African bishops at the Synod on Synodality played a key role in fending off efforts to give episcopal conferences greater doctrinal autonomy and are satisfied overall with the gathering’s final recommendations, which Pope Francis has formally adopted, a leading African prelate says.

How the African Church would help shape the synod’s concluding assembly was one of the event’s major storylines, in the wake of the continent’s outspoken opposition to the Vatican’s surprising endorsement of same-sex blessings in last year’s Fiducia Supplicans declaration.

“This is one of those synods that Africa came prepared for,” said Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, Cameroon, speaking to the Register in Rome on Oct. 27.

The African delegates are returning home “full of joy,” he said, partly because the final report does not shift doctrinal authority to the episcopal conferences, as some in the West were pushing for.

“We thought that if power to decide on doctrinal issues, or some of that power, shifted to national episcopal conferences, we’d have a chaotic Church,” the archbishop explained.

“Therefore, not only African bishops but other Catholic bishops worried about the unity of the Church argued against that point,” said Archbishop Nkea, who was also a member of the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod that oversaw the running of the 2021-2024 process.

“We agree that episcopal conferences should have a certain degree of leverage with regard to pastoral collaboration, local decisions and acculturation,” he said, “but in matters of faith and morals, the conferences cannot decide.”

Archbishop Nkea told the Register he was more concerned about some of the other paragraphs, such as No. 92, which received some of the most “No” votes. The paragraph concerns amending 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 that point and I voted ‘No,’” he said, adding that he believes other people’s opinions can only be consulted but not deliberated in making decisions.

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

When it was put to him that this still remains a proposition in the final document, he said it is because the issue is to be studied further, but he did not think it would pass. “I don’t see how it will work, at least not in Africa,” he said. “This can’t work.”

Asked about the issue of women deacons and why that continues to be open for discussion 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 of the synod recommends and what the Holy Father says.”

“The Holy Father was not giving points to the synod; it’s the synod that was making recommendations to the Holy Father,” he said. The final document “has not been signed yet but he’s authorized us to go ahead. … The Holy Father has said very clearly that, as for him, ‘this subject is closed, but you can wait sometime later and bring it up. Continue talking, but know my position.’ This is 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 “celebratory styles that make visible the face of a synodal Church.” It also called for the establishment of a specific study group to reflect on how to make liturgical celebrations more an expression of synodality.

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

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

Asked if that was because the most controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues had been given over for members of 10 Vatican-appointed and papally approved study groups to discuss outside the synodal process, and concluding next June, the archbishop said he did not think it will “work that way” and it “should not.”

He added that the experience of Fiducia Supplicans, which caused uproar in the Church in Africa, “was not pleasant” and that he did not think “anyone wants that to repeat itself.”

For him, it is clear in the final document that those 10 issues “should be treated synodally,” and he added that the African bishops “pushed through” that demand so that the synod organizers do not “surprise us” but “consult us before the final decision comes out.”

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

He replied by saying that he picked up a sense in the synod of concerns about an “African takeover” of the Church in the West and that some participants would prefer laypeople carrying out service to communities rather than foreign priests celebrating Mass. He said this 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. “Synodality has to crack that,” he said.

The archbishop agreed that vocations are also growing in traditional orders, but said this was not considered at the synod because of Traditionis Custodes, the Pope’s 2021 motu proprio that sharply restricted celebration of the traditional Latin Mass. “If Europe has to save itself, they have to return to the authenticity of the Church’s teachings,” he said. “Where the Church’s teaching is rigid, people go in; where the Church’s teaching is fluid, people go out. And this is what Europe must realize if they have to maintain Christianity.”

But he sees a greater solution to the vocations crisis in the Church in the West as having to do with overcoming individualism. “Synodality is the biggest fight against individualism,” he said. “Until we kill the culture of individualism and start getting our Christians back together in those communities […] the churches will continue to empty.”

In particular, Archbishop Nkea strongly advocates the African model of small Christian communities as a solution. “I think that once we group ourselves together, and we see ourselves as Christians sharing joys and sorrows together, sharing preoccupations and anxieties with Christ at the center, then I’m telling you, nothing will break us — no matter the wars, the difficulties.” The Church in the West, he said, needs to be humble. “If it is humble, and they listen to what Africa is saying, it can help someone.”

On Oct. 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 has “come to stay.” He does not see it as a temporary experiment, largely because he says that the Church in Africa has been practicing synodality for the past 25 years in a provincial pastoral plan. “They can try to shift other things forward and backwards but, at least as a way of governance participation and mission, synodality has to stay,” he said.

Asked if he thought the synod was damaging to evangelization because it gave the impression that the Church’s teaching was fluid and everything was up for discussion, even on faith and morals, he answered: “It was a tendency, but it was resisted, because if some of the arguments that came to the floor went through, we would not be able to call our Church Catholic anymore.”

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

Source: National Catholic Register