AFRICA
National Catholic Reporter
Pat Perriello | Aug. 26, 2013 NCR Today
I have to admit I was surprised to see this Religion News Service article about schismatic priests in Africa.
I don’t know much about the church in Africa, but considering a few months ago we were talking seriously about the possibility of an African pope, it is worth exploring. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana was one African candidate mentioned at the time as a possible replacement for Pope Benedict. We were also led to believe that the African church was a thriving, fast-growing community that bode well for the future of the universal church.
Now we learn of an extensive resistance to celibacy within the African church. We read about an African bishop who left the church to marry and subsequently provided leadership for many other priests who chose to marry. Many of us may remember Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo getting married several years ago in a Unification Church ceremony. Yet the entire incident generally seemed to be a somewhat strange aberration.
Milingo left the church and became a leader of others wishing to serve God as married priests. We now learn that large numbers of priests feel celibacy is simply incompatible with African culture. Finally, we read that there are as many as 300,000 African Catholics following these schismatic married priests and their archbishop. Such a large group cannot be ignored as somehow inconsequential. To carry it one step further, there are those who are saying that if the truth were known, the actual situation of the African church would be even more startling.
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