A more conservative church awaits Pope Francis in Africa

A more conservative church awaits Pope Francis in Africa

Headlines in Nairobi call him the "Pope of Hope". Because of him, Kenyans say they are more enthusiastic about going to church, praying regularly and treating others kindly. They want him to preach about corruption, living in peace and governing fairly.

But as Pope Francis began his first-ever trip to Africa yesterday, he would also face a powerful and assertive Roman Catholic Church in Africa that is wary of calls to make the institution more welcoming to people who are divorced, gay or cohabiting without being married.

"Yes, we are more conservative," said Bishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande, of the Tanzanian diocese of Bunda. The African bloc's role, he said, is "to defend the teaching of the church, the teaching of the book".

Both Africa and Pope Francis himself, the first pope from Latin America, symbolise the importance of the southern hemisphere to the future of the Catholic Church worldwide.

A picture of Pope Francis is seen inside a Bible as girls read verses from it during a Sunday Mass conducted by the Archbishop of Bangui in a temporary church at a internally displaced camp in Bangui, in the Central African Republic, on Oct 11. REUTERS

The church in Africa is booming in numbers, strength and influence, and the Roman Catholic Church globally is sitting up and taking notice. Africans now account for 14% of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, but by 2050 they will be 25-30%, according to Philip Jenkins, a professor at Baylor University who studies global Christianity.

Yet Pope Francis faces some stiff resistance on the continent to his calls for a more tolerant church. When bishops met last month at the Vatican for a pivotal international meeting, or synod, on the family, the African bishops gained attention for the assertive role they played in pushing the church to stand firm against any acceptance of divorce and homosexuality.

The African prelates see eye-to-eye with Pope Francis on several of his signature themes -- poverty, the environment and social injustice -- that he is likely to evoke during his trip to Kenya, Uganda and the war-torn Central African Republic this week.

But African bishops are also seen as an increasingly powerful counterweight to bishops in Western Europe and the Americas backing Francis' call to make the church more open to unconventional families.

The Rev Boniface Mwangi, a director for Caritas in central Kenya, an association of Catholic charities, said he expected the pope to steer away from the contentious topics gripping some Catholics in the West, like whether to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion, or what to do about gay parishioners. As many as 36 African countries have laws against homosexuality, including the three Francis is set to visit.

"I expect him to focus on social issues of the common people, like why we have some pockets with people who have huge resources and so many other people live in slums," Rev Mwangi said.

Catholics in Africa are eager to welcome the pontiff and share the spotlight he will bring to their faith and their struggles.

In Kenya and Uganda, those challenges include vicious attacks from radical Islamist extremists who have killed hundreds of civilians at an upscale shopping mall, a public university and in villages along the coast, often separating Christians from Muslims and slaughtering the Christians.

The Central African Republic, an impoverished country in the middle of the continent, has been roiled for years by a war between Muslims and Christians that has killed thousands and chased nearly a million from their homes.

Pope Francis said in a video released last weekend that he planned to deliver in Africa a message of "reconciliation, forgiveness and peace."

Security for the trip is an urgent concern.

Catholic observers say the visit to the Central African Republic ranks among the most dangerous trips a pope has ever undertaken.

"The pope wants to go to the Central African Republic," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, said in a media briefing last week. "And, like any wise person would do, we are monitoring the situation."

Kenyans are yearning to hear Pope Francis address "peaceful coexistence" and denounce corruption by their political leaders, according to a new poll there. Corruption is the top public issue in Kenya right now, with new scandals erupting almost daily -- from allegations of Kenyan generals making millions of dollars smuggling sugar to accusations that officials in one government ministry bought ballpoint pens for US$85 (3,000 baht) apiece.

What could make it awkward for Pope Francis is that the corruption plaguing Kenya has been carried out, according to numerous claims, by members of the same government that is placing the red carpet under his feet.

The pope's first scheduled activity will be a "welcoming ceremony" with Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Rev Mwangi said the pope should wrap his anti-corruption message in what the Bible says about integrity.

"It doesn't have to be political," he said.

Despite, or perhaps because of, these social conditions, the church in Africa is thriving.

"They're moving the church in a conservative direction on moral and social issues, but a liberal direction on economic issues and social justice," Mr Jenkins said.

This change is reflected not just in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in the Anglican Communion, the world's third-largest body of churches. Powerful Anglican bishops in Africa joined forces with theological conservatives in the United States and England to oppose decisions by Anglican provinces in the United States, Canada and elsewhere to ordain openly gay bishops and bless same-sex marriages.

Recognising that the communion is on the verge of fracture, the archbishop of Canterbury has called a meeting for January to discuss its future.

The United Methodist Church, a predominantly American church with a growing branch in Africa, is also deeply divided on gay issues. At the church's conferences, the voting bloc of African delegates, which grows larger with each successive conference, has united with American conservatives to defeat the proposals by liberal Methodists to ordain gay ministers and bless same-sex marriages. Homosexuality has proved to be an "explosive issue" for churches in Africa, said Mr Jenkins, in part because "Christianity faces such competition from Islam in Africa."

"If Christianity ever became more liberal on gay issues, Catholic leaders say they would just seem to be selling out to the West, betraying African values and just giving the whole thing to Islam," he added.

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