African Catholic Voices African Catholic Voices

Prof Itumeleng Mothoagae, a South African biblical scholar and Head of the Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of South Africa addresses the contested questions around polygamy in Africa. He introduces what he calls 'biculturality and bireligiosity' in understanding why the churches in Africa are struggling with finding the right pastoral response to the prevalence of polygamy in Africa. In South Africa, polygamy is constitutional and many Zionist churches in Southern Africa embrace polygamy.  Prof Mothoagae unpacks  the colonial and racialized notions that led many churches in Africa, including the Catholic Church to condemn polygamy, while adopting pastoral and canonical approaches that he considers inadequate. While not endorsing polygamy or rejecting it, he invites church pastors and theologians in Africa to deepen an understanding of why polygamy persists in Africa, and how to accompany the polygamist who wishes to be baptized or to remain in the church as an already baptized Catholic who marries a second wife or a second husband.  

Rose Egolet, an advocate for women justice and human rights and resource mobilization advisor for Kilimanjaro Women Information and Education Community Organization (KWIECO), Moshi-Tanzania (funded by Crossroads International), and Fr Ruffino Ezama, Provincial superior of the Comboni Missionaries of the North American Province, share their thoughts on the punitive measures of Western donor agencies and governments against their beloved country, Uganda, over the country's anti-homosexuality legislation. Both guests help us to understand the complexities of the issues; they call for respect for African agency and for African countries and peoples to rethink the current aid regime, policies and practices. In the face of some ideologically driven conditions attached to Western and international foreign aid, mission and intervention in Africa,  our guests invite Africa to break the continent's dependency on foreign aid in order to secure the future of her cultures and peoples, traditional family values, and the rights of the poor. 

Bishop Paride Taban who died at 87 on All Saints Day has left an inedible mark in South Sudan, Sudan, and the rest of Africa and the world as a peace-builder, a peace-maker, and a servant leader. In establishing the Peace Village, he has left a permanent example of how to be a pastor with the smell of a sheep and how to heal the wounds and brokenness of war through love, selfless sacrifice, and boundless energy for God's suffering people. His friend and colleague, John Ashworth, pays a special tribute to this wise, humble, holy and peace-loving bishop who gave his life for God's people, especially the poor, the broken, and the wounded.

Co-hosts Sr Chantal and Fr Stan discuss the latest statistics on the growth of the Catholic population in Africa. Why is Africa witnessing the fastest growth in Catholic population worldwide? How can African Catholics use this population growth to drive the mission of God in Africa? How can African Catholics use its great population to influence the worldwide church on some of the contested moral issues of today?  They also propose how spirituality, morality, political culture and faith could grow in tandem with the growth in population of African Catholics. 

As the current session of the synod on synodality draws to a close, Fr Stan and Sr Chantal in this episode answer the question on the deliberative and consultative functions of the Synod of Bishops. They invite Catholics to pray for the synod in a special way during this final week. There is the need for the faithful to lower their expectations about changes in the Church's teaching because no synod has the power to change the doctrines of the Catholic Church since these are revealed truths. Synods can help the Church and her members under the leadership of the Pope and all the bishops in communion with him to discover the treasures of the Catholic faith, as well as to understand the mysteries and doctrines as revealed truths. A synod can also help to interpret these mysteries anew and pastorally guide the faithful on living their Christian faith with greater fidelity and commitment in obedience to God who through Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit has revealed these unchanging truths of faith and morality to the Church. 

Co-hosts, Sr Chantal and Fr Stan discuss the importance of silence during this important moment of synod on synodality. They discuss the reasons why Pope Francis invited the delegates not to talk to the press about the ongoing discussions. They speak about some of the concerns of Africa and address  the challenges facing educators in some parts of Africa, and the need for strengthening Catholic education in Africa and deepening the Catholic intellectual traditions in Africa.