It's all happening in Africa

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While the Catholic church in all ‘Western’ countries has been in major decline since the 1960s, the Church has been booming in Africa. The Church in Africa is very vibrant, full of joy yet conservative and attracting hundreds or thousands to the priesthood.

In my parish and several surrounding parishes we are receiving young priests from Africa who are at present adjusting to life here and are soon to be full time priests in our parishes. Australia has become a country for missionary activity!

While I am sad at the decline of the Church in the West, I am thankful to God and heartened that the Church is booming in Africa and parts of Asia.
 
One of my favorite priests is from Africa. Nigeria to be exact. A friend of my family is almost from Nigeria, and he just recently became a priest. They are wonderful people. 🙂
 
I have heard it said the next great wave of mission work will be Africian and Latin American priests working in the US until our priest numbers rebound.

P.S. - we have a dear beloved priest friend who has served in the missions in Africia for decades. If we are proud of our Church in Africia, can I humbly suggest we all say a prayer for the missions priests today.
 
That’s great! I’ve known many outstanding Africans. Oh and Alexander, if you don’t mind me asking, how can someone be “almost from Nigeria?”
 
We’ve had one or two African priests in our parish.
The last one was from Nigeria. The church must be doing something right in that country.🙂
 
A very kind, good, and orthodox priest in our archdiocese (who just left for a new assignment in the province) is from Nigeria. He is so full of joy, but not ridiculous or exaggerated joy. It is a peaceful, calm, and well-ordered happiness at having put all his trust in the Most High. One of my worst enemies has been a certain racist disdain for African people, so I was rather surprised when the first Roman Catholic priest I met was an African. 😉 He came out of his office on that crisp May morning, and I immediately thought “Oh God, what have I been doing?!” His goodly nature soon convinced me that I must drop my prejudicial hatreds; now, thanks to him, I just love Africans! 😛

It is often said that the same peoples we (Europeans) went out to proselytise, convert, and civilise are now coming back to remind their parents of what they’ve forgotten! We have certainly fallen down since the Age of Colonialism, and it seems the evils of sex, drugs, and rock & roll can only be combated by loving Catholic priests from Nigeria! God bless African Catholics for what they’ll be enduring…
 
Similar things have been happening in the “Protestant” (I hate that word) sphere. Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant) has been in decline in the West for a while now but it seems to in a state of revival in Africa. African preachers have been setting up churches in the UK for years now.
 
My priest is from Africa 👍
Love the accent.
He has a way of saying exactly what I need to here in his sermons (most of the time).
 
I spent the month of July on a mission trip to western Tanzania. I would agree wholeheartily. It was amazing to see so many who walked 6-10 miles each Sunday just to get to Mass.

The Mass would be 3 hours long with an hour long homily ( it was the only chance the priests get to offer catechisis to many of the faithful).

Can you imagine the outcry in the US if people had to walk 6 miles to get to Mass, and the homily was an hour long?

The Churches would be empty, instead of booming like they are in Africa.

Attached is a picture of Bishop Minde of the Diocese of Kahama. Some of our team was helping in the construction of a new parish church. The existing structure (build in the 60’s) can only accomdate about 1/10th of the people at Mass. You can see the new structure under construction in the background. So right now, they hold Mass outside under tarps. Even then, 3/4’s of the people are out standing in the sun for 3 hours.

Yet they still come.

BTW, the bishop’s homily was about an hour and a half long. And I loved every minute of it 👍

Also attached is a picture of the Bishop addressing the students at the Minor Seminary. That should give you an idea of the level of vocations in the area.
 
I am actually very optimistic about the future of the Church in places like America and Europe - if only Catholics get out there and be Catholics. The faith is smart, beautiful, and, most important of all, true! It’s just a matter of communicating this to others, and this responsibility falls on us!
 
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