German Bishops’ Conference Says Church in Africa Growing Only Because of Ignorance and Poverty

The Stream ^ | November 28, 2015 | First Things

[ebb tide]

Björn Odendahl, an editor at Katholisch.de, writes the following in the course of commenting on the Pope’s plans for Africa in a piece entitled “The Romantic, Poor Church”:

So also in Africa. Of course the Church is growing there. It grows because the people are socially dependent and often have nothing else but their faith. It grows because the educational situation there is on average at a rather low level and the people accept simple answers to difficult questions(of faith) [sic]. Answers like those that Cardinal Sarah of Guinea provides. And even the growing number of priests is a result not only of missionary power but also a result of the fact that the priesthood is one of the few possibilities for social security on the dark continent.

We all know that the German Bishops’ Conference is one of the most progressive in the world. But it nevertheless beggars belief that such a statement would appear on the Conference’s official website, with its lazy slander of African Christians and priests as poor and uneducated (Odendahl might as well have added “easy to command”) and its gratuitous swipe at Cardinal Sarah; they must really fear him. (The link goes to a Katholisch.de report on Cardinal Sarah’s bracing words on homosexual practice at the recent Synod on the Family.)

Continue reading “German Bishops’ Conference Says Church in Africa Growing Only Because of Ignorance and Poverty” at firstthings.com.

[ebb tide]

http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2015/11/german-bishops-website-on-africa-cardinal-sarah

[2ndDivisionVet]

Hitler was a German/Austrian Catholic at one time, wasn’t he?

[Cicero]

Ignorance speaks from these bishops’ mouths. They wouldn’t know wisdom from ignorance. God bless our African bishops!

[Mastador1]

Sounds like some Bishop has congregation envy, someone needs to do some confessin and penitence.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hitler was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church. He abandoned the Church as an adolencent. By the time he reached political power, he was convinced that Catholicism and Nazism were intrinsically opposed to each other.

Writing for Yad Vashem, the historian Michael Phayer wrote that by the latter 1930s, church officials knew that the long term aim of Hitler was the "total elimination of Catholicism and of the Christian religion."

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Matthew 18:3

And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Such is the state of Christianity in Europe.

[wideawake]

He was raised a nominal Catholic by his parents - probably because they believed it was the best way to get a good civil service job in Imperial Austria - but abandoned religion when he left school and became a member of the anti-Catholic Los von Rom movement in Vienna.

[BBell]

If he had any balls he would have said this:

German Bishops’ Conference Says Islam in Africa Growing Only Because of Ignorance and Poverty.

[Nervous Tick]

>> It grows because the people are socially dependent and often have nothing else but their faith.

I would point out that the Church in Africa is growing under the influence of the Holy Spirit. When the bishop denies this and states that the church is growing for unholy reasons, he is committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is the unpardonable sin.

[fso301]

And even the growing number of priests is a result not only of missionary power but also a result of the fact that the priesthood is one of the few possibilities for social security on the dark continent.

From where does the good German priest think his social security comes from? Certainly not offerings collected in empty cathedrals on Sundays.

[Shark24]

Advent Mass this week here in the UAE had lots of Asian and African folks in attendance. Don’t know about the ignorance part but everybody sure looked joyful, thankful and in love with Christ. Maybe I need to go to Germany next week to see how Mass is supposed to be done.

[ImaGraftedBranch]

Amen.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Not to mention an unpardonable microagression!

[Unam Sanctam]

“I think it is a great cheek of the Germans to try and teach the rest of the world anything about religion. They should be in perpetual sackcloth and ashes for all their enormities from Luther to Hitler.” Evelyn Waugh

[montag813]

Is that how they view their own religion? As food for the ignorant?

[dsc]

“Is that how they view their own religion? As food for the ignorant?”

Have you read Pascendi Dominici Gregis?

[pke]

In other news:
Pharisees Say Jesus Only Popular With Sinners and Tax Collectors

[wbarmy]

When the bishop denies this and states that the church is growing for unholy reasons, he is committing blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is the unpardonable sin.

That was my first thought also. I fear the Bishop will have much to explain for before the White Throne.

[Joe Boucher]

Cause the African Church has kept its morality while much of the west has turned its back on morality, they gots to keep that money coming in ya know.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Not to mention an unpardonable microagression!

LOL