe, the head of the continent's bishops' conference has said.

Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar-es-salaam, chairman of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), said this in an address to the plenary session of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe held in Hungary.

In contrast to the situation in Europe, he said, in many parts of Africa, churches are full of worshippers on Sundays and feast days. Reception of sacraments is very satisfactory and vocations to priesthood and religious life are booming.

But inadequate facilities force some aspirants to either wait for the next opportunity or abandon their desire altogether. There is also the problem of finding good and enough formators. "The result thereof is that we get priests and missionary religious not adequately prepared for their task."

At the same time, rampant poverty and misrule tend to discourage European missionaries. "On the African side, the young churches of Africa are deprived of the best agents of evangelization who must meet the higher required standards for evangelizers in Europe. And because the basic intention on the part of the African missionaries is economic gain and social welfare, they will easily compromise the gospel message badly needed in Europe in order not to forfeit their basic aim."

Cardinal Pengo called for sharing of evangelizers and other tools between African and European churches. Europe, he said, is not interested in religious practice because it has no need for "the hypothesis of God." Whatever the individual European would want to beg from God seems already in his possession.

On the other hand, the African in his multiple material and spiritual needs cannot afford to ignore the divine reality. But the African worshipper is often looking for quick answers, and if they are not forthcoming, he may go out in search of more prompt relief of the human needs. "Hence the phenomenon, common in many African societies of Christianity on Sunday morning and the practice of witchcraft and sorcery during the rest of the week."

The cardinal said that through the exchange of evangelizers and other tools of evangelization, the African need for God will inspire Europe and the European rejection of God will inspire the African religious sense.

"To realize this we need committed and genuine African missionaries to evangelize Europe while European technology and scientific knowledge is planted and developed in Africa."
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 October 2008 )