Word: africa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...rollicking cheer of his welcome, the Pope was in Africa on serious business. His uppermost concern, he declared even before leaving Rome, was the bitter, two-year civil war between Nigeria and Biafra, but the trip had first been planned around the Pope's dedication of a shrine to 22 African martyrs.* He also consecrated twelve new African bishops and offered a thoughtful analysis of the African Church's spiritual role before a pan-African conference of Catholic prelates that had been meeting all week. Above all, the visit reaffirmed the Pope's concern for the future...
...changing, seeking to break its identification with the colonial past and to find its place within the emerging nations (see box, page 65). The Church is growing so fast that realistic estimates of its adherents range from 30 million to 40 million-by far the largest Christian body in Africa. As Rome has turned over control of missionaries to some 320 local dioceses and 28 episcopal conferences, the church in Africa has become more autonomous. But it must still depend heavily on outside financial support...
...Assembly, he reproved colonialism for "having let economic interests prevail over human considerations," and condemned "social situations based on racial discrimination" (an apparent reference to apartheid) as "an affront to the fundamental rights of the human person." On a visit to a poor suburban neighborhood, he declared that "rural Africa must be aided in developing its immense agriculture! possibilities. Local industries must replace the exploitation of raw materials. The African villager must become the master of his own destiny...
Twice during his grueling schedule, Paul had met with Nigerian and Biafran representatives in a vain attempt to mediate the Nigerian impasse-and had even offered to stay in Africa a month if it would help bring peace. He did not stay. On Saturday morning he joined Anglican dignitaries for a brief ecumenical service at their own shrine, then went on to the partially built shrine of the Roman Catholic martyrs, where nearly 100,000 people had gathered for the Mass of dedication. He baptized, confirmed and gave First Communion to 22 young Uganda converts, telling them that being...
...message might well have been meant for all African Catholics. The more quickly Africa develops-as the Pope wants it to-the more quickly will it face the forces that are disrupting Catholicism in developed countries-urbanization, secularization, loss of faith altogether. Perhaps, as the Pope suggested in one address, the African's "deep sense of community" will help offset these forces, but the church's task will not be easy. Nonetheless, when the papal retinue departed Uganda Saturday, Paul VI left behind a church with a newly realized sense of self and a new pride in virtues...