Pope Francis said in a speech last week that the Catholic church must brace for the day there are not enough priests to shepherd the laity, and while he suggested preparing the laity to continue the church’s pastoral care as a necessity, the Bishop of Rome suggested that the church should look to “other cultures” to fill in the gap left by Europe and the United States.
Francis made the remarks while addressing a delegation from the Order of Augustinian Recollects in the Vatican, a religious order of Augustinian friars and nuns that was founded in the 17th century. The pontiff noted that the order’s number of provinces has shrunk from 8 to four, and urged clergy to consider the implications of the church being in decline.
“We are going downhill,” Francis surmised. “And this is a reality that we cannot ignore.”
He then listed several “explanations” for the decline: lower birth rates in the West, young people tending to be more secular, and the necessity for the church to expand beyond its typical activities in Europe and North America.
“Europe and America do not give what they gave before in terms of vocations,” Francis gave as an example explanation, “we will have to look for other cultures and look elsewhere,” he said, suggesting it is a commonly held belief.
Ultimately, Francis suggested that the solution is to prepare the laity to continue the church’s pastoral care, or as Francis said, “give our charisma, our gift to those who can carry it forward.”
The fact that Francis noted the loss of priests and nuns from Europe and North America may be significant, considering Africa is the fastest growing region for the church.
“The importance of Africa to the Catholic Church can be summed up in a word – growth,” the BBC summarized in 2019. “Africa has the fastest growing Catholic population in the world, while Western Europe, once regarded as the heartland of Christianity, has become one of the world’s most secular regions,” noted the British network, citing Pew Research Center.
“Europe and America do not give what they gave before in terms of vocations… We will have to look for other cultures”
– Pope Francis
It seems the number of African clergy may not yet match the number of new African faithful.
At the same time, Africa is falling increasingly under China’s sphere of influence. The RAND Corporation explains that “China is both a long-established diplomatic partner and a new investor in Africa.”
Relations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Catholic church – and Christians as a whole – have been tumultuous since the party assumed power in a violent revolution.
The church and the Chinese government eventually came to an uneasy detente that allowed Catholics to worship in 2020, though the country was quickly accused of violating the agreement, and members of the church have accused the Vatican of abandoning its Chinese faithful.
If China continues to expand its diplomatic and economic influence in Africa, it may encourage African nations to adopt its confrontational relationship with the church.
