Pope Francis and Africa: The many highs and a moment of misgiving

ACI Africa, Apr 25, 2025 / 16:56 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ more than 12-year pontificate — characterized by an emphasis on mercy and compassion, the need to care for creation, and attention to the marginalized and “peripheries” of the Church and society — deeply resonated with the people of God in Africa, according to ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, with one exception related to the release of a controversial Vatican document.

In his 47 apostolic journeys outside Italy, Pope Francis, who passed away on Easter Monday, April 21, at the age of 88, visited 68 countries — 10 of them in Africa. 

He began with Kenya in November 2015 in what was a three-nation pastoral trip that saw him also visit Uganda and the Central African Republic and concluded with South Sudan in February 2023, after visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The late pontiff also visited Egypt in April 2017 and Morrocco in March 2019. In September 2019, he embarked on a three-African-nation trip to Mozambique, Madagascar, and Mauritius.

In these pastoral trips and throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis demonstrated a deep knowledge and great love for Africa, particularly expressed in his frustration over foreign exploitation of Africa’s resources and the need for peace across the continent. He sought to validate Africans’ dreams and to align with some of the traditional values of the continent.

A great love for Africa

Multiple times and on various occasions, Pope Francis made it clear that he had Africa’s best interests at heart. 

When, due to health reasons in July 2022, he had to postpone his pastoral trip that had been scheduled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, he made clear his love for the people of God in the two African countries, where protracted violent conflicts have occasioned much suffering. 

“Dear Congolese and South Sudanese friends, at this time words are insufficient to convey to you my closeness and the affection that I feel for you. I want to tell you this: Do not let yourselves be robbed of hope! Think, you who are so dear to me, of how much more you are precious and beloved in the eyes of God, who never disappoints those who put their hope in him!” the pope said on July 2, 2022, the day he was to start what would be his last African pastoral visit.

Much earlier, in what was described as a “dramatic gesture” of love for the people of God in South Sudan, on April 11, 2019, Pope Francis knelt and kissed the feet of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Dr. Riek Machar, among others. This was after a spiritual retreat that brought together the South Sudanese president, the opposition leader, and the widow of South Sudanese leader John Garang, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, among other political and religious leaders from South Sudan. 

Pope Francis’ dramatic gesture would inspire peace campaigns in the world’s youngest nation. For instance, in April 2022, a campaign dubbed “Remember Pope Francis’ Kiss for Peace” was launched and continued to challenge political leaders in South Sudan to foster “peace and stability.”

Pope Francis’ desire to connect with the people of God in Africa in his pastoral visits demonstrated his great love for Africa. He planned to and encountered some of the poorest of the poor during his visits. 

In Kenya, Pope Francis visited the Nairobi slum community of Kangemi. In his speech there, he thanked the slum dwellers “for welcoming me to your neighborhood,” adding: “I feel very much at home sharing these moments with brothers and sisters who, and I am not ashamed to say this, have a special place in my life and my decisions. I am here because I want you to know that your joys and hopes, your troubles and your sorrows, are not indifferent to me. I realize the difficulties which you experience daily! How can I not denounce the injustices which you suffer?”

Similarly, in South Sudan, Pope Francis had an encounter with some 2,500 people living in refugee camps after being forced to leave their homes because of violent conflicts or flooding. In a show of love, he told them: “You are the seed of a new South Sudan, a seed for the fertile and lush growth of this country.”

He continued, encouraging hope among the refugees and the internally displaced: “You, from all your different ethnic groups, you who have suffered and are still suffering, you who do not want to respond to evil with more evil. You, who choose fraternity and forgiveness, are even now cultivating a better tomorrow … Be seeds of hope, which make it possible for us already to glimpse the tree that one day, hopefully in the near future, will bear fruit.” 

Pope Francis demonstrated an understanding of Africa by delivering messages that people on the continent resonated with. For instance, his May 2015 encyclical letter on care for our common home, Laudato Si’, inspired multiple initiatives on the continent, which various entities spearheaded, including the Laudato Si’ Movement-Africa. His decision to establish the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly in January 2021 was lauded in Africa. 

Many Africans, including theologians, have lauded Pope Francis for the multiyear Synod on Synodality. This initiative “became a very exciting moment for the whole Church,” Father Ambrose John Bwangatto recalled in a get-well-soon message to Pope Francis through ACI Africa. 

Alluding to the Synod on Synodality initiative, the director of programs at the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN), Sister Jane Joan Kimathi, shared: “Pope Francis is a prophetic voice in a wounded world, a shepherd who embodies compassion, justice, and inclusivity. His leadership reflects the African spirit of ‘Ubuntu’ (I am because we are), emphasizing community over exclusion, mercy over judgment, and solidarity with the marginalized.” 

Pope Francis, the Kenyan Sister further said, “is a bridge-builder, much like the African elders who mediate conflicts, seeking not division but reconciliation. His call for a synodal Church, one that walks together, resonates deeply with African traditions of communal decision-making, where wisdom is not imposed from above but discerned in dialogue.”

Sharp words of caution on exploiting Africa

Pope Francis’ great love for Africa was also demonstrated by his caution against exploitation of the continent’s people and resources. The pope demonstrated a great understanding of this problem and tried to show Africans they can unchain themselves from abuse. 

In his speech in DRC on Jan. 31, 2023, Pope Francis spoke plainly to the international community: “This country and this continent deserve to be respected and listened to; they deserve to find space and receive attention,” he said, and amid cheers added: “Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: Africa is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.” 

He continued: “May Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny! May the world acknowledge the catastrophic things that were done over the centuries to the detriment of the local peoples, and not forget this country and this continent.”

Encouraging African youth

Earlier, speaking during a virtual dialogue with Catholic youth from universities in Africa that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized on the solemnity of All Saints’ Day 2022, Pope Francis cautioned Africa’s youths against enslavement. 

“Please continue working, striving for your future; don’t allow yourselves to be enslaved; be cautious and make sure you stay alive,” Pope Francis said on Nov. 1, 2022. He encouraged African youth to believe in themselves. 

Reaction to Fiducia Supplicans 

Pope Francis allowed the African Church a certain degree of autonomy, and it was in that context that misgivings about a controversial Vatican document, Fiducia Supplicans (FS), were expressed. Africa’s Catholic bishops’ decision not to implement FS was a low moment in the pope’s relationship with Africa.

Fiducia Supplicans permits members of the clergy to bless same-sex couples and couples in other “irregular situations.” For weeks, reactions poured in from Catholic leaders in Africa about the document that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released in December 2023. 

Bishop Martin Mtumbuka of Malawi’s Karonga Diocese called upon the people in his diocese to “forget and ignore this controversial and apparently blasphemous declaration in its entirety.” 

In Kenya, Bishop Paul Kariuki Njiru of Wote Diocese said that FS “should be rejected in totality.” In a letter he issued on Dec. 27, 2023, he faulted the DDF prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, for not consulting “widely” before releasing the document. Fernández, he said, “should have widely done enough consultation before releasing such a controversial declaration. His idea and thought that cardinals and bishops cannot prohibit what Pope Francis has permitted with Fiducia Supplicans is mistaken.”

The leadership of the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) was strategic in handling the reactions to FS. Just two days after its release, SECAM president Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo reached out to colleagues across the continent through the presidents of the Catholic bishops’ conferences to provide “unequivocal clarity” on the issue and mend the deep division FS had caused. 

While gathering feedback from the dozens of bishops’ conferences across Africa, Ambongo also engaged the Vatican. In an audio recording, he recalled his decision to travel to Rome that was preceded by a seven-page letter to Pope Francis. In the recording, he recounted the process that resulted in the statement in which he declared that FS would not be implemented in Africa. 

“With the prefect [Fernández], myself in front of the computer, a secretary writing, we prepared a document … in dialogue and agreement with Pope Francis, so that at every moment we called him to ask him questions, to see if he agreed with that formulation.”

Ambongo said he signed the document as president of SECAM on behalf of the entire Church in Africa and that Fernández signed it. The document was not made public but kept in the archives. It is titled: “No to the Blessing of Homosexual Couples in the Catholic Churches.”

Although the text appears to have been signed in Accra, Ghana, the headquarters of SECAM, in reality, “I signed it in Rome,” Ambongo said. “The episcopal conferences of all Africa, which have strongly reaffirmed their communion with Pope Francis, believe that the extra-liturgical blessings proposed in the declaration Fiducia Supplicans cannot be carried out in Africa without exposing themselves to scandals.”

“This is to express our position today in Africa and we do it in a spirit of communion, of synodality with Pope Francis, and with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith: In Africa there is no place to bless homosexual couples. Not at all,” he stressed.

The SECAM statement cited a previous DDF Declaration on homosexuality, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the sacred Scriptures, and the language used in FS as additional reasons for rejecting the DDF declaration on the continent. 

Were the misgivings resolved? 

On Jan. 13, 2024, Pope Francis was quoted as explaining that FS was not to be implemented in Africa “because the culture does not accept it.” Much more seems to have been omitted in Pope Francis’ explanation in his closed-door meeting with 800 priests from the Diocese of Rome in the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran as Italian media outlets, including the Italian news channel, Sky TG24, reported. The “consolidated summary” of the responses of the Conferences of Catholic Bishops in Africa, which Ambongo had issued on Jan. 11, 2024, went beyond cultures in Africa.

The SECAM statement aimed to put an end to the misgivings in the relationship between Pope Francis and the African Church. Rather than impart blessings upon same-sex couples and couples in other “irregular situations” as FS proposed, the African bishops underscored the need “for the conversion of all.” 

On his part, Pope Francis allowed the Church in Africa to contextualize the document he endorsed.

This article was originally published by ACI Africa, CNA’s African news partner, and has been adapted for CNA.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263649/pope-francis-and-africa-the-many-highs-and-a-moment-of-misgiving