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Cardinal Sarah’s Appeal to Africa’s Delegates to October Synod to Defend “unity of faith” in Order: SECAM President

By ACI Africa Staff

Nairobi, 28 April, 2024 / 11:00 pm (ACI Africa).

The recent appeal that Robert Cardinal Sarah made to delegates representing the Church in Africa at the ongoing Synod on Synodality to emphasize “unity of the faith” rather than specific cultures is in order, the President of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) has said. 

Speaking at an April 25 press conference on the sidelines of the four-day meeting of delegates to represent Africa at the 2-29 October 2024 session of the Synod on Synodality in Rome that concluded on April 26 at Roussel House of Donum Dei Missionary Sisters in Karen in the Catholic Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN), Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo weighed in on the appeal that Cardinal Sarah made during his visit to Cameroon earlier this month.

On April 9, addressing members of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC), Cardinal Sarah said, “At the next session of the Synod, it is vital that the African Bishops speak in the name of the unity of the faith, and not in the name of particular cultures.”

The Guinean-born Cardinal, who, until his retirement in February 2021, was serving as Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, acknowledged with appreciation the contribution of Africa’s delegates at the 4-29 October 2023 session of the Synod on Synodality, which concluded with a 42-page summary report.

He told NECC members on the sidelines of their 49th Plenary Assembly, “At the last Synod, the Church in Africa forcefully defended the dignity of the man and woman created by God. Her voice was ignored and scorned by those whose sole obsession is to please Western lobbies.”

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Citing Fiducia Supplicans (FS), the controversial declaration that the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) released last December permitting the blessing of “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations”, as the latest example of a push for “the culture of relativism” rather than “universality of faith”, Cardinal Sarah went on to laud Catholic Bishops in Cameroon for their collective stance against FS.

At the April 25 press conference in Nairobi, the President of SECAM said, “I followed with much attention Cardinal Sarah’s address (in Cameroon) and I think what he said is true.”

“Fiducia Supplicans wasn't primarily about cultural aspects; rather, it was best approached through the perspectives of theology, morality, the Bible, and the Magisterium,” Cardinal Ambongo said in his response to a journalist’s question regarding Cardinal Sarah’s appeal to Africa’s delegates to Synod on Synodality.

The Local Ordinary of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) underscored the unity of the people of God in Africa against the attempt to normalize same-sex unions through the permission to impart blessings upon “same-sex couples”.

“The Church in Africa is united in communion, there is no division; I think that all over the world, people agree and in one accord with the Church in Africa,” he said, adding, “This is the reason why we shall no longer talk about Fiducia Supplicans; it has been buried.”

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FS, the Congolese member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (OFM Cap.) lamented, “has played a part in trying to bring down this issue of Synodality.” 

However, he said, since the pressure around FS has gone down, “we are coming back on track.”

“We have to also know that we are in an intermediary phase between two sessions; I think it is after the second session and especially after the publication of the apostolic exaltation when things will be simplified,” Cardinal Ambongo said about the ongoing Synod on Synodality, which Pope Francis extended to 2024,.

ACI Africa Staff

ACI Africa was founded in 2019. We provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, giving particular emphasis to the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See, to any person with access to the internet. ACI Africa is proud to offer free access to its news items to Catholic dioceses, parishes, and websites, in order to increase awareness of the activities of the universal Church and to foster a sense of Catholic thought and culture in the life of every Catholic.

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