The Good News and Bad News of African Catholicism

The following essay was published on January 2 by Jozef Duháček at the Slovak website Christianitas and is given here in translation, with permission.—PK

Catholic priest celebrates Mass in Kenya

When you study history, it often happens that what you thought was a historical fact turns out to be just a story with no basis in reality. For example, many Americans grew up believing that the Boston Tea Party took place because the colonists disagreed with the tax imposed on tea by the British government. However, I recently discovered that all the tea was dumped into the sea in Boston in protest against the British government’s plan to subsidize the East India Tea Company and grant it a monopoly in the colonies, with the aim of making British tea cheaper than that which Boston merchants imported from India. The tea party was not a protest against expensive tea, but an act of protectionism against cheap tea. The story of the protest against the British tea tax was just a widespread narrative—and a completely reversed one at that.

Boston Tea Party

Another widespread false historical narrative is that in the Middle Ages, people believed that the earth was flat and that it was Galileo and Columbus who proved that this was not the case. This is a simple, blatant lie. Ancient Greek scholars (Aristotle, Eratosthenes) already knew that the Earth was round, and Eratosthenes even calculated its diameter with relative accuracy (he was off by about 10 percent). The fact that the Earth is round was taught at medieval universities, and the lie about the flat Earth dates back to the 19th century as part of an effort to discredit the Catholic Church.

Another false story says that Marie Antoinette told the French people that if they had no bread, they should eat cake. This is also a complete lie. There is no evidence that she said this, and it was attributed to her during the revolution as propaganda to justify her execution. Many history textbooks mindlessly repeat this story in order to discredit the old regime and glorify the atrocities of the revolution.

History is full of such narratives, and the older we get, the better we are at exposing them. Narratives are repeated, but they are never substantiated. They are used as evidence in other discussions, but they are rarely the subject of discussion themselves. They are convenient, providing an easy sense of certainty without effort (the truth, on the contrary, requires patience, diligence, and careful sifting through details). Narratives are often nested within each other like Russian matryoshka dolls, with smaller narratives forming the building blocks of larger ones, until a monumental edifice of fiction is created, where the individual parts reinforce each other and hold the whole structure together.

A beautiful example of such a construction is the so-called Black Legend, which describes the atrocities committed by the Spanish in the New World. It originated in England and the Netherlands as a propaganda attack by Protestants on the Catholic Spanish Empire. It contains a number of lies, here and there developed from facts taken out of context, which were intended to portray the Spaniards as extremely cruel colonizers, fanatical inquisitors, and racially and culturally backward tyrants.

Perhaps no event in Catholic history has generated as many narratives as the Second Vatican Council. From claims such as “the new lectionary contains more of the Holy Scriptures” to “Eucharistic Prayer II comes from the earliest days of the Church,” decades of fabricated myths have been woven to justify the reforms of the Council and explain the obvious demographic decline. One such widespread myth is: “Although the Church in the West is in crisis, the reforms of the Council have been successful in Africa! Catholicism is flourishing in Africa! The African Church has many vocations, is missionary, and is growing promisingly.” This is what “Catholic” portals, newspapers, and dailies tell us, and many of us believe it without bothering to seek any proof.

Second Vatican Council

In 2023, in an episode of his show “Word on Fire,” Bishop Barron responded to two articles by Ross Douthat in the New York Times about the Second Vatican Council and its failure as follows: Argument No. 1: Blaming the Second Vatican Council for the decline of Catholicism in the West is a logical fallacy known as “post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” Argument No. 2: The growth of the Church in Africa after the Second Vatican Council is due to that very council.

It is not difficult to see that Msgr. Barron is guilty of the same logical fallacy of which he accuses Douthat and others. Nevertheless, this oft-repeated argument about Africa deserves closer examination, as it is one of the great myths of our time.

To be honest, any examination of the state of Catholicism in the “global south” must include the fact that, although Catholicism is growing in absolute numbers due to population growth, Protestant and Pentecostal sects are growing much faster in percentage terms—and tragically attracting many former Catholics into their ranks. This does not sound like an indisputable “success story.”

It is noteworthy that the growth of Catholicism in Africa was proportionally much higher before 1970, i.e., at the end of the so-called “Tridentine” period. The conclusion is inevitable: if the Second Vatican Council was intended not only to preserve the status quo of the 1950s, but also to launch a new evangelization and missionary expansion, then it has failed in Africa.

What we see in the claims about the excellent state of African Catholicism—a myth that is refuted by the facts—is very similar to what we see in almost every discussion about the successes of Vatican II or liturgical reform: an enormous willingness to ignore evidence or perhaps even distort the truth—for ideological reasons.

In Africa, which is very often presented as a showcase for the “successes of Vatican II,” the number of Catholics receiving the sacraments per 1,000 inhabitants has fallen by half since the Council until 2015, as statistics from religionnews.com show: “More Catholics, fewer receiving sacraments: A new report maps a changing church.”

In 1900, Catholics made up 2% of Africa’s population. By the Second Vatican Council, this proportion had risen to 13%. After the Council, the number of Catholics rose to about 18% (according to the World Christian Database), while Protestants doubled their share from 15% to 29% during the same period. The increase in the number of “Catholics” is mainly due to the fact that the population has tripled in absolute terms. In other words, the growth after the Second Vatican Council is mainly due to higher fertility rates and not to conversions or evangelization. In the first 70 years of the 20th century, the number of African Catholics increased sixfold. In the 60 years since the Council, it has only grown by half. What caused this change? Would it have been “worse without the Council,” as the usual phrase goes?

This topic is addressed in a book published by Os Justi Press entitled Is African Catholicism a “Vatican II Success Story”?. This concise book, which brings together contributions by four authors, effectively challenges this narrative by referring to history, liturgy, and common sense.

The well-known claim that Catholicism is flourishing in Africa—that it is the only continent where Vatican II has borne rich fruit—is not consistent with the available data and descriptions, as shown by the reports of the late George Neumayr from Ivory Coast. Moreover, a Nigerian seminarian analyzes the harmful inculturation imposed on Africans by racially stereotyping European liturgists. Claudio Salvucci asks critical questions about the so-called Zairean rite based on Congolese history, and Peter Kwasniewski evaluates the evangelizing potential of preconciliar faith, life, and worship. In Africa, as elsewhere, traditional Catholicism won over entire nations and stimulated enormous cultural creativity. However, under the reign of the new ecclesiology, new ecumenism, and new liturgy of progressive Western intellectuals, more and more people are turning to Protestant sects and uprooted secularism.

It was Neumayr’s articles on this topic in the American Spectator magazine that brought this issue to the forefront of a broader discussion. Neumayr had long questioned the African narrative and traveled to Ivory Coast, one of the most Catholic regions in Africa, to find out the true state of Catholicism there. Unfortunately, Neumayr fell ill and died in Africa in 2023. Only a few of his essays have been published so far, which can be found in this book and are an excellent introduction to the question of African Catholicism. On January 13, 2023, Neumayr posted this comment on social media: “As Freemasons grew stronger in Ivory Coast, they were condemned not by Catholic bishops, but by Pentecostal preachers. (Catholic) bishops only criticized them weakly, out of fear after it came to light that they had allowed the head of the lodge to receive Holy Communion.”

In his final weeks, he published a series of articles in The American Spectator that are instructive, albeit depressing, and testify to the decline of Catholicism in Ivory Coast and the many parallels with other parts of post-conciliar Africa. Neumayr was a man of keen observation, and he wittily shows that Catholicism in Ivory Coast is very, very far from its heyday. Neumayr effortlessly introduces foreigners to the issues of contemporary African culture and liturgical life through an interesting travelogue. His visit to Ivory Coast, especially its capital city, offers a valuable insight into the decline caused by the post-colonial situation. We learn that the rule of Western states (whatever its shortcomings) was not the only stabilizing factor that has been removed over the past seventy years. The ancient Roman liturgy, which once evangelized and united these countries, has been replaced by a rite that has become a source of division owing to the multitude of local dialects; speakers are humiliated when this or that dialect, not their own, is chosen as the language of celebration for a particular Mass.

The longest contribution to the book is by an anonymous African seminarian who discusses in detail the problems of inculturation in Africa. His section is extremely instructive and reveals the failures of inculturation.

As this seminarian shows, the enormous fragmentation is further exacerbated by the political progressivism of many parish priests who promote socialism from the pulpit and allow heresy to flourish in their communities. One of the officially tolerated forms of heresy, as the seminarian explains, is liturgical inculturation, which has been spreading in Africa since the Second Vatican Council. Based on numerous scholarly sources, he explains how inculturation differs from adaptation, which was a healthy way in which the Church once integrated its liturgical rites into the healthy aspects of a culture. It is worth noting that the idea of an “inculturated” African liturgy did not originate with Africans themselves, but with European experts who speculated on what would best suit their African brothers.

One of the most interesting reflections in the book comes from this essay, where the author rejects the idea that liturgy in indigenous languages can save those languages:

Latin has never been a threat to the Igbo language, but English is. And this is not because English is taught in school or sometimes used in the church, but principally because Igbo is no longer spoken in many Igbo homes, no longer the mother tongue; making it the liturgical language does not help. The English language may indeed threaten the identity of the Igbo people, but post- Christian Western values, torn as it were from God and from the natural law, pose a mortal and infernal danger. A largely sentimental revitalization of traditional Igbo customs and its incorporation into the liturgy stand little chance in stemming the surging and sophisticated onslaught of the decadent West. (p. 67)

This section is indeed very interesting and is complemented by chapters by Claudio Salvucci, which describe what the adaptation of the liturgy before the Council looked like in practice. Salvucci writes about the Catholic Kingdom of Congo and points out that efforts to inculturate a kind of constructed “paradisiacal” African heritage actually ignore the real history of African Catholicism and erase the very heritage that we claim to want to respect. Unlike the modern “Zairean rite,” which includes ceremonies that were never part of traditional African Catholic culture, the Mass in the presence of the King of Congo had several elements that organically integrated his royal role into the liturgy—without violating a single prescribed rubric of the Mass. Salvucci asks: “How can we speak of the inviolability of non-Catholic customs and demand their preservation in the Church when at the same time we discard our own native Catholic customs and culture?”

Unfortunately, this is exactly what has happened in Africa over the past 70 years, and the alleged fruits of these changes do not correspond to the simple narrative we have all heard—namely, that “the Church in Africa has experienced a genuine renaissance since the Council!” On the contrary, as the Nigerian seminarian and Dr. Peter Kwasniewski clearly show in graphs depicting quantitative data, the pace of growth on the continent has slowed dramatically since 1970, even though the number of Catholics continues to increase due to population growth. This change cannot be fully explained by secularization, as the growth rate of Protestant sects is increasing while that of Catholicism is declining.

Kwasniewski describes the unifying power of the old Mass, whose homogeneity and rituality have brought millions of Africans to Catholicism in past centuries. The revival of the old Mass in several places on the continent gives great hope for its spread in the future, so that the important task of cultural adaptation and flourishing can continue unhindered. Kwasniewski recalls that Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was a missionary in Africa from 1932 to 1959, and under his leadership, Catholicism spread extensively in the regions of Africa for which he was responsible. These included twelve archdioceses, thirty-six dioceses, and thirteen Italian apostolic prefectures.

As elsewhere in the world, Africans were denied something that was already a precious part of their Catholic heritage. Several thriving parishes with traditional Latin Masses in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Gabon, suggest that African Catholics would perhaps flock to these Masses if they were more accessible. Their inaccessibility cannot therefore be used as an argument against their appeal or power.

Another significant problem that the proponents of the success story of Vatican II in Africa tactfully conceal is the shameless mixing of pagan practices into Catholic liturgy and faith.

Rev. Edwin Ezeokeke, a doctoral student in systematic theology at the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, wrote a thesis entitled Theological Analysis of Syncretic and Pagan Beliefs and Customs in Catholic Funerals in Igboland, Nigeria, in which he lists a number of animistic rituals and beliefs that tarnish the beautiful image of the African Church. He concludes his thesis with the words:

Many people in Igboland are Catholics but Catholic faith and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ especially his teachings on death and resurrection are yet to take deep root in their lives. This is why many Catholic faithful incorporate lots and lots of pagan practices and beliefs in the Catholic burials and funerals. Many see this as inculturation. But as I have said above, inculturation is never and will never be syncretism. They are two different things with totally different meanings. Inculturation is recommended for evangelization. It entails a sincere and honest appreciation of the dimensions of other cultures in so far it does not alter the main essence of the Church’s identity. Syncretism alters the main essence and meaning of the Church’s identity. This is exactly what the above pagan practices do to Catholic Church in Igboland especially as it concerns her burial and funeral rites. These practices completely alter the entire essence and meaning of the Catholic burials and funerals.

Der Spiegel magazine published an article by Thilo Thielke entitled “Christianity in Africa: Jesus in the Morning, Voodoo in the Evening,” in which he vividly describes how animism mixes with the Christian faith. In the text, he quotes voodoo shaman John Odeh:

“Christianity has destroyed our culture. The people have lost faith in our ancient gods and values,” the animist priest laments. Ape skulls, amulets and shells are laid out on the concrete floor of the adjacent garage. Figures of Ogun, the god of iron, Orunmila, the god of wisdom, and Olokun, the god of waters, adorn this unusual shrine. Osalobua, the supreme God, punishes theft swiftly and without mercy, says Odeh. And the dead hear every lie told by the living. “The pastors go to church in the morning and preach Christianity,” says the voodoo priest. “And in the evening they come to me and speak with their forefathers.”

I personally heard the testimony of a priest from France, where the shortage of local priests is being remedied by importing priests from former African colonies. This priest said that Africans first celebrate a new Mass in the church and then spend the whole evening drumming and chanting their pagan rituals in the rectory. “But without the Council, it would probably have been worse…” (!).

However, the overall message of this introductory book is very positive. Perhaps it will open the door to further study of the Church in Africa, as it would be helpful to see an even stronger emphasis on demography.

Mark Twain once said, “The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it’s that they know so many things that just aren’t so.” This book is an excellent response to those who “know so many things that simply are not true” about Africa. The book Is African Catholicism a “Vatican II Success Story”? can be obtained from Os Justi Press or from any Amazon outlet.

A Vindication of St Pius X on Sacred Music and Perspectives on the Church in Africa

Os Justi Press is pleased to announce a pair of new releases.

First, in the “Studies in Catholic Tradition” series, we have Dr. Patrick John Brill’s The Great Sacred Music Reform of Pope St. Pius X: The Genesis, Interpretation, and Implementation of the Motu Proprio “Tra le Sollecitudini”

Professional singer and choir conductor Dr. Andrew Childs sums it up well: “Dr. Patrick Brill provides thorough and much-needed support for what many traditional-minded Catholics have long known or at least suspected: that St. Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio Tra le Sollectitudini still provides the surest guide for the restoration of Catholic sacred music. Part I of this book provides a detailed commentary on the motu proprio, enlightening for amateur and expert alike, while Part II examines the document’s fate from the time of Pius to today, looking at its canonical force and status, positive efforts of implementation, and the neglect it has suffered since Vatican II. As tradition continues to make crucial gains, it will be books like this that serve as practical guides for restoration.”

The new president of the Church Music Association of America, Fr. Robert C. Pasley, concurs:

“Despite the sorry state of music in the Church today, the official documents of the Church still clearly proclaim that Gregorian chant has ‘first place’ (principem locum) in the liturgy. St. Pius X’s motu proprio is the definitive teaching on this subject. Brill’s book is valuable for Church musicians, an immersion in the fundamentals… A fascinating and important read.”

Music director Jonathan Bading, the coordinator of the massive Palestrina500 festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan, adds:

“St. Pius X’s motu proprio on sacred music is the bravest, loftiest, most exhaustive attempt ever to protect and promulgate the precious musical riches of our Roman Rite. Brill’s work particularly shines by placing this great document in its tumultuous historic context and by thoroughly dismissing the naysayers who attempt to water down the urgency of this holy pope’s directives.”

Dr. Edward Schaefer, musicologist and president of the Collegium Sanctorum Angelorum  notes the timeliness of Brill's study:

“Even though they met with certain challenges, these reforms [of Pius X] supported both the twentieth-century revival of chant and a renewed sensitivity to the importance of music in the liturgy…. Patrick Brill’s study comes at an opportune moment, when Catholics are increasingly rejecting the banality of much of today’s ‘church music.’ Brill’s work conveniently gathers into a slim volume the historical context of Pius X’s reforms, the reforms themselves, their implementation, and the place of these reforms in a Church rediscovering tradition. It will be a standard resource.”

Lastly, music professor and author Susan Treacy points to its practicality:

“An indispensable volume for every Catholic—musician or not—who wants to understand the sacred music of the Church.… Provides a detailed exegesis and history of Pius X’s 1903 motu proprio on sacred music Tra le Sollecitudini, as well as the subsequent history of Catholic liturgical music through the aftermath of Vatican II.… Also offers a plan to help pastors and musicians restore sacred music in today’s Catholic parishes, according to the evergreen reforms of St. Pius X.”

*  *  *

The second new release is in a rather different vein: a collection of essays around the theme of the state of Catholicism on the African continent.
 

The familiar claim that Catholicism is booming in Africa—that it is the one continent where the Second Vatican Council has yielded abundant good fruits—does not square with available data and descriptions, as we discover in the late George Neumayr’s articles on Ivory Coast, a Nigerian Catholic’s analysis of harmful inculturation inflicted on Africans by racially stereotyping European liturgists, Claudio Salvucci’s questioning of the Zaire Use on the basis of Congolese history, and Peter Kwasniewski’s evaluation of the evangelical potency of preconciliar faith, life, and worship. In Africa as elsewhere, traditional Catholicism conquered whole populations and fostered immense cultural creativity. Under the new ecclesiology, new ecumenism, and new liturgy of progressive Western intellectuals, ever-larger numbers are falling away to Protestant sects and deracinating secularism.

What readers are saying:

“Accessible and informative, this agile volume…questions much of the received wisdom about the alleged ‘success’ of the Catholic Church in Africa in the last few decades… Will introduce the reader to an ecclesial reality far more problematic and fractured than the naively optimistic portrayals often found in Catholic publications… An important critique of simplistic accounts of liturgical inculturation.” —Thomas Cattoi, PhD, Angelicum, Rome

“Serves as a welcome corrective foray into a fraudulent historiography…based on eurocentric ideological preoccupations.” —Michael Kakooza, PhD, Eastern Africa

“The entirety of this book, brimming with intelligent observations and illustrated with unknown and appealing historical examples, will trigger conversations that should not be postponed.” —Fr. Federico Highton, PhD, ThD; co-founder of two sub-Saharan parishes

“As a priest celebrating the traditional Latin Mass in East Africa for twenty years, I appreciate your collective work. The Catholic Faith has been damaged by the new spirit of this council in Africa like everywhere else, even if the consequences are not of the same magnitude (yet).” —Rev. Christophe Nouveau, Kampala, Uganda

146 pages, full color, in paperback, hardcover, or ebook.

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Both books are available directly from the publisher:

Brill on Pius X | paperback $14.95 | hardcover $21.95 | ebook $9.95

African Catholicism | paperback $16.95 | hardcover $24.95 | ebook $9.95

Or from any Amazon outlet (see, e.g., here and here).

Catholic Folk Piety - A Defense by Philip Campbell

I think our readers will find this video by the ever-wise Phillip Campbell of the blog Unam Sanctam Catholicam very interesting (like all his work). It is a defense of Catholic folk piety, which is to say, devotional customs and practices which have arisen spontaneously among the people, and not from the Church’s official rites. He makes a very good point when he repeats an observation of Chesterton (who also had a lot of wisdom to offer on this matter), regarding the attitude of modernism and modernity to such customs. People like to say that all religions look different, but in essence teach the same thing, but the truth is exactly the opposite: all religions look alike, but teach different things, and this in turn provides a very useful way of understanding how folk piety relates to the Church’s liturgical life. I also found useful Mr Campbell’s explanation of why attempts to incorporate such practices into the liturgy in the name of inculturation are so often such an embarrassing failure. 

By the way, Mr Campbell informs me that his ongoing series about the attacks on the sacrament of Confession in the journal Consilium will likely resume shortly. (See the already published parts at these links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)  

A Bill To Prescribe Traditional Architectural Styles for Federal Buildings

Beautiful architecture by the people, for the people, and of the people?

Last Wednesday, Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, introduced legislation to codify an executive order by former President Trump that made classical architecture the model for new government buildings, an order which was axed by President Biden. He was recently interviewed on the subject by on Fox News.

The “Beautifying Federal Civic Architecture Act” declares “traditional and classical” architectural styles to be preferred for new Federal government buildings. This offers hope, at least, that we might again see a national culture that is beautiful and is in harmony with Christian values.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, famously said on coming to the US (quoting Dostoevsky) that, ‘Beauty will save the world.’ I would assert that in order to save the world, we must first save America, and that in order to do that, beauty must save America. I write as one, incidentally, who recently became an American citizen, because I want to help save the West through beauty.

Those who wish to see a strong American society rooted in traditional values focus, quite rightly, on the political battles, but can forget at times that this ought to be an urgent cultural battle as well. This is a shame, because a noble and accessible culture of beauty is the greatest ally that those politicians who strive for what is good in America can have. As the British conservative philosopher, the late Roger Scruton, put it, when the world around us is beautiful, ‘it tells us that we are at home in the world.’

When we are at home in the world, our desire is to conserve and develop further what is good, rather than to destroy the institutions of society. Furthermore, beauty inspires in us love for our fellow men, generates a culture of faith and virtue that supports the generation of wealth, and our desire to care for the poor. I have previously written about this principle here.

The neo-Marxist theorists who have steadily gained control of the institutions that influence culture in the West understand this well. They have nothing but disdain for the common taste, and for decades, they have deliberately sought to further their political goals by promoting a contemporary culture of ugliness, despair and death, in order to spark revolutionary and destructive anger directed against the America of the Founding Fathers. Beauty raises our hearts and minds to God, and in so doing, reinforces our desire to live by American values, which are rooted in Scripture and Judeo-Christian values. The Marxists know this, even if many Christians seem not to. Accordingly, the Marxists push ugliness, because they know it undermines traditional values. Their architecture of despair distracts our gaze from ‘heavenly things’, as St Paul puts it, and hence from an adherence to objective truth, leaving us vulnerable to manipulation by false propaganda.

The brutalist US Dept of Health and Human Services, the Hubert H Humphrey building. This speaks directly of the disdain that the elites who push this style have for those whom they serve. It says, ‘You may not like it, but we know better than you, as with everything else we do.’

I was delighted therefore to see in December 2020, right at the end of his term, that President Donald Trump (not a man popularly associated with high culture) issue a barely noticed Executive Order mandating that federal buildings should adopt the traditional American style of classical architecture. I wrote about it at the time as a move that would set a standard for American buildings that could be a visible symbol of the traditional American values of faith, freedom and justice. At last, I thought, at the highest level, we have a move that recognizes the importance of culture in preserving and promoting American values, which are rooted in Judeo-Christian values. “If the EO survives the next administration, it will, contrary to what it’s critics on the left claim, likely encourage creativity, authentic originality, and a new richness in architectural style that can be the driving force for a beautiful American culture that speaks authentically of its past and directs us hopefully to its future.”

It turns out that was an important ‘if’. Within a month of Joe Biden becoming President, the EO was scrapped.

Now, thanks to Rep Jim Banks, there is a proposed bill that seeks to do the same, and which adds more detail and direction to the original mandate. For example, as his press release tells us, it specifies that: 

“The term ‘traditional architecture’ includes classical architecture; and the historic humanistic architecture, including Gothic, Romanesque, Pueblo Revival, Spanish Colonial, and other Mediterranean styles of architecture historically rooted in various regions of America, the bill states. 

The bill denounces modern, ‘brutalist’ styles of buildings made popular in the 20th century, defined as a ‘massive and block-like appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of exposed poured concrete.’ Buildings should instead be modeled after ‘Greek and Roman antiquity’ like the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court. 

Banks said his bill aims to restore respect for the beauty of traditional American culture. 

A 2020 poll from the National Civic Art Society found that 72% of American respondents prefer classical and traditional design for federal buildings. Justin Shubow, president of the National Civic Art Society, said he is fully behind Banks' bill. 

"It is crucial that the design of federal buildings reflects the preferences of ordinary Americans — namely, that such buildings be beautiful, uplifting, and designed in a classical or traditional style.”

I am hoping that this bill might make progress, and even if not made law, might set the standard for how legislation can have an impact on the culture. 

Setting an example that will drive a wider American culture of beauty. 

On the whole, I believe that the culture is not created from the top-down, but from the bottom up. It is a pattern of how ordinary people interact and behave. So it is appropriate that a federal bill limits its attentions to the aspect of American architecture that it should properly be concerned with, that is federal architecture. This way, its influence beyond that is by example only. If people like what they see, they will be inspired to follow suit in the building design that they have an influence over. 

The Supreme Court building

Architecture for the people, not the elites 

This bill reflects a proper government concern for serving the people. If the views of ordinary people were taken into account, then I am pretty sure there would be no modernist architecture ever. (I am using modern in a broad sense to mean those styles that arise from a conscious rejection of Western tradition). A poll referred to by the drafters of the bill indicated that classical was the preferred style of the public and of federal workers - those who will actually have to look at and work in the buildings. This does not surprise me. In my experience of decades of talking to people about art and culture, it is the many - ordinary people (who don’t consider themselves members of the cognoscenti) who prefer traditional designs. On the other hand, it is the few - elites who are inclined to tell us what we ought to like - who advocate modernist designs, and who dominate the teaching institutions that form the architects who go on to design such buildings. 

A move that will encourage originality and creativity 

One argument that I am sure will be used against the bill is that it will stifle creativity. In fact, in my opinion, the opposite will happen. It will encourage a richer and more authentically American diversity of beautiful architecture than that produce by modernist architects.

As a rule, in art, if you define limits to creativity in one direction, creativity finds room for maneuver in other directions. Rather than being a prescription for sameness and sterility, it is exactly the opposite: a mandate for beautiful creativity and variety. 

History confirms this. Some of the most admired architectural styles began as attempts to copy the past. Without deliberate intent from the architects, their work was a product of the time and place in which it was created as well. So, for example, the High Renaissance classical style began as an attempt to recreate the classical style of the ancient Romans and Greeks. It quickly became its own distinct form of classicism known as Palladian architecture and in turn morphed into English Georgian and the American colonial style.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Inculturation: A Wrong Turn - Part 5: More on the Africanism of the Zaire Usage, and the Failure of Inculturation

This is the conclusion of a guest essay on the problems of inculturation in the liturgy, written by a Nigerian Catholic, whom we thank profusely for sharing it with us. Here are the links to the previous parts: part 1; part 2; part 3; part 4. The entire essay may be downloaded as a PDF here.

Besides the “invocation of ancestors” and lively singing and dancing, other unique features of the Zaire Usage that have been held up as genuinely African include the role of a liturgical announcer, which parallels the role of a town crier in many African communities, and the placement and nature of the penitential rite, “whose structure is inspired by the African palaver.” [85] The last two innovations are drawn from the social organization and operation of African communities. There is no doubt that the Church’s liturgy and organization have been influenced and have influenced the structure of secular government over the course of history. [86] However, the services of town criers were certainly not restricted to African communities, nor were they ever employed in Africa or anywhere else for the moderation of the religious function of the community in the capacity of the “liaison between the priest and the assembly” [87] as stipulated in the Zaire Usage. In traditional African religions, as in many other religions of the world, past and present, the priest or priestess is the liaison between the people and the deity. An “official” role for the town crier or “announcer or herald, who is neither a religious nor a priest” [88] beyond the marketplace or street corners and well within the shrine of the gods, is unheard of, and cannot even be imagined.

Touching the placement and nature of the penitential rite that was said to have been inspired by the African palaver, it is obvious that parleying and reconciliation need not belong exclusively to Africans. Neither should the liturgy be tinkered with in order to teach history lessons or re-enact social practices long obsolete. [89] Overall, it is hard to see anything genuinely African and at the same time genuinely relevant to the liturgy in the two organizational innovations in the Zaire Usage, but it is not hard to see a common thread in the novelties: the weakening of the ministerial priesthood in favor of lay participation. The “announcer” innovation does this overtly while the allusion to the African palaver in positioning the penitential rite approaches the same goal more covertly.

The failure of Inculturation and insights from this failure

If inculturation or liturgical adaptation seeks to help the local population pray in a way which, while being natural to them, has been purified and elevated by the light of the Gospel and the Christian civilization, then inculturation, as has been practiced in Africa with the Zaire Usage its apex, has been an unqualified failure. This same conclusion applies to inculturation implemented in other parts of the Catholic world. The relevant data cited earlier showed that no modern effort at liturgical inculturation has invigorated the local Catholic population or accelerated the conversion of non-Catholics. On the contrary, in every part of the world, various sects and false religions are snatching souls at alarming rates from the fold of Christ.

One thing that must be clear from the failure of the recent efforts at inculturation across the Catholic world is that true inculturation, like any genuine cultural advancement, knows of no central committee of experts and elites working out an on-the-spot program of revision or innovation. A genuine culture grows organically. It borrows; it always does; but only that which has grown organically and stood the test of time. It survives and flourishes by establishing clear demarcations between the various aspects or levels of life in the community, without disconnecting these. The demarcations erected by genuine cultures are “semi-permeable,” i.e., they allow the exchange of refined elements between the cultural levels. In a balanced culture, each level grows naturally, influencing and being influenced by the other levels, but in such a way that the cultus, theology and/or ultimate philosophy of the people have the final and binding say in what is uprooted or allowed to grow.

The example of antebellum Irish American society

The musical organization of Irish Catholic parish life in pre-war United States provides us a good example of a natural ordering of community life, showcasing organic development, natural demarcations, and the flux of refined elements between the cultural segments over time. The five distinct musical categories, evidence of natural demarcations, which existed in this community, may be described as liturgical, devotional, sodality, social, and home music. [90]

Liturgical music, which is usually in Latin and following the norms of the universal Church, is at the heart of the community and used exclusively in solemn liturgical ceremonies. Next is devotional music, which could be in the vernacular, but of style and text suitable for religious use. Devotional music may feature in “low” Masses or other liturgical or extra-liturgical ceremonies. The sodality music category included not only the music that is used in pious associations in the parish, but also the music produced by political clubs, parochial schools, and other interest groups that meet or are organized under the auspices of the parish. The music in this category is usually in the vernacular and may vary substantially in style and subject. The various forms of music employed in Catholic public events such as St Patrick’s Day celebrations and other cultural events are here described as social music. Social music is typically in the vernacular and the style is dictated by popular taste. At their homes, Catholics made music for purposes of devotion, amusement, and education, which may be in the vernacular or in Latin.

(Young people in Ireland sing the Sanctus of Fauré’s Requiem.)

It should be noted that the category of devotional music is a hybrid of sacred and secular music with elements of the former predominating. The secular elements may predominate in the sodality music, which is also a hybrid category. These hybridizations are evidences of the natural exchange occurring across the musical demarcations. The overall musical organization was profoundly successful in inculcating and transmitting the Catholic Faith and the Irish traditional culture – as much of that culture that could be re-lived in a foreign land. The community joyfully and profitably “sang the ‘music of the Catholic Church’ and the songs of Thomas Moore, Samuel Lover, and the ‘national airs of Ireland’ ” [91] in Latin, Irish, and English. Both sacred and secular music performed by the Irish Catholic community attained professional excellence and attracted huge crowds of people, Catholics and non-Catholics, in audiences when performed at Mass or concert. [92] There was no incentivization of bad music by forcing it on helpless parishioners under the guise of liturgical adaptation. [93] Naturally, but not without some controversies, cross-pollination between music categories abounded, with the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church serving as the ultimate arbiter in sacred matters and popular taste the arbiter in the secular. [94]

The Irish Catholic music life in pre-war United States clearly shows that to engage the cultural depth of a local population, there is no need to replace Latin with Gaeilge or Igbo or to substitute Catholic pieties with druidic or animist rituals. Even before the migration to America, and this for centuries and in the face of the most brutal persecution, Ireland held fast with love to the truth and liturgy of the Catholic Church expressed mostly in Latin. This language and discipline that was described as “dead” and “foreign” was certainly alive and familiar to the Irish soul. So great was Ireland’s loyalty to the Traditional Latin Mass that men and women, literate or unlettered, were willing to, and many in fact did, give up everything, land, culture, and life for the joy of “Introibo ad altare Dei.” [95] Shockingly, such an undaunted Catholic will as was Irish that “survived dungeon, fire, and sword,” [96] did not survive liturgical inculturation and disciplinary accommodation to contemporary cultures. [97] It follows then that while inculturation is made to pass as an innocuous and beneficial practice, the overwhelming evidence shows that it is a life-threatening invasive procedure with no known case of holistic success.

Conclusion

The inescapable conclusion from our brief survey is that whether in Ireland, Nigeria, Brazil, the Philippines, the USA or any part of the Catholic world, modern inculturation was a wrong turn for the Church and for civilization. “And if you have taken a wrong turning,” C. S. Lewis remarked, “then to go forward does not get you any nearer [to your goal].” [98] This is common sense. “If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road…” [99] What we must do cannot be simpler and more concrete. And we know what the right road to walk back to is. In Microsoft’s Windows, it used to be called the “Last Known Good Configuration” option. In the Catholic Church, that configuration has always been the Traditional Latin Mass and its associated liturgical disciplines. The least any bishop can do is to give the Traditional Latin Mass a chance after the letter and spirit of Summorum Pontificum. Let us start there generously and see the dry bones rise again! [100]

NOTES (numeration continued from previous articles)

[85] Conference Episcopale du Zaire quoted by Chase N. P., 2013, 6, 1, p. 33

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Inculturation: A Wrong Turn - Part 4: The Zaire Usage and False Africanism in the Liturgy

We continue with the fourth part of this guest essay by a Nigerian Catholic on the problems of liturgical inculturation. The first two parts were published earlier this month (part 1; part 2; part 3).

Returning to the Zaire Usage and drawing from our discussions above, we are compelled to admit that the excited singing and dancing at the Vatican on the First Sunday of Advent in 2019 that made such glowing headlines in the global media were neither a unique African religious/cultural expression nor were they the most dignified actions at the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass. Dancing as a liturgical or devotional exercise has existed in many societies, African and non-African, and in several of these communities, including traditional Jewish and Christian communities, reverence for the divine has meant that such expression of excitement was kept away from the most sacred action of religion or the principal cultus. Many traditional African religions extensively employ the emotion of fear to elicit and maintain religious fervor. [74] Practitioners are strictly obliged to offer sacrifice and libation or suffer grave consequences. [75] Such stringent obligation requires for compliance, and confers on the associated religious service, a stern and terrifying outlook. Hence, the attitude of “respectful distance” in dealing with the sacred that is practiced in traditional African societies. [76]

This fact was graphically related by Chinua Achebe in his novel Things Fall Apart [77], from which it is evident that nothing could be more out-of-place, even downright “sacrilegious”, than a smiling and swaying worshipper, dancing to the tune of rhythmic joyful music, at a sacrifice or divination service in the shrine of Agbala or Amadioha or any of the other Alusi or deity of traditional Igbo religion.

The cover of the first edition of Things Fall Apart. (Fair use file from Wikimedia Commons)

But how then did the notion of lively singing and joyous dancing become so intimately connected with the religious expressions of Africans in modern times if such behaviors, in that context, are alien to the indigenous religion? We must look for the root of the rhythmic dance music not in the cultus of the African people but in their secular cultures or social tradition. In marked contrast to the petrifying scene of divination painted by Achebe, his description of a village wrestling contest showcase the delightful and lively atmosphere we have come to associate with African religious sentiments. [78]

Thus, rhythm, excitement, and frenzy, those supposed iconic marks of African religious expressions, are in fact “the unmistakable wrestling dance – quick, light and gay [79], ” or the overriding sentiments of other social functions that are only tangentially related to the traditional religion rather than typifying it. Interpreting Achebe in Things Fall Apart, one readily comes to the conclusion that while Africans may be extravagant in their joy when at play, they have the tendency, or rather intuition, of assuming a more or less severe and somber air when they pray. Africans understand that prayer is not, and should not be a joke. Furthermore, Achebe contrasted the gravity of the pre-colonial Igbo people in religious matters with the jovial mood of evangelical Protestantism as follows:

“Then the missionaries burst into song. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an l[g]bo man.” [80]

Protestantism is an attempt to demystify and popularize the Catholic Faith. It is the removal of elements which offend contemporary sensibility, and the injection of accessible and “respectable” notions. Such popularization amounts to secularization, the turning away from the divine to the human. This is why the Protestantization of Europe was only a step away from its secularization. Similarly, the identification of native African cultus with secular African cultures in the popular psyche, the identification of how indigenous Africans pray with how they play, and the transfer of these playful ethos (rather than the prayerful) into Catholic liturgy as inculturation constitute genuine liturgical popularization and secularization. It is the direct parallel of introducing rock music or operatic singing into the liturgy in the United States or in Italy in the name of inculturation. Such actions merely trivialize and secularize the liturgy, stripping it of its mystery and solemnity.

The world-acclaimed Missa Luba, “an African setting of the Mass sung in Latin,” [81]  originally performed by a Congolese choir under the direction and inspiration of Belgian priest Guido Haazen, was developed entirely from tunes drawn from the Congolese repertoire of traditional folk music rather than from the stock of religious music. Why? Maybe this is because the religious music is largely unpopular or largely undeveloped. These two possibilities are derivatives, I think, of the extreme austerity of native African religious disposition. We do not thereby inculturate the Mass in the Congo when we ask the Congolese to pray as they would play. We merely trivialize and secularize the sacred function. Missa Luba was a huge success in several concert halls in Europe and across the world, and rightly so, because it was an innovative composition for concerts, a novel exhibition of African rich secular music tradition. It was not intended, nor was it suitable, for use as prayer at Mass, just as operatic settings of the Mass are unsuitable in Italy or in any part of the Catholic world. This thought was more fully developed in St. Pius X’s Tra Le Sollecitudini, which declared:

“Among the different kinds of modern music, that which appears less suitable for accompanying the functions of public worship is the theatrical style, which was in the greatest vogue, especially in Italy, during the last century. This of its very nature is diametrically opposed to Gregorian Chant and classic polyphony, and therefore to the most important law of all good sacred music.” [82]

To maintain the effective and necessary demarcation between the playground and the sacred ground, St. Pius X insisted that musical compositions “which are admitted in the Church may contain nothing profane, be free from reminiscences of motifs adopted in the theaters, and be not fashioned even in their external forms after the manner of profane pieces.” [83]

There is hardly any doubt that Missa Luba and other African musical compositions of the Mass contributed to the development of the Zaire Usage. [84] Today, whether in a Mass celebrated according to the Zaire Usage or any other inculturated forms of the Roman Rite celebrated in Africa, music in the Missa Luba style, or forms much more unrestrained and theatrical, have become normative. While it is true that in some instances such inculturated liturgical services do afford some opportunity for prayer and union with the Sacrifice, I have many experiences in several parishes across Nigeria in which the sacred function was reduced to almost a mere jamboree, especially during fundraisers such as Uka bia nara Ngozi, Harvest Thanksgiving or Seed Sowing, etc. Unfortunately, such fundraisers within the Mass are increasing in frequency and excesses in many parts of Nigeria.

The disturbing secularization of the liturgy that goes with inculturation bridges the gap Achebe noted in Things Fall Apart between native African stern approach to religion and the happy-clappy mood of Protestantism, especially the Pentecostal camp. It should be noted that the popularization introduced into the Mass under the guise of inculturation is often behind the latest trends in Pentecostalism, whose raison d’être is religious secularization or rapprochement with the zeitgeist. One result of this state of things is that Catholics unsatisfied with half-measure popularization in their parishes stream into one of the up-to-date Protestant congregation. Hence, inculturation is arguably the main reason why Catholics in Nigeria defect to Pentecostal or Evangelical groups.

NOTES (numeration continued from previous article):

[74] Wielzen, D. R., 2009, p. 43

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Inculturation: A Wrong Turn - Part 3: Common Assumptions about Inculturation

We continue with the third part of this guest essay by a Nigerian Catholic on the problems of liturgical inculturation. The first two parts were published last week (part 1; part 2.)

Having completed our short overview of the propositions usually advanced in support of inculturation, and seen how unfounded these assertions are; we will now briefly explore the foundations of a number of scholarly and popular assumptions connected with inculturation in general and African religiosity in particular.

I. Mutual enrichment

We will start off with the common talk about the mutual enrichment of the local and universal Church that necessarily results from inculturation or liturgical adaptation to particular communities. Without denying the salutary effect of genuine liturgical adaption and the beauty of ordered diversity, it is important to remind ourselves of the other reality: we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Keeping the victual metaphor, it is to be expected that one who has always drunk coffee will likely contribute little to a discussion on tea tasting. Likewise, to the extent and in the respect that a local Church adapts a unique practice, to that extent and in that respect is she decoupled from the universal practice of the Church. As discussed earlier, diversity per se is not an evil; on the contrary, it may be a great good, especially if there were legitimate grounds for it. Nevertheless, for the wellbeing of the polity, such deviations from the universal should be the exceptions rather than the rule. Liturgical uniformity, on the other hand, by building a liturgical bridge, as it were, between two or more cultures and nations with different temperaments and persuasions, does result in mutual enrichment of the Church’s communities, as the history of the Church give ample witness to.

As a case in point, the Carolingian kings only desired that their kingdom pray as Rome did, but in their humility, they not only granted their people a share in the heritage of Rome, the principal See of Christendom, but afforded the Gallican rite the unique opportunity of substantially enriching the ancient Roman Use itself. The resulting Frankish-Roman liturgy became the liturgical and disciplinary patrimony of the Church in the West. [58] This liturgical tradition and the associated disciplines and principles produced Western civilization, and not the other way round. [59]

Charlemagne’s Palatine Chapel at Aachen. Image from Wikimedia Commons by Horst J. Meuter, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Christian Faith as expressed in the Roman Liturgy and discipline, in its original or hybrid forms, has had as much efficacy in civilizing the pagan and primitive tribes of Europe as it could have in civilizing the pagan and primitive tribes of Africa, if it is allowed to work its way into the fibres of the cultures of the latter as it did in the former. Unfortunately, a hasty effort at the “Africanization” of the Liturgy, sometimes driven by ideologies antithetical to the Faith, and often times without any objective evaluation of the impact, has stalled the salutary effect of the Latin heritage in Africa. A relevant example that presents itself is the Zaire Usage’s close association with the Congolese dictator Mobutu [60] and his aggressive and sometimes anti-Christian cultural agenda, which included the abandonment of his Christian name.

II. Liturgy and culture

The opinion that non-European liturgies are required for the preservation of non-European cultures is the second popular assumption for our examination. It is interesting to note that many Africans and other non-Europeans who clamour for an African or non-European liturgy to preserve or rescue African or other non-European cultures from Westernization, have themselves, alongside the vast majority of people living today, embraced much of all secular Western cultures – language, technology, philosophy, government, entertainment, etc. Their coldness towards, or outright rejection of, the Traditional Latin Mass and other traditional Catholic devotions deprive them of the necessary counterweight to the toxic effects of the post-Christian Western cultures they have adopted. At any rate, do we have any concrete evidence that the Latin Liturgy poses any threat whatsoever to the positive culture of any nation?

We can readily examine this question with reference to a nation that has had a long Catholic history. St. Patrick’s Ireland is a good candidate having always being outside the Roman Empire and its pre-Christian civilization. [61] Certainly, the Roman Liturgy, for all the many centuries it was prayed in Latin by the Irish people, did not destroy the Irish culture; on the contrary, it nurtured it. Latin did not displace Irish, but English did. [62] In the same vein, Latin has never been a threat to the Igbo language, but English is. And this is not because English is taught in school or sometimes used in the church, but principally because Igbo is no longer spoken in many Igbo homes, no longer the Mother tongue; making it the liturgical language does not help. The English language may indeed threaten the identity of the Igbo people, but post-Christian Western values, torn as it were from God and from the natural law, pose a more mortal and infernal danger. A largely sentimental revitalization of traditional Igbo customs and its incorporation into the liturgy stand little chance in stemming the surging and sophisticated onslaught of the decadent West. Western culture became dysfunctional and corrosive by rejecting the traditional Catholicism that nurtured it; it can be tamed and harnessed for the well-being of any society only if it is reconnected to holy Mother Church, its wellspring.

(The first episode of a series broadcast on Irish television in 2007 called “No Béarla”, Irish for “No English”, in which a man tries to make his way through daily life speaking only Irish, with less success than one might imagine, given that the study of the language is compulsory in Irish schools.)

III. The roots of the traditional Catholic liturgy

The third popular assumption for consideration is really a common oversight. In the frequent discussion of inculturation today, it is evident that many have lost sight of the fact that the traditional Catholic liturgy and discipline is a product, to the extent that it is man-made, of societies with values and hopes much closer to the indigenous people of Africa, Asia and Latin America than to post-Christian Western societies. It was the product of customs that value the family, respect life as a gift from God, dances and claps in its joys, and shares the sorrow and fears of neighbours and strangers. In an effort to identify a distinguishing and central African value as a basis for building a “theological model of inculturation,” one African theologian claimed for Africans the eminent exhibition of hospitality. The apparent suggestion, perhaps, is that Europeans are less hospitable. Another countered the proposition only to advance Africans’ eminent sense of communion or “covenant” with people and nature. [63] The individualism of modern Western societies may de-emphasize personal responsibility towards neighbours and strangers, but such an unsocial disposition does not reflect the values of the Church nor the cultures from which the Church elaborated her liturgy and discipline.

IV. Africanism in the liturgy

We will say something here about the stereotypical association of African worship with dancing, drumming, clapping, and other bodily gestures [64] and its alleged incompatibility with silence, reflective prayer, and solemn forms of singing/chanting, because these latter, it is claimed, are religious expressions proper to Europeans. That a form of liturgical dance is still preserved in the ancient Abyssinian Rite of Ethiopia [65], but nothing of that kind exists in the Latin Rite, may seem to support the common supposition that dancing and other dramatic gestures of joy are, in relation to the West, genuine and exclusive African religious expressions. In reality, however, “[r]itual dance was not foreign to the old European Church,” [66] and about a century after the Ethiopian rite was fixed [67], St. Teresa of Avila and her nuns executed “sacred dance in the choir, singing and clapping … in the Spanish way, but with … holy reverence.” [68] As would have been the case in old Europe, it should be noted that liturgical dance in the Ethiopian or Coptic Liturgy is a feature of certain open air processions or celebrations recalling the famed Davidic dance, and has no place in the Mass. In fact, the Eucharistic sacrifice in the Ethiopian Rite, as a sign of profound reverence, is performed in secret, away from the gaze of the lay faithful. This tradition is reminiscent of the obsolete practice of dismissing catechumens before the Eucharistic sacrifice in the Latin Rite [69], the widespread custom of installing iconostases in Eastern rite churches, and, to some extent, the discontinued Mediaeval practice of setting up of rood screens in Western churches. Consequently, Africanism played no role in preserving in Ethiopia certain practices long out-dated in the West.

The Psalmist invites all nations to clap their hands and “shout unto God with the voice of joy;” [70] elsewhere, “let them praise his name in choir [dance].” [71] Practising what he preached, King David famously danced ahead of the procession of the Ark of the Covenant. His actions were emulated down the ages by Ethiopian priests and European nuns. However, such excited displays are out of place in the Jewish temple worship at Jerusalem, in the Jewish synagogue worship across the world (from which much of Christian Liturgy developed [72]), or during traditional Eucharistic worship in Ethiopia, Europe, and the rest of the Christian world. Just as Elijah recognized the Lord not in the commotions of a strong wind, earthquake, or fire, but in the “whistling of a gentle air” and then covered his face in reverence [73]; so Christ often went away from the crowd to a quiet place, alone or with his disciples, to pray.

The note of reverence and solemnity that characterize the Jewish and Christian liturgies, especially when this involves direct communion with God in one shape or form, exist in various degrees in many non-Christian religions, including African Traditional Religions. In the latter, it sometimes takes the aspect of extreme secrecy, elitism, gravity, and even terror. At any rate, liturgical dance is not an African singularity but a universal phenomenon, which is however excluded from the most solemn religious activity in Judaism and Christianity, as well in certain Traditional African Religions.

Concerning the place of silence and contemplation in African religious experience and expressions, it should be noted that every human being can laugh and cry, and they know the experience that is neither crying nor laughing. Like lamentation and mirth, silence is a universal language that cuts across cultures and creed. Everyone knows what silence is – even the little baby that screams at Mass intent on disrupting the quiet he or she senses and is thrilled to pierce. It is equally true that all human beings are capable of introspection and reflective thought. In some cultures or civilizations, these habits are so developed that mysticism or philosophy becomes noticeable. In traditional sub-Saharan African cultures, meditation and thought are largely employed to reach out to the world of the spirit or to resolve pressing social and personal problems. Hence, philosophy is rather poorly developed, while mysticism is largely better developed.

Granted, the traditional African mystical experience is different from the Catholic notion of mysticism, but so was the mystical expression of other uncultured nations in the distant past that were brought under the Christian light. Hence, I am a little embarrassed to have to argue for a place for silence in the African culture or in any other human culture. It is therefore not true that the silence and sombreness of traditional Catholic piety, especially in the Traditional Latin Mass, is incompatible with the African temper. It is rather condescending to hold such an opinion. Even when singing in the vernacular, Africans do not always produce “throbbing dance music.” I vividly recall my experiences of weekday Novus Ordo Masses celebrated in Igbo in a neighbourhood village church during my undergraduate days in Nigeria. Usually, the sun was then just about to rise, the church poorly lit and poorly furnished, and without drumming, clapping or swaying, these poor villagers sang, mostly from memories and from the heart, the rich mysteries of the Faith in a simple and edifying form that has much in common with the decorum, balance, and prayerfulness of the Church’s Gregorian chant.

A Pontifical Mass celebrated at the ICRSP Apostolate in Libreville, Gabon, by His Excellency Basile Mvé Engone, bishop (now emeritus) of Libreville, in 2012.

NOTES (numeration continued from previous article)

[58] Duchesne, L., Christian Worship: Its Origin and Evolution, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1904, p. 102-104

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Inculturation: A Wrong Turn - Part 2: Common Claims of the Proponents of Inculturation

We continue with the second part of this guest essay by a Nigerian Catholic on the problems of liturgical inculturation. The first part was published yesterday.

The first part of this essay ended with an outline of three common claims made by the proponents of liturgical inculturation:

(1) That efforts at reform which require the Church to prioritize direct and reciprocal engagements with particular cultures through legislation and experiments are not only necessary for the flourishing of the Church, but also for its survival.

(2) That such engagements constitute a return to the primitive practice of liturgical independence in the early Church, and which continues to exist in Eastern rite churches.

(3) That before Vatican II, the Church sanctioned and operated a largely hegemonic policy that demonized, discredited, and destroyed non-European cultures and imposed on the local population Western principles and practice of Christianity. We continue with an appraisal of these claims.

1. The necessity of inculturation

The first assertion, the prioritization of direct and reciprocal engagement with cultures for the survival and flourishing of the Church, has been repeated in documents of episcopal conferences and scholarly publications, although no data has ever been adduced for its substantiation. Maybe that is because all available data seem to prove the opposite, namely, that inculturation is destroying, rather than promoting, the Catholic Faith. For instance, as liturgical adaption is energetically implemented in the Catholic world, the global number of Catholics fell below the population of Muslims for the first time in history. [35] Detailed statistical data on every measurable aspect of Catholic life in the US, Canada, and some European countries showed a precipitous decline following the policies of rapprochement with contemporary cultures and sensibilities in the wake of Vatican II. [36] The significant inroads made by various Protestant groups in Catholic Latin America on the heels of widespread liturgical adaptation and the ascendency of Liberation Theology clearly shows that the Catholic decline cannot be explained by general societal secularization.

An evangelical church in Catholic Brazil. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by the Igreja Apostólica Plenitude do Trono de Deus; CC BY 2.0)

Although today Catholicism continues to grow in sub-Saharan African countries like Nigeria, the increase is due largely to population growth, but accompanied by substantial attrition in favour of the Pentecostal branch of Protestantism. In contrast, in the years prior to inculturation when the liturgy was almost entirely in Latin, Catholics in Nigeria were witnessing a phenomenal increase “in the region of 10 per cent per year”! [37] The picture that emerges from reviewing the available data is that in every part of the Catholic World, inculturation has been associated with abysmal decline in Catholic vigour.

2. Identification of today’s inculturation with the practice of ancient Christians

The second contention, that inculturation or active liturgical adaptation today was identical with the practice of primitive Christians, can only be defended by a selective reading of Church history, an interpretation that is even opposed by some proponents of inculturation. [38] As doctrines and the liturgy were spread orally by the first Christians, it is to be expected that improvised and non-standard liturgical formularies would be the norm. With time, liturgical improvisations gradually morphed into structured usages, “[u]sages developed by slow degrees into rites; rites expanded into” [39] more complicated ceremonies, and finally fixed formularies were adopted. Such an organic development in vastly different environments is bound to introduce much diversity in the set liturgical formularies. The next and commonly overlooked stage of the liturgical history is marked by unification. Smaller Christian communities generally adopted the formularies of the great metropolitan Churches of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople. This process continued until “the uses of Rome and Constantinople [had] almost absorbed the rest.” [40] Thus, liturgical uniformity was favoured not only in the West but also in the East. However, the East with a greater number of ancient sees, heterodox separate churches, and culturally alienated communities, does project a liturgical face much more diverse than does the West.

Although the Church rejoices in the diverse legitimate liturgical and disciplinary traditions that Providence has engendered in her bosom, it is not expedient for her to go about actively seeking to create more diversities in her liturgies and disciplines any more than a multilingual country proud of the diverse tongues of her citizens will necessarily benefit if she goes out of her way to create new languages. If left to its ordinary course, i.e. if communication is unimpeded, nature will produce uniformity in a body, whether this concerns heat in a piece of metal or the dialects in England or the liturgical traditions in a Western or Eastern ecclesiastical province. Such unity flows not only from the exigencies of nature but also from the Providence of the God of nature. [41] We may thus begin to appreciate how unnatural and contrived rampant inculturation and liturgical adaptations are in a world that now practically exists as a “global village.” [42]

Solemn Pontifical Mass in the Roman Rite celebrated in Nigeria in 2010 by H.E. Gregory Ochiagha, bishop emeritus of Orlu. Bishop Ochiaga passed away in December of 2020.

However strong the natural case for uniformity is, and however congenial it is for the wellbeing of a polity, the Church at no time in her history countenanced a blanket condemnation of liturgical diversity. When it is for the benefit of souls, the Church has been willing to sanction deviations from her normal liturgical practice. We see this clearly in the story of the saintly brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles of the Slavs. Unfortunately, this historical event is often erroneously presented as an example and justification for liturgical diversity understood as a good in its own right. [43] Nothing could be further from the intention of these apostolic brothers as St. Cyril’s defense of his actions before the pope showed. “[W]hen I was unable to help those people with the salvation of their souls in another way, God inspired me through this means, by which I have won a great many of them for Him.” [44] Clearly, St. Cyril understands that liturgical and disciplinary adaptation is the exception that may sometimes be helpful, rather than the rule that must always be followed. [45]

Even after the codification of disciplines enacted by the Council of Trent and right up to the eve of Vatican II, the Church granted dispensations from her established liturgical norms in favour of local customs when she judged such concessions beneficial for the salvation of souls. [46] Hence, at no time in her history did the Church foreclose beneficial adaptations of her liturgies and disciplines; but the pursuit of adaptations and diversities in everything and everywhere as a rule to be invariably followed is novel.

3. Hostility to non-European cultures

The third affirmation, the alleged hostility of the Church to non-European cultures before Vatican II, has many troubling and distorted sides to it, not the least is its uncharitable generalization and ingratitude for the missionaries who left all they cherished and gave all and themselves for the salvation of strangers. It is easy today to lose sight of the enormous sacrifice a nineteenth-century European missionary made in leaving the comfort and security of home for the uncertainties of life and death, say, in a tropical jungle in Nigeria infested with malaria. There and elsewhere he must set himself not only to cure spiritual ills but also treat the bodies and educate the minds of children and adults, even when the vast majority of the beneficiaries are not even Christians. [47]

The many today that charge these missionaries and the hierarchy that directed them with insensitivity to the culture and people evangelized, cannot account for the sacrifices and achievements of these missionaries and the papal teachings of the time that guided them. For instance, Pius XII is on record to have instructed the missionary to “consider the country he is going to evangelize as a second fatherland and love it with due charity.” [48] The pope continued:

For the Church, when she calls people to a higher culture and a better way of life, under the inspiration of the Christian religion, does not act like one who recklessly cuts down and uproots a thriving forest. No, she grafts a good scion upon the wild stock that it may bear a crop of more delicious fruit. [49]

Similar exhortations for missionaries to love the people they evangelize and to respect, build on, and harness for good their cultures and heritage were issued by Benedict XV, Pius XI, and St. John XXIII, all before Vatican II, [50] and following in the ancient trail of St. Gregory I. [51] Therefore, the common accusation of systemic utter disregard and contempt for the cultures of native populations often hauled at missionaries who laboured for the Faith before Vatican II is without merit and in bad taste. [52]

A Catholic missionary in China wearing a “jijin”, a custom which was given papal approval, and was apparently adopted from the forms of hat worn at the imperial court. This is a classic example of traditional inculturation in action, having been so adopted because within Chinese culture, not having one’s head covered was a sign of “humiliation and scorn.”

Culture misunderstood

The second quotation from Pius XII above underscores an important fact about culture too often confused. Since each culture was developed under more or less unique circumstances to solve human problems within a given context, no two cultures are wholly comparable. In this respect, no one culture is better than another. [53] However, if we look upon culture as civilization or human achievement, “that total process of human activity and that total result of such activity,” then one culture may be more advanced or civilized than another. [54] It should be noted that a more advanced culture is not the inevitable consequence of the higher intelligence of a particular people relative to another group. Civilization grows largely by “the diffusion of cultural traits,” i.e., the borrowing of ideas and techniques by one group from other groups, which depends on the accident of opportunities (or, speaking more correctly, Providence) and the willingness to assimilate. [55] The Church in building the Christian civilization drew from the greatest achievements of civilized Asia, Africa, and Europe, which she harmonized and elaborated by the principles of revealed truth. [56]

Hence, it is genuinely retrogressive and deleterious both to the Church’s mission and the civilization of non-European communities to place the Church, even with respect to her human elements, on the same level as every culture of the world, however primitive. Sadly, there are some who in their effort to promote inculturation demand that the Church embraces “powerlessness” by denying her civilizing power and heritage among nations. [57] And others who hold that non-European communities should as a rule prefer their own cultures to the traditional norms and practices of the Church. In other words, these communities are being asked to re-invent the wheel, to evolve from a more or less disordered foundation a process the Church has long completed and perfected – as far as completion and perfection goes this side of heaven.

NOTES (numeration continued from previous article):

[35] Associated Press, retrieved on August 20, 2020 from https://www.foxnews.com/story/vatican-islam-surpasses-roman-catholicism-as-worlds-largest-religion

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