The Vatican recently noted a “remarkable increase” in the number of Catholics in Africa, and Father Dave welcomes Nigerian priest Father Ken Amadi to discuss how catechists there are keeping up with this growth. Father Ken is the director and co-founder of Church Life Africa, which is a non-profit apostolate dedicated to forming lay Catholic leaders and educators across the continent. They recently announced a partnership with the Augustine Institute in the United States to further grow this mission.
Father Ken explains, “It’s been just a little under 200 years, the late 1800s, since the last wave of missionary evangelization in Africa, and now Africa is just busting with Catholics and Christians in our churches. I’ll give you context; Nigeria is a country of 230 million people. That number is distributed almost evenly between Christians and Muslims; we’re talking about 110 million Christians now. Of that number, we have over 35 million Catholics, and 94% of them go to Mass at least every Sunday.”
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He considers the Catholic faith to be in an “infancy stage” in Africa, and that it is beginning to be tested. “Persecution is happening, that’s a real test of the faith,” Father Ken says. “Rather than the faith dying due to persecution, it is growing. The Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Abuja [Cardinal John Onaiyekan] recently said ‘Christianity does not die because of persecution; Christianity dies when people stop believing in God.’”
Father Ken explains the work of Church Life Africa and its importance for the growing Church. “The ratio of priests to laypeople in Africa is so disproportionate that priests alone cannot do [faith formation]. We need to form laypeople in advanced theological education and in-depth catechetical training, so that they [can form] their brothers and sisters,” he says.
“It is critical and urgent that the church in Africa — with the blessing of numbers that the Holy Spirit has given us — begins to form these laypeople. We can send out these foot soldiers not just into the spaces in Africa, but all over the world,” he says.
Father Ken shares the origins of Church Life Africa’s partnership with the Augustine Institute. “I would say when God wants a marriage to work, he makes it very easy,” he says, noting how Church Life Africa was seeking a partnership with an American apostolate to expand their catechetical resources. “[President of the Augustine Institute] Dr. Tim Gray and I met in the spring of last year, and the marriage of missions naturally happened. So now we are, through the Augustine Institute, helping African Catholics better understand, live, and share their faith.”
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In light of the growth of Catholicism in Africa, they discuss the importance of Pope Leo’s recent apostolic journey to the continent. Father Dave asks, “I realize it was not to your country, but our Holy Father did visit four different countries in Africa. How do you think that visit impacted the faith there?”
Father Ken responds, “It was good that Pope Leo went especially to countries where the pope was not going to bring hope to them, but he was going to find hope among them…Christians and Catholics are still holding on and looking up to God, despite their suffering under very harsh man-made and natural conditions.”
“I believe that the pope must have been inspired to go to these countries to find the hope and faith that these people dare to have despite their situations,” he says. “They also must have been very much encouraged by the pPope not going to the big countries, but coming to the periphery and coming to them to bring the good news.”
