The Catholic population of Africa has shot up from 1.9 million in 1900 to almost 165 million today, and more than 40 per cent of all adult baptisms in the world take place in Africa.
During the synod’s opening liturgy, which featured more Latin and Gregorian chant than African languages and hymns, the Pope blamed the “so-called First World” for continuing to “export its spiritual toxic waste” to the continent.
“In this sense, colonialism, which is over at a political level, has never really entirely come to an end,” he said in a lengthy homily delivered entirely in Italian.
While on government business in a West African country back in the 1980s, I spent time in conversation with the U.S. embassy’s consular affiars officer who happened to be African-American.
She told me that she was reviewing a visa application for a male adolescent who was to spend time in the United States living with a single U.S. male who was to be his sponsor.
She was concerned about the man’s motives since the embassy had also processed a similar application for an African adolescent male who had been used in a sexual manner by his male American sponsor.
So, “…‘exporting [it]s spiritual toxic waste’ to Africa…” from the Western world is not a new thing.
Of course, the Soviet Union’s and Cuba’s export of arms to Angola to bring about and then deliberately prolong its civil war against Angolan nationalists is another example of the export of “toxic waste” to Africa by the industrialized world.
WE can also look at the Spiritual Gold the West is providing, in terms of medical missions, solar projects, educational support, building projects, clean water technology, etc. For much of this, the Church has been providing support — both in terms of funding AND personnel.
In His peace
Jim Elliott <><