The Catholic Leader

The Catholic Leader, May 7, 2017

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Cardinal

RobertSarah

Prefect of the Congregation

for Divine Worship

In an interview with the international

Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church

in Need (ACN) the Prefect of the Congre-

gation for Divine Worship Cardinal Robert

Sarah speaks about the contribution of the

Church in Africa to the Universal Church,

about Islam in Africa and the world, about

relations between the Church and politics,

and the challenges facing the Church in Af-

rica. And he insists that “the Church needs

unity of faith, unity of doctrine, unity of

moral teaching. It needs the primacy of the

pope.”

Q: What is the relationship between

the African Church and the Universal

Church?

Your question, as you put it to me,

presents me with something of a difficulty,

because in reality the Church here in Africa

is part of the universal Church and thus

forms together with it a sole and single

Church. Hence there is no such thing as an

“African Church” and, as distinct from it, a

“Universal Church”. Your question makes

it appear as if ecclesiology depends on a

communion between the Churches, and in

this you are correct. Nonetheless, we need

to remember that the Universal Church is

not a sort of federation of local churches.

The Universal Church is symbolised and

represented by the Church of Rome, with

the pope at its head, the successor of St

Peter and the head of the apostolic college;

hence it is she who has given birth to all the

local churches and she who sustains them

in the unity of faith and love. As St Ignatius

of Antioch tells us (circa 110 AD) the Church

of Rome is the “All-pure Church which pre-

sides in charity”. Thus it is the profession of

our common faith and our fidelity to Christ

and his Gospel, in union with the pope, that

enables the Church to live in communion.

Q. Is this absolutely essential in order

to avoid confusion? Can there not also

exist national Churches?

Without a common faith, the Church is

threatened by confusion and then, progres-

sively, she can slide into dispersion and

schism. Today there is a grave risk of the

fragmentation of the Church, of breaking up

the Mystical Body of Christ by insisting on

the national identities of the Churches and

thus on their capacity to decide for them-

selves, above all, in the so crucial domain

of doctrine and morals. As Pope Benedict

XVI tells us: “It is clear that a Church does

not grow by becoming individualised, by

separating on a national level, by closing

herself off within a specific cultural con-

text, by giving herself an entirely cultural or

national scope; instead the Church needs

to have unity of faith, unity of doctrine, unity

of moral teaching. She needs the primacy

of the pope, and his mission to confirm the

faith of his brethren.” Besides, Africa has

always considered and seen the Church as

a family, the family of God.

Q: And what is the contribution of

the Church in Africa to the Universal

Church today?

In this we are faithful to the ecclesiology

of the Epistle to the Ephesians: “So then

you are no longer strangers and aliens, but

you are fellow citizens with the saints and

members of the household of God” (Ephe-

sians 2:19). And even though the Church in

Northern Africa is very ancient, yet today the

Church in Sub-Saharan Africa sees herself

as the missionary fruit and the daughter of

the Churches of the West. She still needs to

be able to rely on the theological, liturgical,

spiritual and in particular the monastic expe-

rience, and also on the financial support of

the Churches of the ancient Christianity of

the West. For her part the Church that is in

Africa can humbly offer the West the mar-

vels that God has worked in her through the

Holy Spirit, and the tribulations that Jesus

continues to endure in the sufferings and

material needs of his faithful there.

Q: What are the needs of the Church in

Africa?

They are many: disease, wars, hunger,

the critical lack of educational and health-

care structures. And then there are the

toxic temptations of Western-born ideolo-

gies – communism, gender ideology ...

Africa has become the dumping ground

of contraceptive products, of weapons of

mass destruction. And she is also the scene

of the organised theft of primary mineral

recources: it is to this end that they organ-

ise and plan the wars and foster disorder

on the African continent. So it is that they

exploit her natural resources in the absence

of any rules or laws. The world economic

powers must stop pillaging the poor. They

take advantage of their poverty and lack of

education, and their own technology and

financial wealth, in order to foment wars and

loot the natural riches of the weaker nations

without financial resources.

Q: Does Islam represent a threat to

the survival of the Catholic Church in

Africa?

For many centuries Sub-Saharan Islam

has co-existed peaceably and harmoni-

ously with Christianity. On the other hand

the Islam that takes the form of a political

organisation, intent on imposing itself on the

whole world, is indeed a threat, and not just

to Africa. In fact it is above all a threat to the

societies of the European continent which

too often no longer have a true identity or a

religion. Those who deny the values of their

own tradition, culture and religion are con-

demned to disappear, for they have lost all

their motivation, all their energy and even all

the will to fight to defend their own identity.

Q: In what way can ACN, as a pontifical

foundation, still better help the Church

in Africa?

Today all the charitable organisations,

even the Catholic ones, are focused unilat-

erally and exclusively on addressing situa-

tions of material poverty, but “man does not

live by bread alone, but on every word that

comes from the mouth of God”, as Jesus

tells us (cf. Matthew 4:4). I therefore en-

courage ACN to give aid for the formation

of priests, seminarians, male and female

religious, for catechists, for the construction

of churches and seminaries, and for spiritual

retreats for bishops and priests. I humbly

beg all the friends and benefactors of ACN

ST MARY

OF THE CROSS

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to continue generously supporting the great

missionary work of ACN throughout the

world and particularly in Africa. For it is true

that those bishops and priests who do not

take the time – at least for a few days – to

place themselves in the presence of God

in solitude, silence and prayer, risk dying on

the spiritual level, or at the very least, drying

out spiritually within. For they will no longer

be capable of providing solid spiritual nour-

ishment to the faithful entrusted to them if

they themselves do not draw strength from

the Lord in a regular and constant manner.

Q: Should we also speak of the political

problems?

The Church is gravely mistaken as to

the nature of the real crisis if she thinks

that her essential mission is to offer solu-

tions to all the political problems relating

to justice, peace, poverty, the reception

of migrants, etc. while neglecting evange-

lisation. Certainly, like Christ, the Church

cannot disassociate herself from the human

problems. Besides, she has always helped

here through her schools, her universi-

ties, her training centres, her hospitals and

dispensaries ... Nonetheless, I would like

to cite to you the words of an Italian who

has converted to Islam (and there are over

a hundred thousand like him in Italy). His

name is Yahya Pallavicini, and today he is

an imam, the President of

CO.RE.IS

(the

Islamic Religious Community) and a profes-

sor at the Catholic University of Milan: “If

the Church, with the obsession she has

today with the values of justice, social rights

and the struggle against poverty, ends up

as a result by forgetting her contemplative

soul, she will fail in her mission and she

will be abandoned by a great many of her

faithful, owing to the fact that they will no

longer recognise in her what constitutes her

specific mission.”

Church is family of God

Spreading the Word:

A catechist in Chad

teaching from the Child’s Bible distributed by

ACN.

Photo: Aid to the Church in Need

Without

a common

faith, the Church

is threatened by

confusion and then,

progressively, she can

slide into dispersion

and schism.