After the African Synod: What's Next??

—-I have to say that the Synod accomplished more than I expected…. I say that as an outsider, not an insider… from the bits and pieces I picked up by being the proverbial fly placed on a Roman Wall. As I mentioned earlier in the month, I found the Bishops much more mature and at ease with the entire exercise so as not to be bullied (maybe bully is too strong a word, but you know what I mean.) That said, the propositions and message did not turn out to be the call to action that I would have really hoped for, but then again, as one prominent bishop said, “we took good notes.” What may have been left on the editing floor may be recouped on a national or local level. Let’s hope. There are enough indicators in the propositions to support a lot of our advocacy for more just, responsible, fair relations on all and every level with Africa.

—-The palpable feeling of having experienced solidarity was there. That is the good news. The bad news about that is that it was never really articulated as that. It got lost in the talk of family of God in service to reconciliation, justice and peace and all… but I truly believe that a more articulate understanding of both the spirituality and practical theology of solidarity needs to be done as foundational to any talk of family of God in service to reconciliation, justice and peace. Theologians, get on it!!!! And there is the real challenge of moving from the local issues of each of us that take our time and attention to the issues of the other. Diocesan Bishops are concerned about only their Diocese, Religious Superiors are concerned about their community, Families are focused on their own…. few are able to hold both local and global together.

I found myself experiencing profound mixed emotions at the final Liturgy at St. Peters. By chance as I stood in line waiting to go through security I met beside me a young Congolese Jesuit. He had taught at the Jesuit High School in Bukavu where some of my former students in Chicago had attended. So we had a good chat about his work, my appreciation for the Congolese Jesuits I know, etc. As we entered the Basilica, as before, the guards were separating the African clergy from others, directing the Africa clergy to the left side of the main altar while the rest of us were directed to the central nave. Fr. Alexendre chose to stay with me (it actually is a better view of the action than from the side)… but, quite different from the opening liturgy, among us were far fewer other Africans… sisters and laypeople… where were they? It looked to me as if the African Clergy were getting their day in the sun up there near the altar while the rest of the crowd around me and my newfound African friend were tourists who were there to see the Pope and did not care too much about Africa. So, they will get their one day of glory and then go to the end of the line like before. I had had a conversation with the Catholic News Service correspondent earlier in the week, complimenting her on her presence at the many briefings we attended, asking her how much information she sent back to the US.. And she said there was ample and creative things that they did not only in print but video clips, etc. But I asked her now much of that actually got to YOU who are recipients of the news… the readers, the viewers, etc. Then she said that, well you know, diocesan papers first put their home news up front, then the national news of the Church, then the Vatican news clips, then maybe Asia and South America and last and least… Africa… as if to say all her hard work these three weeks may not have been shared in papers for your reading pleasure and edification!!!! Tell me if that is true… Did you see much in print and web from CNS on the synod? Much was forwarded by CNS. Did your editors pass it on to you? If not, all this talk of new Pentecost and Synod as Ecclesial Event is hogwash. If your papers did not cover this adequately, write to the editor and complain. Some hopeful and helpful things were done here in Rome. As I mentioned above, I didn’t expect much, but the Synod rose beyond my expectations. If we who have experienced the grace, the pain, the challenge and the hope in Africa through our personal and communal service in Africa remain silent, then we are as much a part of the bad news that I am complaining about.

One other piece about the Mass. It was no African Celebration… I remember that we sang songs from the First Synod for years after on the continent.. at least in Sierra Leone. That will not happen this time. And there will be no songs to sing back home but the ones they are already singing. And I saw how the power of the celebrant determines the style of the liturgy, in spite of all the talk liturgists say how the celebrant should not determine the style. JP II was an extrovert. B16 is an introvert. Both styles have lights and shadows. The style of the opening and closing Masses were not reflective of the openness JPII had to the African expression of faith, joy and struggle. B16s homilies were great, strong and unique reflections of the God experience through Scripture and the human experience of pain, hope, resistance and faith. The long silences after the Homily and Communion were great as times for people to interiorize the strong experiences of Word, Sacrament and community that was present. But it was clothed in a different jacket. And I believe fell short.

The Second Special Assembly of Bishops on Africa has ended in Rome. The process continues and the main agents are those who have committed time and talent to this process. Bishops from around the world gave us more than 3 weeks of their time to be here, and it was no vacation. They worked. We, the legion, who were part of the many events around the synod gave our time and interest and prayer and support for this task and topic. And you the readers have faithfully followed these events. Now the challenge is to take the next step.

Some suggestions:

As important as they are, by discovering the resilience, the faith, the miracle of survival and tenacity of Africa, your very real issues will be relativized. We need a real solidarity one with the other to move beyond this fear. Remember the story of the Nigerian Sister who during the opening Mass told me that “they will never get it until they really feel our pain.” Then again I remember a time while in Kenema Sierra Leone in 1998 during those dark and dangerous days under the coup (nine months where the entire country was held hostage to terror and fear, lack of free movement, etc) one of my workers who himself was a stranger to this part of the country, since he was not Mende but Mandig from the North, asked me how I was doing. “Aren’t you afraid?” “Yes” I said. “And you?” He said, “Very”… So I said, “Let’s be afraid together” We then had a very great belly laugh… and we survived. Solidarity is the name of the game. Jesus kept reminding me as I prepared to return to Sierra in 1995 “Do not be Afraid!” It took me a year to hear his voice. Fear kept creeping in. Pope John Paul II kept repeating this to young and old, “Do not be Afraid”. BUT we are… we are afraid of changing from a war economy to a peace economy. We are afraid of migration and set up xenophobic laws that kill THEM. We are afraid of what solidarity may really mean. We are afraid that there just may not be enough. Fear is the weapon, it is free, it is everywhere and it works. (look at the growth of the security industry!) Our fear dictates our decisions and there are a few people laughing their way to the banks, protected behind walls that have cut them off from the lives and struggles of most. Don’t they even call it Wall Street!!!!.

So, let’s stand up to our fears with a belief that this synod has offered us a renewed look at faith in a new Pentecost. Is it real? Is Solidarity the way forward? Can it be true? Is He the Messiah? If you have faith the size of a mustard seed……..