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A more conservative church awaits Pope Francis in Africa

 
A poster welcoming Pope Francis to Kenya is pictured in the Kangemi slum on Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya. [Nichole Sobecki | Getty Images]
A poster welcoming Pope Francis to Kenya is pictured in the Kangemi slum on Tuesday in Nairobi, Kenya. [Nichole Sobecki | Getty Images]
Published Nov. 25, 2015

NAIROBI, Kenya — Headlines here call him the "Pope of Hope." Because of him, Kenyans say they are more enthusiastic about going to church, praying regularly and treating others kindly. They want him to preach about corruption, living in peace and governing fairly.

But as Pope Francis begins his first-ever trip to Africa on Wednesday, he will also face a powerful and assertive Roman Catholic Church in Africa that is wary of calls to make the institution more welcoming to people who are divorced, gay or cohabiting without being married.

"Yes, we are more conservative," said Bishop Renatus Leonard Nkwande, of the Tanzanian diocese of Bunda. The African bloc's role, he said, is "to defend the teaching of the church, the teaching of the book."

Both Africa and Francis himself, the first pope from Latin America, symbolize the importance of the southern hemisphere to the future of the Catholic Church worldwide.

The church in Africa is booming in numbers, strength and influence, and the Roman Catholic Church globally is sitting up and taking notice. Africans now account for 14 percent of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, but by 2050 they will be 25 to 30 percent, according to Philip Jenkins, a professor at Baylor University who studies global Christianity.

Yet Francis faces some stiff resistance on the continent to his calls for a more tolerant church. When bishops met last month at the Vatican for a pivotal international meeting, or synod, on the family, the African bishops gained attention for the assertive role they played in pushing the church to stand firm against any acceptance of divorce and homosexuality.

The African prelates see eye-to-eye with Francis on several of his signature themes — poverty, the environment and social injustice — that he is likely to evoke during his trip to Kenya, Uganda and the war-torn Central African Republic this week.

But African bishops are also seen as an increasingly powerful counterweight to bishops in Western Europe and the Americas backing Francis' call to make the church more open to unconventional families.

The Rev. Boniface Mwangi, a director for Caritas in central Kenya, an association of Catholic charities, said he expected the pope to steer away from the contentious topics gripping some Catholics in the West, like whether to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion, or what to do about gay parishioners. As many as 36 African countries have laws against homosexuality, including the three Francis is set to visit.

"I expect him to focus on social issues of the common people, like why we have some pockets with people who have huge resources and so many other people live in slums," Mwangi said.

Catholics in Africa are eager to welcome the pontiff and share the spotlight he will bring to their faith and their struggles.

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In Kenya and Uganda, those challenges include vicious attacks from radical Islamist extremists who have killed hundreds of civilians at an upscale shopping mall, a public university and in villages along the coast, often separating Christians from Muslims and slaughtering the Christians.

The Central African Republic, an impoverished country in the middle of the continent, has been roiled for years by a war between Muslims and Christians that has killed thousands and chased nearly a million from their homes. Francis said in a video released last weekend that he planned to deliver in Africa a message of "reconciliation, forgiveness and peace."

Security for the trip is an urgent concern. Catholic observers say the visit to the Central African Republic ranks among the most dangerous trips a pope has ever undertaken.

"The pope wants to go to the Central African Republic," a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said in a media briefing last week. "And, like any wise person would do, we are monitoring the situation."

Kenyans are yearning to hear Francis address "peaceful coexistence" and denounce corruption by their political leaders, according to a new poll there. Corruption is the top public issue in Kenya right now, with new scandals erupting almost daily — from allegations of Kenyan generals making millions of dollars smuggling sugar to accusations that officials in one government ministry bought ballpoint pens for $85 apiece.

What could make it awkward for Francis is that the corruption plaguing Kenya has been carried out, according to numerous claims, by members of the same government that is placing the red carpet under his feet.

The pope's first scheduled activity will be a "welcoming ceremony" with Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta. Mwangi said the pope should wrap his anti-corruption message in what the Bible says about integrity.

"It doesn't have to be political," he said. "Good governance is about integrity."

Despite, or perhaps because of, these social conditions, the church in Africa is thriving.

"They're moving the church in a conservative direction on moral and social issues, but a liberal direction on economic issues and social justice," Jenkins said.