The text of the “summary points”

1. The Doctrinal Note is devoted principally to an exposition of the Catholic Church’s understanding of the Christian mission of evangelization, which is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ; the word “Gospel” translates “evangelion” in the Greek New Testament. “Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to proclaim the Gospel, calling all people to conversion and faith. ‘Go out into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16,15).” [n. 1]

2. The Doctrinal Note cites Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter “The Mission of the Redeemer” in recalling that “‘Every person has the right to hear the Good News [Gospel] of the God who reveals and gives himself in Christ, so that each one can live out in its fullness his or her proper calling.’ This right implies the corresponding duty to evangelize.” [n. 2]
3. Today there is “a growing confusion” about the Church’s missionary mandate. Some think “that any attempt to convince others on religious matters is a limitation of their freedom,” suggesting that it is enough to invite people “to act according to their consciences”, or to “become more human or more faithful to their own religion”, or “to build communities which strive for justice, freedom, peace and solidarity”, without aiming at their conversion to Christ and to the Catholic faith.

Others have argued that conversion to Christ should not be promoted because it is possible for people to be saved without explicit faith in Christ or formal incorporation in the Church. Because “of these problems, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has judged it necessary to public the present Note.” [n. 3]

The prepared statements of the curial members at the press conference, including Cardinal Arinze:

Since I come from a country in Africa South of the Sahara, I would like to apply some anthropological implications of evangelization discussed by this Doctrinal Note to areas in Africa South of the great desert. In these regions, African Traditional Religion has been the dominant religious and cultural context for centuries. It is also from that context that most converts to Christianity in these countries in the past two hundred years have come.
African Traditional Religion, making allowance for local variations, is generally marked by belief in one God, in spirits good and bad and in ancestors, with consequent worship which never puts the spirits and ancestors at the same level as the one God who is Creator. This traditional religion permeates a culture which has a marked sense of the sacred, which believes in life after death, which sets high value on marriage, family and human life, and which has a marked sense of community and desire for celebration.

The Christian missionaries found this religious context a providential preparation, a fertile ground to bring the Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Reflecting on this Doctrinal Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, one can make the following four observations on evangelization in these areas marked by African Traditional Religion:
1. Missionary proposal of faith in Jesus Christ pays tribute to the human freedom of the African and to his capacity to know and to love that which is good and true. “The obedience of faith” (Rm 16:26) which is given to God who reveals, not only does not do violence to human intellect and will, but it rather ennobles them. To help another human being who freely listens, reasons and reflects, to accept the Message of salvation in Jesus Christ, is an encounter which does honour both to the missionary and to the convert.