New Old Christendom

According to John Allen Jr., writing in Crux, the next Christendom in Africa bears some resemblance to the last one – particularly with regard to the role of the Catholic church.

African Catholicism has exploded, growing over 6700% during the twentieth century. The largest Catholic seminary in the world is Bigard Memorial Seminary in Nigeria.

That growth has fueled a confidence among Africans in the Catholic church, and among Catholics in Africa. The Catholic church has applied for observer status in the African Union, a “telling” move “because it suggests that the African bishops want to replicate on their continent the role the Vatican plays on the global stage as a voice of conscience, arguably the world’s most important source of what political scientist Joseph Nye calls ‘soft power.’”

This next Christendom, though, looks as if it will rewrite the rules of Euro-American politics. African Catholics don’t fit the stereotypes of American political discourse. They are hard traditionalists on abortion and sexual morals. But “on other matters, such as war and peace, economic justice and the ethics of free-market global capitalism, immigrant rights, the environment, and foreign affairs, the mainstream of African Catholic opinion would generally be considered the left, if not the far left, of American political debate.”