SECAM Day: Church in Africa called to bring Gospel to the world

By Lisa Zengarini

July 29 marked an important anniversary for the Church in Africa. On that day in 1969, the African Bishops officially created the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) to promote their communion and collaboration with the specific mission of evangelizing the entire continent and its islands.

Two days after, on July 31, Pope St. Paul VI, presided over the closing ceremony of the first SECAM meeting in Kampala, during his Apostolic Journey to Uganda (July 31 - August 2, 1969), the first-ever visit of a pontiff to Africa. 

Since these two historic events, July 29 is observed as SECAM Day, with celebrations taking place on the closest Sunday to the anniversary, this year on July 28.

 “You Africans are Missionaries to Yourselves”.

The theme chosen for this 55th edition was drawn from Paul VI's memorable words at the inauguration ceremony on July 31: “You Africans are Missionaries to Yourselves”.

In a message for the occasion, SECAM president, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo of Kinshasa, noted that this year's celebration is particularly significant, as it coincides with the 60th anniversary of the canonization of the Martyrs of Uganda. 

In fact, it was after the solemn celebration of Mission Sunday on October 18, 1964, when the 22 Martyrs were canonized in Rome in the presence of all the participants at the Second Vatican Council, that Pope Paul VI decided to visit the African nation.

Also significant, he continued,  is the theme chosen this year, which underlines that the Church in Africa has taken Paul VI's “noble” words “very seriously”.

A vibrant “adult” Church

In fact, said Cardinal Ambongo, “since that historic pontifical visit to the present day, the Church in Africa has grown a lot and in many ways.”

With its 256 million believers today, representing 18 percent of the African total population, still growing at a record pace, along with the number of dioceses, the Catholic Church in Africa “has taken root and is now an adult Church.”

The message recalled that most of the hierarchy now comes from indigenous clergy, both secular and religious, and there is a growing number of African religious involved in leadership positions in these international missionary societies.

Also, “an increasing number of African diocesan priests are beginning to make themselves available for limited periods as fidei donum.”

A champion of human development and voice of the voiceless

Furthermore, continues the Congolese Cardinal, the Catholic Church on the continent has become a “champion of human development," and is now “the voice of the voiceless” and “advocating for the reduction or cancellation of the unjust debt burden of the African people.”

Also, it is “vibrantly building herself up as the Family of God and enriching herself with the experience of Small Christian Communities, which are the hallmark of the Church of Jesus Christ in Africa and its islands.”

Inculturating the Christian faith in Africa

However, despite this remarkable growth, “Africa continues to hunger and thirst for Jesus.”  This is why, Cardinal Ambongo stresses, Christians, who make up 30% of the African population, must continue to announce the Gospel to non-Christians, as called for by the 1994 Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.

In this respect, the Archbishop of Kinshase reiterated  the crucial importance of inculturation, because, he said, “evangelization will only be effective if the Christian faith is deeply rooted in people’s way of life.”

Bringing the Gospel of Hope to conflict- and poverty-ridden Africa

Moreover, in the face of the many serious problems confronting the continent - including poverty, political instability, ethnic and religious conflicts, migration and refugees, corruption, environmental degradation, arms, and drug and human trafficking - Christians are called to “radiate that reconciling love of Christ, and at the same time become for others a source of peace and agents of reconciliation.”

Every member of the Church-Family of God, the Archbishop of Kinshasa insisted, must proclaim the Gospel of Hope wherever they are, be it Christians who are in positions where they exercise the power of the State, or working in the field of economics.

Bearing witness to to the Gospel in secularized West

The message remarked that the Catholic Church in Africa is called to bear witness to the Gospel also to the rest of the world, and in particular to the European continent, “whose missionaries have taken on the task of evangelizing the whole of Africa and which is now experiencing a decrease in personnel because of secularism that is driving more and more people away from the Church.”

Concluding, Cardinal Ambongo highlights the importance of the synodal dimension of this missionary endeavour.

“The Church in Africa, renewed by the synodal journey and cemented in the spirit of communion lived in the Small Christian Communities, is called, in listening to one another and to the Holy Spirit, to embrace the evangelizing mission until it reaches all kinds of peripheries, with new ardour, new methods and renewed structures,” he said. 

Finally, the President of SECAM invites all members of the Church in Africa and its Islands to use this annual celebration to inform Catholics across the continent about the existence and mission of SECAM so as to get them involved.