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Nigeria is Africa's most densely populated country. About 20 million of a total of approximately 170 million Nigerians are Catholic. Some of the challenges currently facing the country are the terrorist organisation, Boko Haram and corruption. In an interview during a visit to the International Catholic pastoral charity, “Aid To The Church In Need,” Nigeria’s Archbishop of Jos and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, (CBCN) Ignatius Kaigama, explained that the Church is dealing with the challenges.

Describing the political climate in his country, Archbishop Kaigama said that before the general elections, pessimists were predicting the disintegration of Nigeria. However, the elections went off peacefully and for the first time in the history of the country an incumbent President lost and accepted his defeat.

“We needed change, and this change came in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari. He has now been in office for about a year, and we want to give him a chance to implement his promises to fight corruption and terrorism, ” Archbishop Kaigama told Aid To The Church In Need.

Nevertheless, Archbishop Kaigama noted that unfortunately, on the state level – and especially in the primarily Muslim North all is not well.

“There are signs of discrimination. For example, Muslim students have their own Mosques, while the Christians have to hold their services in classrooms. There is religious instruction for Muslims, but what about for Christians? They do not have the same options. Furthermore, the government does not make it easy for the Christians in the North to build new Churches and the Christians do not even have the authorization to buy land privately,” the Archbishop said.

According to the prelate from Jos, “If you refuse Christians access to a Christian education based on narrow-minded religious prejudices, then this is absolutely not helpful. It is even detrimental because this means that we create people without faith, without established morals, who can be dangerous for society. We want everyone to be strengthened in their faith and religious identity, to ensure that better citizens are raised for society,” he said.

Asked by Aid To The Church In Need if he thought that President Buhari is doing the right thing to defeat Boko Haram, the Archbishop replied in the affirmative.

“Absolutely. We have long been praying for the embattled Nigeria. We also composed a prayer against corruption. We have prayed it for years, and I believe that God has heard our prayers. Something is being done about corruption; Boko Haram is being combated. Our prayers have been answered,” Archbishop Kaigama said.

On corruption, Archbishop Kaigama praised  President Buhari’s drive against corruption and said the Church was also playing its part.

“We as a church are trying to impart positive values to the families. It is such a large problem that it will take time to overcome it,” outlined Archbishop Kaigama.

(Original interview: Aid To The Church In Need)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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The Faithful at Zimbabwe’s Holy Name Parish in Mabelreign last week organised a workshop on the Liturgy. The idea was to provide accurate and current liturgical knowledge to the laity. The workshop was facilitated by Fr Joseph Mahlahla, a lecturer at Chishawasha Major Seminary in Harare. 

Fr Mahlahla said the chief purpose of liturgy is to glorify God.

He emphasised that the term Liturgy means public worship. It entails active participation of everyone in the work of God, and the most important thing to happen during a liturgical celebration should be our encounter with God.

On sacred hymns during the Liturgy, Fr Mahlahla said people in the choir must not limit other people’s participation in the Liturgy. This sometimes means taking care not to introduce new songs into the celebration before they are taught to the congregation.

About Prayers of the Faithful, Fr. Mahlahla noted that giving petitions that are of a personal nature is inappropriate. Everyone is supposed to feel included in each and every prayer request that is publicly said during the Prayers of the Faithful.

During the proclamation of the Liturgy of the Word at Mass, the Faithful need to listen attentively and concentrate more on the Word being proclaimed rather than spend time scrolling through their Bible pages. 

“The time for the Liturgy of the Word is not a time for Bible study. What is needed here is to pay attention to God speaking to us. One can, however, read the readings before the Holy Mass so that when the Word is proclaimed you have a better understanding of the text,” said Fr Mahlahla.

 (Pylaia Chembe, Jesuit Communications Zimbabwe – Mozambique)

Email: engafrica@vatiradio.va

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(Vatican Radio) South Africa’s bishops have issued a warning about rising levels of political violence ahead of municipal elections to be held on August 3rd.

In a statement sent to the Catholic Information Service for Africa, Bishop Abel Gabuza, chair of the bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission, invited members of all political parties to take part in a day of prayer for peace next Wednesday, July 6th.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report: 

In the statement, Bishop Gabuza says peace in South Africa should never be taken for granted. To maintain peace, he insists, requires the responsibility of all citizens and political maturity on the part of the country’s leaders, especially during the election period. “The current levels of political violence do not reflect this sense of responsibility,” he warns.

In particular Bishop Gabuza says political leaders have not been “visible and loud enough in their condemnation of the recent factional violence and political assassinations.” He condemns those politicians who are mobilizing young people, “especially the unemployed youth, to engage in pre-election violence.” At the same time he appeals to young people in South Africa “not to allow themselves to be used by the politicians who exploit them in their “greed for power and government tenders.”

The bishop appeals to all eligible South Africans to cast their vote on August 3 and elect leaders who have the courage to speak out against greed and patronage politics. Finally, he calls on all political parties to participate in the day of prayer for peaceful elections, to be held in Durban on July 6th.

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Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London, on Thursday ruled himself out of the running to be Britain’s next prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party.

During a speech which many had tipped to be his campaign launch, Johnson, who was a key leader in the ‘Brexit’ campaign, said that he didn’t believe that he could provide the leadership or unity needed in Britain.

Listen to the report by Georgia Gogarty:

Following current Prime Minister David Cameron’s decision to step down after Britain sensationally voted to leave the European Union in a referendum last week, the competition for the next Conservative Party Leader is now under way after nominations closed at noon today.

Former mayor of London Boris Johnson, today took himself out of the race to be the next prime minister saying that  after much thought and consultation, he was not the right man for the job.

Johnson did express however that his role would be to give every possible support to the next conservative administration.

Candidates include Home Secretary Theresa May, Justice Secretary Michael Gove, Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb and former Defence Secretary Liam Fox.

Johnson’s unexpected announcement that he will not stand for Conservative leader has dramatically altered the race for the next British Prime Minster. 

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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jun 30, 2016 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Rio de Janeiro's Cardinal Orani Tempesta celebrated his 66th birthday with a special visit: he spent his time with a group of homeless people.

On June 22, after a previous birthday celebration, the cardinal went out at night around 11:00 p.m. to the downtown area to meet some homeless people and to celebrate his birthday with them, the Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro reported.

“The cardinal offered gifts, blankets, milk and coffee, and listened to their stories,” the archdiocese news brief said. The cardinal was able “to learn up close about the reality of those who live and sleep on the streets.”

The archdiocese said the effort was a witness for the Catholic Church's Year of Mercy and a reflection of the fourth corporal work of mercy: to clothe the naked.

The Brazilian cardinal was born June 23, 1950 in the town of São José de Río Pardo in the state of São Paulo.

He made his final profession in the Cistercian Order in February 1969, and was ordained a priest on Dec. 7, 1974. He was ordained bishop for the Diocese of Rio Preto in 1997. He then served as Archbishop of Belém do Pará before becoming Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro in April 2009.

"Cardeal Tempesta comemora aniversário com irmãos de rua" #ArqRiohttps://t.co/ESMIVIiF7p pic.twitter.com/AcPXH8dxzu

— Arquidiocese do Rio (@arqrio) June 23, 2016

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Vatican City, Jun 30, 2016 / 09:35 am (CNA).- As Pope Francis on Sunday backed the idea of apologizing to gay individuals who may feel marginalized by the Church, discussion has once again broken out over how to interpret the pontiff’s words.

Debate flared up overnight after the Pope responded to a question about recent comments made by Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who said the Church must apologize to homosexual persons for having “marginalized” them.

While Pope Francis did not actually make an apology to the gay community, his endorsement of the idea has exploded, in part because it has been taken by many as an open endorsement for the gay lifestyle, deviating from Church teaching.

On the other hand, Francis’ acknowledgement that an apology might be in order on the part of some represents something that many in the gay community have been longing to hear, many of them rightfully so.

The Pope’s comments also drew attention from those who claimed that they were a criticism of the U.S. bishops, who, while mourning the recent Orlando shooting at a gay nightclub, did not explicitly express solidarity with the gay community by name.

What is the correct interpretation of Francis’ comments?

It is difficult to argue that the Pope was critiquing the U.S. bishops’ response to the Orlando shooting, as his own language closely mirrored that of the bishops. The Pope did not mention the gay community in his own response to the shooting, but rather responded as he normally does to tragic events, with prayer and expressions of solidarity for the loss of any human life.

Furthermore, the Pope did not tell anyone to issue an actual apology. And his focus was not limited to the LGBT community. Rather, he made the broader statement that the Church “must not only ask forgiveness to the gay person who is offended,” but also to all of the people “we could have defended and we didn’t,” including the poor, and women and children who are exploited.

He cited the Catechism, saying that homosexual individuals “must not be discriminated against, (but) must be respected and accompanied pastorally.”

The Catechism teaches that based on Scripture, “tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’”

Homosexual acts, it continues, “are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”

When speaking of homosexual persons, however, the Catechism insists that most gay individuals face “a trial” due to their sexual orientation, and “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”

What Pope Francis said, then, is in no way an endorsement of the gay lifestyle, but rather clearly echoes Church teaching and displays his genuine pastoral concern for a group that has and frequently still does face hostility, including, at times, from within the Church.

Benedict XVI, while head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, voiced similar thoughts in a 1986 letter to bishops on the pastoral care of homosexual persons, stressing that “it is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action.”

Such treatment, he said, “deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs.”

So while Francis is not the first Pope to speak out about the need to respect homosexual persons, he is perhaps more vocal in making sure that message reaches both these individuals and the world.

The Pope’s approval of an apology to the gay community can also be seen as a continuation of the synodal process.

One of the issues addressed at the 2014 and 2015 Synod of Bishops in Rome was how the Church might adopt a new language in communicating her teachings in modern society, particularly in relation to topics such as abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and divorced-and-remarried Catholics.

In the words of Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who spoke at an Oct. 8, 2014, event in Rome, adopting a new language was not just “a question of the immutability of the Church’s truth, but our burning desire to find a language that can present it in a more gracious, compelling, cogent way.”

Phrases such as “natural law,” “intrinsically disordered,” and living “in a perpetual state of sin,” which are used in the Catechism to describe various irregular situations, were mentioned by synod fathers as expressions up for re-consideration.

While such phrases might express the Church’s position clearly, the argument was that they are either rarely understood outside of the Church, or that the tone they emit exudes moral judgement rather than an invitation to join the family of Christ.

Viewed through this lens, Francis’ encouragement of an apology for any wrongs done to homosexual persons is not a watering down of Church teaching. Rather, it can be read more accurately as representing his desire to change the Church’s perspective for the purpose of dialogue.

The shift is not an issue of questioning doctrine, but of viewing and treating people, of encountering them with an unchanging doctrine in a more understandable and welcoming way.

Francis seems to be challenging us to see homosexual persons not primarily as those with “intrinsically disordered” inclinations, but as struggling brothers and sisters who need welcome, respect and accompaniment in order to eventually understand and accept the truth.

Another key in interpreting Francis can be found in his days as cardinal in Buenos Aires. In 2010, then-Cardinal Bergoglio wrote that a proposed bill to allow same-sex marriage and adoptions would “gravely injure the family.”

“What is at stake here is the identity and survival of the family,” he said in the letter. “At stake are the lives of so many children who will be discriminated against in advance, depriving them of the human maturation that God wanted to be given with a father and a mother. At stake is the outright rejection of the law of God, engraved also in our hearts.”

Yet the cardinal, while clear in supporting Church teaching, also supported the legalization of same-sex civil unions, a move those close to him described as a strategy to protect the institution of marriage itself.

What is seen in that situation in Argentina – as well as the current situation with the comments on the gay community – is a stance that defends the Church’s doctrine without being afraid to dialogue and encounter, to shake things up and “make a mess,” as the Pope instructed the youth of Argentina to do three years ago.

 

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Junno Arocho Esteves

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Mercy is not an abstract concept but a lifestyle that invites Christians to make an examination of conscience and ask themselves if they place the spiritual and material needs of others before their own, Pope Francis said.

A Christian who chooses to be merciful experiences true life and has "eyes to see, ears to listen, and hands to comfort," the pope said June 30 during a Year of Mercy audience in St. Peter's Square.

"That which makes mercy alive is its constant dynamism to go out searching for the needy and the needs of those who are in spiritual or material hardship," he said.

By being indifferent to the plight of the poor and suffering, the pope said, Christians turn into "hypocrites" and move toward a "spiritual lethargy that numbs the mind and makes life barren."

"People who go through life, who walk in life without being aware of the needs of others, without seeing the many spiritual and material needs are people who do not live," he said. "They are people who do not serve others. And remember this well: One who does not live to serve, serves nothing in life."

Instead, he continued, those who have experienced the mercy of God in their own lives do not remain insensitive to the needs of others. Far from theoretical issues, the works of mercy are a "concrete witness" that compel Christians to "roll up their sleeves in order to ease suffering."

Pope Francis also called on the faithful to remain vigilant and to focus on Christ present, especially in those suffering due to a globalized "culture of well-being."

"Look at Jesus; look at Jesus in the hungry, in the prisoner, in the sick, in the naked, in the person who does not have a job to support his family. Look at Jesus in these brothers and sisters of ours. Look at Jesus in those who are alone, sad, in those who make a mistake and need advice, in those who need to embark on the path with him in silence so they may feel accompanied," he said. "These are the works that Jesus asks of us. To look at Jesus in them, in these people. Why? Because Jesus also looks at me, looks at you, in that way."

Concluding his catechesis, Pope Francis recalled his visit to Armenia June 24-26, thanking the people of Armenia who, throughout their history, "have given witness to the Christian faith through martyrdom."

While thanking Armenian Apostolic Catholics Karekin II for his hospitality, the pope stressed that in making the visit alongside the patriarch, he was reminding Catholics of the importance of strengthening bonds with other Christians as another way "of giving witness to the Gospel and being leaven for a more just and united society."

The late June audience was the last one the pope was scheduled to hold before a reduced summer schedule.

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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