It’s no secret the Church in Africa is cranking out vocations like crazy. The item below, from the Catholic charity, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), just underscores the point. The rector of Uganda’s seminary also offers some interesting contrasts between the Church in Africa, and the one in Europe:

Father Aquirinus Francis Kibira, the rector of St Paul’s seminary in Kinyamasika, in the west of Uganda, recently visited the headquarters of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)and told representatives of the charity that his seminary was full.

Currently, no less than 152 theology students are preparing here for ordination to the priesthood, and the numbers are growing year by year. The greatest challenge, he said, was to increase the size of the seminary in order to be able to take in more candidates.

The current building housing the seminarians had been intended for no more than 150 persons, and further financial support is urgently needed to cope with the current demand.

But despite this growing number of vocations, Father Kibira told ACN, there is still a grave shortage of priests in wide areas of Uganda. The parishes are very big and contain on average 40 to 50 smaller chapel-based communities, which themselves are made up of several villages. Each priest has to serve between 10 and 20 times as many lay faithful as in the Western world, and they are also much more widely scattered. Many sects are encroaching too, he added. However, the rector is hoping that the number of priests will grow still further. In the everyday life of the parishes and especially in catechetical work, the laity play an important role, he said. Hence the training of catechists is likewise especially important for the Church in Uganda.

Father Kibira describes the Church in Uganda as a “living” Church. He himself studied in Rome, and admits that there was a temptation for him to stay on in Europe, where the Church is richer. But he was conscious of the importance of doing something for the Church in Africa. “I am happy to be a priest in Africa!” he insists. In training his priests, he told ACN, he attaches great importance to showing the seminarians how one can ‘evangelise’ traditional African values. “It is important to proclaim the Gospel in such a way that it speaks to Africans in a way that they understand. We strive to root the African cultures in the Gospel” he explained.

Africa has many positive values, he believes, for example the respect for the elderly, the hospitality and the strong sense of community. He encourages the seminarians to reinforce these values in their pastoral work and find ways of “preaching the Gospel of Christ to the African culture, so that Christ is made fully at home in Africa also”.

As a priest, when saying Mass in Europe, he sometimes feels rather alone. “It is a little as though one were standing alone on a stage” he explained. In Africa one senses more life and a greater participation in the actions of the Mass, a sense that people are celebrating together. “At home the faithful clap their hands, dance and carry the Gospel in procession to the Ambo”, he told ACN. Generally speaking, there was more sense of community. Nonetheless, he does not believe it is true that the Church in Europe is “decadent”, as is so often asserted. Africa received so much help and support from European Catholics that he was convinced that the Faith was still strong in the West as well, he added.