The future of the Church is in Africa

https://thedeaconsbench.com/could-the-next-pope-come-from-africa/

"Let’s start with Nigeria. Getting accurate religious headcounts there is notoriously difficult, given how religious affiliation is heavily politicized in the world’s largest mixed Muslim/Christian nation. Estimates of the Catholic population range from 20 million all the way to 45 million or higher, but for our purposes, let’s use the Vatican number of 32.5 million.

If 94 percent of those folks attend Mass once a week, that translates to 30.5 million Catholics.

By way of contrast, the five largest Catholic countries in western Europe are Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Portugal. Using the percentages in the WVS data, collectively they have about 30.4 million Catholics who show up every Sunday.

In other words, Nigeria alone has roughly the same number of regularly practicing Catholics as all of western Europe.

… Nigeria, Kenya and Congo together would represent a vast pool of 80 million weekly Mass-goers, which would be about one-quarter larger than the total for all of Europe and North America combined.

Here’s another interesting term of comparison.

The two largest Catholic countries in the world are Brazil and Mexico, with Catholic populations of 123 million and 97 million respectively. Yet Mexico has a Mass attendance rate of 47 percent and Brazil just 8, which means that together, they see about 55.4 million Catholics showing up for church every Sunday.

Nigeria and Congo together, meanwhile, generate 68 million weekly Mass-goers. In other words, Africa’s two largest Catholic nations outperform the two biggest in Latin America by about 20 percent."

John Allen noted it two years ago. We shouldn't care what German synodality is doing. We should be praying for an African pope who is fluent in Italian and would deeply value both liturgy and Evangelization...hmm...

I'm not the only one:

https://kevclark.substack.com/p/the-church-and-the-world-needs-an

Chapp's Take

https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/communio-concilium-and-pope-francis

"The Communio theologians remained deeply committed to the theology of the Council but focused on what the conciliar texts actually taught rather than treating them as a mere catalytic springboard into a brave new rupturist future.

And in their view, as well as mine, the central theological motif of the council was a deeply Christocentric theological anthropology. Indeed, Joseph Ratzinger later stated that the affirmation of Gaudium et Spes 22 —“The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light” — is like a Christocentric bomb planted in the heart of the council, and is the hermeneutical key to the whole.

It is telling that Pope St. John Paul II quoted that line from GS 22 in almost every one of his encyclicals. And the theology of divine revelation found in the conciliar text Dei verbum seeks to overcome the divide between scripture and tradition as independent sources of revelation precisely by grounding them both in a Christocentric understanding that places them within the single dynamic of the Incarnation."

I pray that the next Pope is more familiar with the texts of Vatican II (not least of which was the Catechsim itself) than Bergoglio. 

Candid courage

 https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/the-courage-to-be-candid-chaput-on

"Every pope has two key roles in his relationship with the universal Church: a) being, in his person, a source and center of Church unity, and b) clarifying the teaching of the Church in matters of controversy.

Pope Francis was often a cause of disunity because of his style and temperament. And he declined to clarify theological debates when he was called on to do so. He seemed to refuse responsibility in those areas of responsibility required of a pope.

As Catholics, what we believe and how we worship bind us together as a believing community. We have different languages, ethnicities, and local cultures. But we believe and worship as one faithful people who then engage the world with the love of Jesus Christ. In other words, creed matters. So do the teachings that derive from it.

Pope Francis, too often, spoke too loosely about serious issues, confusing his listeners and diminishing the gravity of his office. He created ambiguity around important matters of doctrine, Christian practice, and Church law. And that never ends well...

A healthy obedience, including obedience in the Church, demands a lot of humility. That should be our first instinct. But it also demands the courage to be candid on matters of substance. Criticism of authority is not always wrong. Sometimes it’s necessary...

So there’s no excuse for cynicism. It gets in the way of self-examination and personal conversion, which are always the first steps in any wider effort of Church reform and renewal. Clinging to resentments about this or that perceived problem in the Francis pontificate achieves nothing."

Chaput never leaves you comfortable: be critical of the many, substantive failures of this pontificate without clinging to resentments.

Let us pray for a Pope of continuity

 An honest assessment from Amy Welborn:

No, ultramontanism is not new at all. But the phenomenon we’ve seen with the past twelve years – which grew out of trends from the previous two papacies, to be honest – a focus on the person of the Pope as the embodiment of the Faith in the world, one whose seemingly every comment on a plane bleeds (for some) into magisterial territory – that’s definitely new.

This did not begin with Pope Francis, of course, but during the course of his papacy, the personal appeal he held for some, along with his own style of theological writing (in which his primary sources were Scripture and his own words), leadership and communication – as well as almost universal ignorance and confusion about various levels of papal authority – only served to heighten, both in the public eye and the reality of Church governance – a sense of the papacy primarily as a space for Francis’ person, preferences and agenda to be centered, rather than an office of one who is, as Benedict XVI wrote, “….not an absolute monarch whose will is law; rather, he is the guardian of the authentic Tradition and all that traditionally entailed.”

This, it seems to me, is the most significant way that Pope Francis represented his generation that had come of age during and right after the Second Vatican Council. Not his particular disdain for the Traditional Latin Mass or his Häring-shaded moral pronouncements, but in the insistent location of the action of the Holy Spirit in an experience or a “reality” to the practical exclusion of much that has gone before, and even more seriously, a determination that what has gone before is of no value and even an obstacle to encountering God in the present. In short, the hermeneutic of discontinuity, right there.

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/04/22/pope-francis-symposium/

Larry Chapp sees it too, the dangers of progressivist accommodationalism:

However, it would seem that there are now attempts being made to ignore the magisteria of John Paul and Benedict as if they never happened and as if we can move forward with a different hermeneutic for the council more in tune with a progressivist reading of the council as the establishment of a “process” rather than a set of normative theological principles. I am not saying that this is the vision of Pope Francis, but he has put into positions of high authority those who do speak of a “new paradigm” for doing theology in ways eerily reminiscent of the “Concilium” wing of the Church.

What this “new paradigm” is remains ill-defined. But just as the Church after Nicaea had to struggle against the anti-Athanasian Arian remnants, so too now does the Church need to double-down on the ressourcement hermeneutical arguments put forward by popes John Paul and Benedict.

https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/ecumenical-councils-and-their-aftermath

Yes, and

Let's hope more conversation among the Cardinals sound like this:

He had no direct involvement in the Second Vatican Council and seemed to resent the legacy of his immediate predecessors who did; men who worked and suffered to incarnate the council’s teachings faithfully into Catholic life. His personality tended toward the temperamental and autocratic. He resisted even loyal criticism. He had a pattern of ambiguity and loose words that sowed confusion and conflict. In the face of deep cultural fractures on matters of sexual behavior and identity, he condemned gender ideology but seemed to downplay a compelling Christian “theology of the body.” He was impatient with canon law and proper procedure. His signature project, synodality, was heavy on process and deficient in clarity. Despite an inspiring outreach to society’s margins, his papacy lacked a confident, dynamic evangelical zeal. The intellectual excellence to sustain a salvific (and not merely ethical) Christian witness in a skeptical modern world was likewise absent.

Chaput rhymes with slap-you for a reason.

This list of bullet points is more thorough: https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pontificate-marked-by-contradictions/

Sign of Jonah

 It wasn't just three days, it was rising from Sheol-- Scott Smith offers a fascinating dive into this passage: 

I called out of my distress to the Lord, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me . . . Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. While I was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple. (Jon. 2:2-7)

Canticle of Wisdom

God of my father, Lord of mercy,
you who made all things by your word
and in your wisdom have established man
to rule the creatures produced by you,
to govern the world in holiness and justice,
and to render judgment in integrity of heart:

Give me Wisdom,
the attendant at your throne,
and reject me not from among your children;
for I am your servant, the son of your handmaid,
a man weak and short-lived
and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws.

Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men,
if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him,
he shall be held in no esteem.

Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works
and was present when you made the world;
who understands what is pleasing in your eyes
and what is conformable with your commands.

Send her forth from her holy heavens
and from your glorious throne dispatch her
that she may be with me and work with me,
that I may know what is your pleasure.

For she knows and understands all things,
and will guide me discreetly in my affairs
and safeguard me by her glory. 

-Wisdom 9:1-6,9-11

Holy Doubt

As you prepare for Lenten sacrifices, consider what Lauren Handy has endured and what she found:

One of the things I had to piece back together was my relationship with Jesus and my relationship to the Church.I started getting into the Word again and started listening to some podcasts, and just learning to trust in his mercy, and to trust in his love...

I wrote a reflection, which I've never published, on holy doubt — on embracing that it's okay not to have all the answers. The basis of it was in the Gospel of Matthew, right before the Great Commission, it talks about the apostles. It says “they worshiped him, but some doubted.” And then it immediately goes into the Great Commission.

And I thought to myself: “Here are the apostles. They're worshiping, they're scared, they're uncertain, they're doubting. And yet Jesus gives them the authority, and gives them reassurance, and instead of chastising them, he's giving them authority.”

And it really gave me a sense of comfort, that it's okay that I don't have all the answers right now, and I can relax in that. By relaxing in that, I was able to reconnect with my spirituality, and then it really flourished and blossomed in federal prison, because then I had an actual community I could connect with.

https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/lauren-handy-is-the-sacrifice-worth

MAGA Proprio

In a well-written article, Jayd Henricks compares President Trump and Pope Francis, both men who govern with autocaracy and confusion. Here is the best excerpt:

As in Trump World, the Francis papacy is marked by the influence of a small group of advisers whose personal loyalty seems to be their major skill. Penetrating that bubble with differing views seems nearly impossible, which allows ill-informed and biased judgements to go unchallenged. In effect, both leaders tend to govern by personal fiat. President Trump’s flurry of executive orders is an obvious example, and it tracks with Pope Francis’ extensive use of the motu proprio (he has issued motu proprios at a rate of more than five times that of John Paul II and Benedict XVI). This reflects an arbitrariness that, at least in the case of Pope Francis, creates significant instability within the global community he leads. So many of the motu proprios that come from the Holy Father’s desk seem to be spontaneous acts that lack any effort at consultation or legal vetting. This very quickly takes on the appearance of governance by whim, which then fosters discouragement, confusion, and disunity.

But you should read the entire thing if you can: 

https://whatweneednow.substack.com/p/the-president-and-the-pope

Here is a point I have been trying to make all along, how we need a pope who has read the CCC:

The pope moralizes in broad terms, missing opportunities to catechize the faithful about the issue in a way that would draw them more deeply into the Church’s rich tradition. He employs little theological precision or even concern for such precision, which opens him up to easy criticism. 

Sunday of the Word of God

Ways to Celebrate

Sunday of the Word of God

January 26, 2025

1. Enthrone the Bible in your home:

https://catholic.bible/sunday-of-the-word-of-god/

2. Join a Catholic bible study.

3. Listen to the Bible-In-A-Year podcast:

https://media.ascensionpress.com/category/ascension-podcasts/bibleinayear/

4. Read the Gospel of Luke during this Year C.

If you read one chapter per day, you will be done in less than a month.

5. Pray for catechumens and candidates as they prepare for Easter.

Come Holy Spirit, open our eyes, our ears, our minds, and our hearts to the living word of Scripture. May it always be the center of our home and our lives. As you have inspired that word with power and truth, now give us confidence to read the Bible in ways that form us into disciples. Fill our hearts and kindle in them the fire of your love, so that you may renew the face of the earth. 

Kataluma

I am fascinated by this insight, especially given what I just taught about the Third Epiphany at Cana:

That there was “no place for them in the kataluma”  therefore may be an oblique and tactful reference to the awkwardness of Joseph and Mary’s situation. Typically a man would return to his father’s house in his home town to complete the marriage if the betrothal took place elsewhere. However, in Mary and Joseph’s case it was not appropriate for them to use the kataluma. Mary was already pregnant. The relatives of Joseph therefore fulfilled their obligation to offer hospitality, but also recognized the apparently shameful situation of Mary and Joseph by offering them shelter in the warm, adjacent back room which was the cave used for stabling and storage.

This understanding of kataluma also adds weight to Luke’s use of the word for the room where the Last Supper was held. Note that Jesus’ words about “In my father’s house are many rooms” takes place during the Last Supper. In a kataluma often used as a bridal suite, Jesus refers to the kataluma that a bridegroom would build for his bride and refers to his “coming again to take them to himself”. This affirms and corroborates the nuptial imagery that occurs throughout the gospels–in which in his sayings and parables Jesus regularly refers to himself as the bridegroom and we, as the church, his bride.

I therefore do not think it is stretching this too far to see that Our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem is like the betrothal of the bridegroom and the bride. He “comes to his own but his own receive him not” His incarnation is his betrothal to his bride the church and this is theologically why he does not use the kataluma. But he will come again to take us to himself and then we will be with him at the marriage supper of the Lamb–and finally in the room he has prepared for us in his Father’s house: which is why St John in Revelation pictures heaven as the marriage supper of the Lamb and the consummation of the marriage of he bridegroom with his bride–the Church.

https://dwightlongenecker.com/the-true-meaning-of-the-inn-in-bethlehem/

Noel

                  by J.R.R. Tolkien

Grim was the world and grey last night:

The moon and stars were fled,

The hall was dark without song or light,

The fires were fallen dead.

The wind in the trees was like to the sea,

And over the mountains’ teeth

It whistled bitter-cold and free,

As a sword leapt from its sheath.

The lord of snows upreared his head;

His mantle long and pale

Upon the bitter blast was spread

And hung o’er hill and dale.

The world was blind,

the boughs were bent,

All ways and paths were wild:

Then the veil of cloud apart was rent,

And here was born a Child.

The ancient dome of heaven sheer

Was pricked with distant light;

A star came shining white and clear

Alone above the night.

In the dale of dark in that hour of birth

One voice on a sudden sang:

Then all the bells in Heaven and Earth

Together at midnight rang.

Mary sang in this world below:

They heard her song arise

O’er mist and over mountain snow

To the walls of Paradise,

And the tongue of many bells was stirred

in Heaven’s towers to ring

When the voice of mortal maid was heard,

That was mother of Heaven’s King.

Glad is the world and fair this night

With stars about its head,

And the hall is filled with laughter and light,

And fires are burning red.

The bells of Paradise now ring

With bells of Christendom,

And Gloria, Gloria we will sing

That God on earth is come.

our hope is not in this world

out of gloom and darkness,
the eyes of the blind shall see.

The lowly will ever find joy in the LORD,
and the poor rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the tyrant will be no more
and the arrogant will have gone;
All who are alert to do evil will be cut off,
those whose mere word condemns a man,
Who ensnare his defender at the gate,
and leave the just man with an empty claim...

Those who err in spirit shall acquire understanding,
and those who find fault shall receive instruction.