The Catholic Church in Africa refers to parts of the Catholic Church in various countries on the African continent.
Christian activity in Africa began in the 1st century when the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt was formed as one of the four original ancestors of the East (the other being Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem).
However, the conquest of Islam in the 7th century resulted in a severe decline for Christianity in northern Africa.
However, at least outside of the majority part of North African Islam, the presence of the Catholic Church has recovered and grown in the modern era in Africa as a whole. The membership of the Catholic Church increased from 2 million in 1900 to 140 million in 2000. In 2005, the Catholic Church in Africa, including the Eastern Catholic Church, embraced about 135 million of the 809 million people in Africa. In 2009, when Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa, it was estimated at 158 ​​million. Most come from the Latin Church, but there are also millions of members of the Eastern Catholic Church. By 2025, one-sixth (230 million) of the world's Catholics are expected to be Africans.
The world's largest seminary is in Nigeria, which borders Cameroon in west Africa, and Africa produces a large percentage of the world's priests. There are also 16 Cardinals from Africa, from 192, and 400,000 catechists. Cardinal Peter Turkson, formerly Archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, is the youngest African Cardinal at age 64, and also one of the few prelates from Africa who is thought to be papal papabile in the final papal concert of 2013.
Video Catholic Church in Africa
Histori
Era kuno
Many important members of the early Church originated from Africa, including Mark of Evangelists, Origen, Tertullian, Saint Augustine of Hippo (from Hippo Regius in what is now Annaba, Algeria) and Clement of Alexandria. Churches in eastern North Africa, such as in Egypt and Ethiopia, tend to align with the practice of the Eastern Church, but the churches in the West (the area now known as the Maghreb) are connected with the Roman Church. The first three popes came from the Roman province of Africa. These were Pope Victor I (reigned 189-299), Pope Miltiades (ruled 311 to 314) and Pope Gelasius I (492 to 496) and all were Berber Christians.
Islamic Conquest
The conventional historical view is that the conquest of North Africa by the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate between 647-709 effectively ended Catholicism in Africa for several centuries. The prevailing view is that the Catholic Church at the time did not have the backbone of the monastic tradition and still suffered from heresy including the so-called Donatist bidatis, and this contributed to the extermination of the previous church in the current Maghreb.. Some historians compare this with a strong monastic tradition in the Egyptian Coptic Church, considered a factor that allowed the Coptic Church to remain the majority religion in the country until sometime after the 14th century.
However, a new scholarship has emerged that has addressed this issue. There are reports that the Catholic faith survived in the region from Tripolitania (western Libya today) to present-day Morocco for several centuries after the completion of Islamic conquests in 700 AD Currently there are archaeological excavations in western Libya that are focused on the remnants of the Christian church derived from 10th century. There is also evidence of religious pilgrimage after 850 AD to the tombs of Catholic saints outside the city of Carthage, and evidence of religious contact with Christians in Spain. In addition, the calendar reform adopted in Europe is currently being disseminated among indigenous Christians in Tunis, which is impossible if there is no contact with the Holy See in Rome. Jonathan Conant (Living Romance, Conquest and Identity in Africa and the Mediterranean, 439-700, Cambridge, 2012, pp. 362-370) reviewed the evidence. He declared that Islam did not become a majority in Tunisia until quite late in the 9th century and "the great majority until some time in the tenth," (pp.Ã, 363-64). Christians tend to live in cities and towns and often speak Latin African, "al-Latini al-Afriqi", until "at least the 12th century" (ibid., Pp. 363). In 1076 there were only two bishops left in Africa. Pope Gregory must appoint a third to collect number three to sanctify a new Bishop of Hippo Regius. The decline of Christianity was accelerated in part by the destruction written by the Banu Hilal invasion, sent by the Fatimids in Cairo to punish the Sunni Zaid Islamists. This resulted in Arabic arabization until later Berber and Latin language. In 1159-1160 many of the remaining Christians were evacuated by the Normans to Sicily.
It does look like the local Catholics came under enormous pressure around the time that the Muslim fundamentalist regimes of Almohad and Almoravids came to power, and the records show the demands made from local Christian Tunis to convert to Islam. We still have reports about the Christian population and a bishop in the city of Cairo around 1150 AD - an important report, since the city was founded by Arab Muslims around the year 680 AD as their administrative center after their conquest. A letter in the archives of the 14th century Catholic Church indicates that there are still four remaining dioceses in North Africa, acknowledged by the sharp decline of more than four hundred dioceses at the time of Islamic conquest.
Modern era
In 1830, when France came as a colonial conqueror to Algeria and Tunis, local Catholics were extinguished. The growth of Catholicism in the region after the French conquest was built upon colonizers and European settlers, and these immigrants and most of their descendants went when the countries of the region were independent.
Maps Catholic Church in Africa
Eastern Catholic Church
The Latin Church remains the largest in all continents. However, in eastern Africa, there has been the rise of the Eastern Catholic Church Rule of Alexandria: Coptic Catholic Church, Ethiopian Catholic Church, and Eritrean Catholic Church (2015).
Catholic Monarchy
Although with republican rule prevalent in contemporary times, Africa has a tradition of Catholic kings, such as in the kingdoms of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Modern Africa papabili
In 1920, Hilaire Belloc proclaimed, "The Church is Europe, and Europe is the Church." However, according to Philip Jenkins, the 20th century underwent major changes to the Catholic Church. In 1960, the College of Cardinals had its first Sub-Saharan Africa, Laurean Rugambwa. By deliberate policy, John Paul II chose many Cardinals from Third World countries, and in 2001 they made more than 40 percent of the body. In 2002, Italian Cardinals made up only 15 percent of the College, down from 60 percent in the 1950s.
Jenkins sees the conservatism of Pope John Paul II is very attractive to Catholics in developing countries and tends to be a dominant force in Catholic politics for some time. Francis Arinze, the Nigerian Cardinal and counsel of Pope John Paul II, was considered papabile before the papal papal 2005, which chose Benedict XVI. Because Arinze is considered theologically conservative, Jenkins states that he will bring Africa's "concept of authority and charisma" to the office, not democracy.
Jenkins states, "The prospect of a Black African pope is understandable to excite Christians from all political persuasion." Even Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, three years before his own election as Pope, labeled the African pope's prospects as "wholly reasonable" and "a good omen for all Christians." According to the Financial Times, Africans like Arinze will "increase the popularity" of the church, which faces strong competition in Africa from Pentecostal, Baptist and Evangelical denominations. The Daily Telegraph said that "African papacy is a logical outcome" given that the majority of Catholics now live in developing countries, and in particular, the Catholic Church in Africa "has grown 20-fold since 1980."
At the Pontifical Conference of 2013, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana is called "the most likely candidate" of Africa and is considered a favorite to win the papacy before the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 2013. Furthermore, Cardinal Robert Sarah has been mentioned in the press as a possible candidate for the papacy, both in 2013 and in the upcoming conclaves.
Problem
Islamist Persecution
The persecution of Christians by Islamic groups, such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, remains one of the most difficult issues to be solved for the Catholic Church in Africa.
Celibacy
Although the oath of celibate Catholic priests is a common challenge for all priests in the Catholic Church, for example because of cultural expectations for a man to have a family, Africa presents a particular problem in the subject. At the beginning of the 21st century, due to the continuing questioning of celibacy, Africa is referred to as the area where celibacy violations are so rampant. The priests on the continent are accused of taking wives and concubines. Isolation of priests working in rural Africa, and the low status of women, is said to add temptation. A sect that broke away from a previously married Catholic priest in Uganda, called the Catholic Apostolic Church, formed in 2010 after the excommunication of a priest who was married by Pope Benedict XVI.
See also
- African whale list
- List of African saints
- Roman Catholicism in Asia
- Roman Catholic in North America
- Roman Catholicism in South America
- Roman Catholic in Australia
- Roman Catholicism in Europe
- List of Catholic dioceses in Guinea-Bissau
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments