VATICAN CITY – African bishops at the Synod of Synod have played a key role in the fight against efforts to give episcopal conferences greater doctrinal autonomy and are generally satisfied with the assembly’s final recommendations, which Pope Francis adopted in officially, says a leading African prelate.

How the African Church would help shape the synod’s closing assembly was one of the main stories at the event, following the continent’s outspoken opposition to the Vatican’s surprise approval of same-sex blessings last year. Supplicans Trust statement.

“This is one of those synods for which Africa has prepared,” said Archbishop Andrew Nkea of ​​Bamenda, Cameroon, speaking at the Rome Registry on October 27.

African delegates are returning home “full of joy,” he said, in part because the final report does not transfer doctrinal authority to bishops’ conferences, as some in the West have claimed.

“We thought that if the power to decide on doctrinal issues, or part of this power, were transferred to the national episcopal conferences, we would have a chaotic Church,” the archbishop explained.

“That is why not only the African bishops but also other Catholic bishops concerned about the unity of the Church argued against this point,” said Archbishop Nkea, who was also a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod that oversaw the conduct of the Congress. process 2021-2024.

“We agree that episcopal conferences should have some leverage in pastoral collaboration, local decisions and acculturation,” he said, “but in matters of faith and morals, conferences cannot decide.”

Archbishop Nkea told the Register that he was more concerned with some of the other paragraphs such as no. 92, which received some of the most “No” votes. The paragraph refers to the amendment of canon law to shed light “on the responsibilities of those who play different roles in the decision-making process”.

“As a canon lawyer, I vehemently resisted this point and voted ‘No,'” he said, adding that he believes the opinions of others can only be consulted but not deliberated in decision-making.

“It is not possible for the Church to maintain its governance, its doctrinal integrity, its moral rectitude without being clear about this: that the vote of the laity can be consulted,” he continued. “If it is to be a deliberate vote, then the Church has gone democratic and it is a kind of Protestantism that has taken over.”

When told it remained a proposal in the final document, he said it was because the issue was to be studied further, but he didn’t think it would pass. “I don’t see how it’s going to work, at least not in Africa,” he said. “This can’t work.”

Asked about the issue of women deacons and why it continues to be discussed in the final document, despite Pope Francis’ definitive and repeated ‘No’ to women deacons this year, Archbishop Nkea said it was important to distinguish between “what the assembly the synod also recommends what the Holy Father says”.

“The Holy Father did not give points to the synod; it is the synod that made recommendations to the Holy Father,” he said. The final document “hasn’t been signed yet, but he has authorized us to move forward. … The Holy Father made it very clear that, as far as he was concerned, “this subject is closed, but you can wait a little later and bring it up. Keep talking, but know my position. That’s the way I see the argument.”

Archbishop Nkea had more reservations about paragraph 27, which proposed “deepening the link between liturgy and synodality” and adopting “celebration styles that make visible the face of a synodal Church.” He also called for the establishment of a specific study group to reflect on how liturgical celebrations can be more of an expression of synodality.

“It was a concern,” he said. “That paragraph has been controversial because it opens the door for initiatives to be taken and justified, and that is open to a lot of interpretation.” He added: “We just hope that the interpretation will be strict rather than broad. It’s just a hope, but I know progressive churches would exploit that.”

Regarding relations with the German bishops, Archbishop Nkea said they were good, “very close and friendly”, adding that the German position “was not a problem for the synod”.

Asked if this was because the most controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues were given to members of 10 study groups appointed by the Vatican and approved by the pope to discuss outside the synodal process and, ending next June, the archbishop said he didn’t think so. it will “work like this” and it “shouldn’t”.

He added that the experience of Supplicants Trust, which caused scandal in the Church in Africa, “It wasn’t pleasant” and that he didn’t think “anyone wants it to happen again.”

For him, in the final document it is clear that those 10 issues “must be dealt with synodally” and he added that the African bishops “pushed” this request so that the organizers of the synod would not “surprise” us but “consult us beforehand”. the final decision comes out.”

Returning to vocations, Archbishop Nkea saw a problem that the synod delegates failed to fully examine the places where vocations are growing, such as in the Church in Africa or traditionally Catholic communities?

He responded by saying he got a sense at the synod of concerns about an “African takeover” of the Church in the West, and that some participants would prefer lay people to serve the communities, rather than foreign priests celebrating the Mass. it did not come out strongly in the final document, but he identified it as a “serious problem” and said it was important to see the work of priests as evangelization, not something imperial. “The synodality has to sort this out,” he said.

The archbishop agreed that vocations are also growing in traditional orders, but said this was not considered at the synod because Traditionis Custodes2021 of the Pope motu proprio that drastically restricted the celebration of the traditional Latin Liturgy. “If Europe is to save itself, it must return to the authenticity of the Church’s teachings,” he said. “Where the teaching of the Church is rigid, people enter; where the teaching of the Church is fluid, people come out. And this is what Europe must realize if it is to maintain Christianity.”

But he sees a larger solution to the crisis of vocations in the Western Church as having to do with overcoming individualism. “Synodality is the greatest fight against individualism,” he said. “Until we kill the culture of individualism and start bringing our Christians back together in those communities (…), the churches will continue to empty.”

In particular, Archbishop Nkea strongly supports the African model of small Christian communities as a solution. “I think once we group together and see ourselves as Christians sharing joys and sorrows together, sharing concerns and anxieties with Christ at the center, then I tell you nothing will destroy us – no matter the wars, no matter the difficulties.” The church in the West, he said, must be humble. “If he is humble and they listen to what Africa has to say, he can help someone.”

On October 23, Archbishop Nkea was elected to a new Ordinary Council. The Vatican says the council will play a “fundamental role both in the implementation of this synodal process on synodality and in the preparation of the next synod.”

For Archbishop Nkea, the synodal process is “here to stay”. He does not see it as a temporary experiment, largely because he says the Church in Africa has practiced synodality for the past 25 years in a provincial pastoral plan. “They can try to change other things back and forth, but at least as a way of participating in governance and mission, synodality must remain,” he said.

Asked if he thought the synod was harmful to evangelization because it gave the impression that the teaching of the Church was fluid and everything was being questioned, even about faith and morals, he replied: “It was a tendency, but it was resisted, because if some of the arguments that came to the discussion have passed, we could no longer call ourselves the Catholic Church.”

He added that, holding the final document in his hand, “I think the Church is still Catholic. And it is still apostolic. What I understood at the synod is that you can’t have everything. It’s a discussion. It’s a give and take. You don’t always get what you want, but at least what Jesus taught won’t change.”