Communion Ecclesiology and Social Transformation in African Catholicism: Between Vatican Council II and African Synod II

By Idara Otu and Gerard Mannion

In this book, Idara Otu, one of the new theological voices from Africa, rethinks ecclesiology in the changing context of a wounded and broken world. What does the Catholic Church in Africa look like post-Vatican II? This book creatively illuminates the intrinsic connections between ecclesial communion and social mission in the changing face of the church in Africa. The multiple levels of dialogue in African Catholicism, especially in the reception and contextualization of conciliar teachings, is redefining world Christianity. The author explores how dialogue, synodality, inculturation, leadership, human security, social issues, and social transformation are shaping the identity and mission of the church in Africa. This book also engages recent magisterial teachings and diverse theological voices in developing the praxis for the emergence of particular churches in Africa that are defined by the joys and sorrows of God's people. The book calls for a Triple-C church, revitalized through Conversion, Communality, and Conversation, as well as fostering integral and sustainable social transformation in Africa's contested march toward modernity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Release date: May 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532657504

Idara Otu

Idara Otu, MSP, the 2018 Aquinas Research Scholar of the Dominican Institute of Toronto at the University of St Michael’s, Toronto, Canada, currently teaches systematic theology at the National Missionary Seminary of St. Paul, Abuja, Nigeria.

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Introduction

The Renewal of African Catholicism

Africa is a deeply religious and blessed land of God.

—Pope John XXIII

On Monday morning, March 28, 1960, the African continent awoke to the breaking news that Pope John XXIII (1881–1963) had appointed Bishop Laurean Rugambwa (1912–97) of the diocese of Rutabo, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) as a member of the Sacred College of Cardinals. This appointment was a magnificent milestone in the history of Catholicism: Pope John XXIII becoming the first pope to appoint an African Catholic bishop as cardinal, and Bishop Rugambwa becoming the first indigenous African cardinal. This unprecedented ecclesial recognition, occurring barely a year (1960) Pope John XXIII announced the convocation of an ecumenical council was an awakening to the incalculable episodic moment of renewal that would be witnessed by Catholics.

On June 5, 1960, in a Radio Message to African Catholics, Pope John XXIII affirmed that the appointment of Bishop Rugambwa to the purple cardinality was to participate in the central government of the Church.¹ My theological interpretation of this first appointment of an African to a cardinalate position is not meant to legitimize the church as residing in the hierarchy or to undermine the indispensable place and role of the non-ordained faithful in Africa. African Catholics did not need one its sons to become a cardinal as validation of their faith commitment and maturity or as a testimony and tribute to centuries of the labors of Catholic missionaries in sub-Saharan Africa. With hindsight, the ecclesial significance of Bishop Rugambwa’s historic and memorable appointment can be discerned as a formal recognition that the church in Africa was coming of age as a local church. As the African proverb says: The raised hand cares not for its own recognition, but for that of the body below. Though it was one man’s hand that was raised, indeed it was the entire church in Africa, and indeed Africans that were recognized. This recognition watered the seeds of faith sown by African ancestors in the faith including Clement of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, Cyprian of Carthage, Perpetua and Felicity, and the Ugandan Martyrs. Bishop Rugambwa’s appointment was essentially remarkable for the African continent against; the backdrop of imperialist’s regimes and a Eurocentric church.² With the quest for African nationalism gaining momentum, with the umbrella slogan, Africa for Africans political independence in several African countries was realized. The elevation of Bishop Rugambwa was an example of the needed renewal that would strengthen ecclesial communion between African and global Catholicism as well as accentuate the call for the Africanization of the faith.³

Leading up to and even after the appointment of Bishop Rugambwa as cardinal, there were echoes of African nationalism from among the clergy and laity advocating for ecclesial reforms. In Nigeria, for example, Rev. Fr. Anthony Sanusi (1911–2009), later appointed the first indigenous bishop of Ijebu-Ode Catholic diocese, called for the indigenization of the episcopal hierarchy of the Church in Nigeria—a Nigerian episcopate that is truly African and reflects the catholicity of the faith.⁴ Rev. Fr. Sanusi was advocating for African Catholicism in an African continent. Another instance is Alioune Diop (1910–80), founder of the African Presence and the African Society of Culture, who took the initiative to organize a wide consultation process to engage African clergy, laity and scholars, to articulate their reflections and recommendations for presentations at the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). In the document, From the contribution of the African personality to the vitality of Catholicism, Diop, a lay convert from Islam to Catholicism, sought to promote the African voice and vision of ecclesial reform even before the Second Vatican Council.⁵ For these minimal annotations and more I have chronicled in this book, the Second Vatican Council remains a watershed in the history of African Catholicism. Coming on the eve of the council, the elevation of Bishop Rugambwa to the cardinalate inaugurated a monumental reform and renewal phase in the self-understanding and mission of the church in Africa.

Consequently, the Second Vatican Council constitutes a significant ecclesial event in the history of Roman Catholicism, which continues to inspire and transform the church in Africa. This twenty-first ecumenical council was overseen by two popes. After some three years of preparation, Pope John XXIII convoked the council, and guided its proceedings from its opening until his death, while Pope Paul VI (1897–1978) continued steering the council’s proceedings until its close. The underlying operative conciliar principle is often articulated using two seemingly opposed yet interconnected tropes: the Italian aggiornamento (bringing up to date), and the French ressourcement (return to the sources).⁶ These theological metaphors served as a hermeneutical compass for the council—rooted in a rich traditional ecclesial past, and with openness to future ecclesial dialogue with the modern world. The resulting sixteen documents from the council signaled a profound renewal for an integral self-understanding and mission of the church. Two of these conciliar texts focused primarily on the theology of the church: The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) and The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes). Lumen Gentium (LG) discloses the church’s self-understanding ecclesia ad intra and Gaudium et Spes (GS) sets forth the church’s mission ecclesia ad extra. These constitutions are complementary and mutually related—the social mission is a derivative of the church’s self-understanding, and the church’s self-understanding is indicative of its social mission.

The Second Vatican Council retrieved metaphors that had become somewhat neglected in Roman Catholic ecclesiology. Preceding the council, there was an overemphasis on building ecclesiastical institutions and less emphasis on forming Christian communities. Focus on an institutional aspect had evolved, such as within the Reformation era, and as developed in the writings of Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621). Undertaking a theological response to the Protestant Reformers, Bellarmine idealized ecclesiastical persons and institutions in his description of the church: The church is a gathering of persons which is visible and palpable as the gathering of the people of Rome, the kingdom of Gaul, or the Republic of Venice.⁷ An unintended consequence of this kind of ecclesiology was the vision of the church as societas perfecta, a machinery of hierarchical mediation and primacy of the Roman See contributing toward the development of a bureaucratic papacy and ecclesiastical unification.⁸ Bellarmine’s proposition diminished the role of the presence of the triune God in the life and mission of the faithful, more importantly, through sacraments, charisms and ministries. The omission of this spiritual aspect, according to Avery Dulles, neglected the recognition of God—who calls all the faithful, sustains them by divine grace, and works through them as they carry out God’s mission in and through the church.⁹ It was Bellarmine’s ecclesiological vision that accentuated the apologetic posture that would characterize Catholic relations with civil society and a pastoral approach to the social mission for several decades. The social mission was developed from a framework of divinization and humanization, with the former stressing the mission of sanctifying the faithful and the latter capturing the mission of transforming society.¹⁰

Remaining faithful to the orienting principles of aggiornamento and ressourcement, the council reclaimed the essence of the church as mystery and the Trinitarian origin of the church, employing these images: People of God, Body of Christ, and Temple of the Spirit (LG 6). Various ecclesiological images espoused in the conciliar corpus include: Sheepfold, Holy City, Building, and Vineyard (LG 6). Despite the diversity of these ecclesiological images, they are complementary and integrative of the council’s summation on the Trinitarian provenance of the self-understanding and mission of all the faithful. The Trinity is a communion of the mutual love between the divine persons—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In declaring the Trinity as the fecundity of ecclesial communion, the council draws from the teaching of Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200–258), asserting: the universal church is seen to be a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" (LG 4). The church is a community of the faithful in communion with the triune God, and an instrument of communion between God and humanity (LG 1). The council teaches that, Christ through the paschal mystery, has formed a new communion of sisters and brothers among all who received him in faith and love; this communion of his own body, the church, in which all as members one of the other would render mutual service in the measure of the different gifts bestowed on each (GS 32). Building on this conciliar teaching on communion, the Trinity is origin and source of the community of the faithful established by Christ as a communion of life, love and truth (LG 9). Gathered as a community of God’s people established by Christ and animated by the Holy Spirit, the local church is present in the universal church and the universal church present in the local churches. Joseph Komonchak explains this intrinsic communion between the universal and local churches this way when he writes that the church "is the congregatio fidelium, and these assemblies, take together; constitute the whole Church, the universitas fidelium. If a diocese represents a communion of communities of believers, the entire Church is a communion of communions of communities of believers."¹¹ Thus the universal church is the one Catholic Church present in the communion of particular churches.

From a comprehensive reading of the sixteen-text corpus of the Second Vatican Council, communio is identified by the Catholic magisterium as the hermeneutical key for unlocking the ecclesiology of the council. The 1985 Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, for example, underscored communio as the fundamental ecclesiological paradigm emerging from the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The synodal Final Report succinctly declares:

The ecclesiology of communion is the central and fundamental idea of the Council’s documents. Koinonia/communion, founded on the Sacred Scripture, have been held in great honor in the early Church and in the Oriental Churches to this day. Thus, much was done by the Second Vatican Council so that the Church as communion might be more clearly understood and concretely incorporated into life. What does the complex word communion mean? Fundamentally it is a matter of communion with God through Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit.¹²

This synodal teaching is echoed in the letter issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) to Catholic bishops: "The concept of communion koinonia, which appears with a certain prominence in the texts of the Second Vatican Council, is very suitable for expressing the core of the Mystery of the Church, and can certainly be a key for the renewal of Catholic ecclesiology."¹³ The CDF further expounded on the proper understanding of the concept of communion: The concept of communion lies ‘at the heart of the Church’s self-understanding,’ insofar as it is the Mystery of the personal union of each human being with the divine Trinity and with the rest of mankind, initiated with the faith, and, having begun as a reality in the Church on earth, is directed towards its eschatological fulfilment in the heavenly Church.¹⁴ The teaching of the Extraordinary Synod and the CDF deepens the conciliar summations on the Trinity as the origin and model of the church as a communion of the faithful bonded by the love of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II explains that this Trinitarian bond is the very mystery of the church in Christifideles Laici (CL):

Jesus continues: I am the vine, you are the branches (John

15

:

5

). From the communion that Christians experience in Christ there immediately flows the communion which they experience with one another: all are branches of a single vine, namely, Christ. In this communion is the wonderful reflection and participation in the mystery of the intimate life of love in God as Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as revealed by the Lord Jesus. (CL

18

)

The conciliar communion ecclesiology is also developed in the teachings of Pope Francis. Recognizing the rich diversities within Catholicism and the rising culture of divisions, Pope Francis envisions a church as a communion of the faithful grounded in the Trinity. In Evangelii Gaudium (EG), Pope Francis writes: The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, transforms our hearts and enables us to enter into the perfect communion of the blessed Trinity, where all things find their unity. He builds up the communion and harmony of the people of God (EG 117). Ecclesial communion is intrinsically connected to the evangelizing mission. Pope Francis adducing to Pope John Paul II underlines that communion and mission are profoundly interconnected (EG 23). This interdependence is the work of the Trinity, the origin and source of the church’s mission. Pope Francis, therefore, envisions a church as communion sent into the world to witness and teach communion: It is necessary to seek to build communion, to teach communion, to get the better of misunderstandings and divisions, starting with the family, with ecclesial reality, in ecumenical dialogue too. Our world needs unity . . . reconciliation and communion, and the Church is the home of communion.¹⁵ The dynamic dialectic of communion and mission are grounds for my attempt to propose a theology of social transformation. The church is constituted as communion by the Trinity for the mission, and the focus of the mission is the building of communion within the ecclesial community and in the secular society.

The assertions above on Vatican II’s communion ecclesiology reveal fundamental dynamics of communion: Trinitarian communion, communion among the divine persons and the faithful, and communion among humanity. I have referenced these annotations from magisterial teachings and the curia to show how the idea of communion has become seemingly a normative ecclesiological conception and a significant paradigm of modern Roman Catholic ecclesiology.

The concept of communion as an underlying ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, however, is being debated among theologians, especially as they continue to discern the significance of communio for the church, and how this plays out in the inner life of the faith community and life of the church in the world.¹⁶ More so, the council’s ecclesiological teaching was not of the form of a systematic treatise, but comprised a rediscovery of ecclesial self-understanding.¹⁷ On the one hand, some theologians contend that there is no single ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council. Instead, the conciliar documents espouse diverse ecclesiological images that are descriptive of the church as a mystery. On the other hand, some theologians argue for a dominant ecclesiological image—the Church as People of God. Joseph Komonchak, however, observes that despite the diversity of ecclesiological images present in the conciliar texts, it is difficult to say that one has priority over the others or that there is only a single ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council.¹⁸ The differing ecclesiological interpretations of the council demonstrate the creative process of the reception of the council and the commitment by theologians to make sense and meaning of the council in light of the richness and diversity of the communities of faith.

These debates further give rise to questions that cannot be glossed off by the theological community. Some of these questions are: Is the creative spirit of the council overridden by overemphasis on a particular ecclesiological conception? Are there multiple ecclesiologies of the Second Vatican Council? Did the Second Vatican Council consciously intend to teach a unified ecclesiology? Is the concept of communio capable of capturing the full ecumenical spirit of the council? Conscious of these unsettled questions, I do not appropriate communio as a blueprint ecclesiology that offers a univocal ecclesial conception or contend that communion and mission are extraneous theological categories. I conceive the ecclesiology of communion as a hermeneutical approach amidst a diversity of potential theological approaches toward understanding the nature of the church—a mystery born of the Trinitarian communion and sent by the triune God on mission to the world. Communion and mission constitute the nature of the church as mystery and in reality cannot be thought of as opposing aspects of the church. It is through the bond of relationship with the triune God and the faithful, and among the faithful that the ecclesial community has a mission at the service of the world and to bring humanity into communion with God (LG 1). The ecclesiology of communion attends to the missiological thrust of the church to become a universal sacrament of salvation for humanity, thus orientated toward the transformation of the world (LG 48).

Ecclesial Communion and Social Transformation

The concept of communio in Latin, koinōnia in Greek, or communion in English can be understood as participation, fellowship, or sharing in common.¹⁹ This idea of communion expresses the church’s self-identity and mission to foster the recognition and manifestation of the essential unity of the whole human family.²⁰ The communion bond of humanity encompasses the African worldview and religious expression. Human identity is necessarily conceived as a being in multiplicity of relationship with the community and creation. The community is the foreground for the people living in communion with other members demonstrated through the values of participation, fellowship, and personal and interpersonal relationship.²¹ Communio finds expression in the Nguni African language idea of Ubuntu, which can be described as the vital principle of life revealed through the human community and participation. Ubuntu arises from the reality that we all share a common life and humanity, and that we are mutually related and interdependent with creation. Ubuntu emphasizes communion, solidarity, and fraternity expressed in the African maxims: I am human, therefore we are or I am an individual because we are a community. A person is a person through other persons or I am through you and the individual is through the community, or in the Bantu language, "umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (we are people through other people—mutual interdependence).²² The quintessence of these expressions is that the person is not a being unto itself or a being in isolation, but rather a being in relationship with other persons and creation. It is by participating in each other’s lives that one fully shares in the bond of life.²³ The Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes: Ubuntu does not say, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ It says rather: ‘I am human because I belong. I participate. I share.’ Harmony, friendliness, community are great goods. Social harmony is for us the summum bonum—the greatest good."²⁴ Simply put, the spirit of Ubuntu means to be human is to belong to a community.²⁵ The implication of the spirit of Ubuntu is seen in the African worldview, which affirms the cultural values of commonality, solidarity, participation, and mutuality. These values permeate the cultural fabric of African society and find expression in worship, rituals, songs, proverbs, folklore, norms and cultural ethos. What the African sense of communion offers is the deepest conviction that when a member of the community suffers, it is the whole community who suffers.

Human communion is discernable when the community gathers to thank or petition God, as can be seen among the Toposa of South Sudan living in Kapoeta State. In 2008, there was an intensive drought in the Toposa land of Namoruputh, in the Eastern Equatorial region of South Sudan. Cattle, goats, and sheep were dying. The people blamed the drought on the shining zinc adorning the roof of the church, which had been built by missionaries. The elders of the Namoruputh community believed that the roof was dazzling the sky and preventing the gathering of rain clouds. After consultations among themselves and with the missionaries, the elders realized that they were wrong. The shining and dazzling zinc sheet on the roof of the building was rather a blessing of development. They quickly recognized that the lack of rain might be a divine punishment for their sins. So they agreed to appease God. A propitiatory offering to God was made by the elders signified with the slaughtering of a bull. The Toposa believe in a supreme being who is not isolated from humanity or removed from human affairs, and who mediates communion with humanity. The elders of Namoruputh slaughter a bull as a sacrifice to God, and every member of the community eats from the bull as an expression of their shared humanity and communion with God in the face of drought.²⁶ The slaughter of a bull was a significant ritual sacrifice of which every member of the community must partake. Participation and sharing in their sacrifice is a typical expression of their shared humanity in communion with God, especially in times of joy or sorrow, failure or successes. Such expression of communion with their supreme being and with one another is a manifestation of their religious bond and cultural cohesion as one community. In this book, communio expresses human participation in the divine life through a genuine shared encounter and relationship with other humans and creation. It is living out, through action, the vital principle of life that bonds humans as people created by and in the image of God. It is a sharing in a common dignity and equality, and participation in a communal existence and eschatology. As such, communion is not limited to the living; communion extends to humans yet unborn, the dead and the totality of creation. Communion bridges all that obviates humans from accessing and enjoying the fullness of life as designed by God.

Drawing from this idea of communion, we can say that, ecclesial communion primarily expresses the bond between the faithful and the triune God, and the bond among the faithful. Ecclesial communion is the intrinsic fellowship and corporate bond of the faithful with God the Father, through Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Spirit as well as the fellowship among the people of God. Ecclesial communion assumes the following interrelated dynamics: (a) communion affirms a vertical dimensional relationship between the individual with God as well as the faithful with God; (b) communion affirms a horizontal dimensional relationship among the faithful as a community of God’s people. This second dynamic extends to recognition of the interdependence existing between humanity and creation. Ecclesial communion finds expressions in reverence and acknowledgment of God’s presence in human history; in the genuine acts of love among humans; in selfless service for the common good of society and in the interdependence that promotes the integrity of creation. Fundamentally, ecclesial communion is rooted in the Trinity. The Second Vatican Council articulates this Trinitarian foundation when it speaks of the church as the mystery of Trinitarian communion (LG 4); Trinitarian communion is the origin of the church (LG 2–4); and the church is a sign, sacrament, and instrument of Trinitarian communion (LG 1).²⁷ This Trinitarian leitmotif shows the fecundity of communio as expressing the dynamic nature of the church, and shows the community of believers simultaneously as constituted in the universal church and local churches. Baptism is the primary entry for participation in ecclesial communion, and the Eucharist, as the source and summit of the spiritual life, builds up the faithful as the body of Christ, drawing them into communion with the Trinity and with others (LG 1, 11).²⁸

In light of these conciliar teachings, Pope Francis reemphasizes the Trinitarian foundation of the church, and argues that ecclesial communion can be preserved despite a diversity of cultures, since communion is the principal work of the Holy Spirit. He writes: When properly understood, cultural diversity is not a threat to Church unity. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, transforms our hearts and enables us to enter into the perfect communion of the blessed Trinity, where all things find their unity. He builds up the communion and harmony of the people of God (EG 117). Though his preferred ecclesiological image is the people of God, Pope Francis is not averse to a communion ecclesiology of a church encompassing all the faithful who are united with the triune God, and not estranged from one another in the ecclesial community or from secular society.²⁹ Pope Francis’s vision of communion is characterized by ecclesial decentralization that promotes attentiveness sensus fidei and sensus fidelium and prophetic dialogue that nourishes the relationship between the universal church and local churches in light of the mystery of the Trinity.³⁰ In the text of a 2013 General Audience, Pope Francis explains: It is necessary to seek to build communion, to teach communion, to get the better of misunderstandings and divisions, starting with the family, with ecclesial reality, in ecumenical dialogue too. Our world needs unity; this is an age in which we all need unity. We need reconciliation and communion, and the Church is the home of communion.³¹ For Pope Francis, according to Robin Ryan, communion is an action word, something that the faithful must practice—by entering into solidarity with others, especially those who live on the margins of society.³² Drawing from his magisterial teachings and the direction of his papacy, Pope Francis promotes an ecclesial communion practiced through collegiality and synodality, collaboration and participation, solidarity and fraternity, and listening and dialogue (EG 31; AL 3). He envisions an ecclesial communion that shines through ecclesial structures and processes and imbues the relationship between the universal church and local churches—one that fosters a dynamic, open and missionary communion and pastoral dialogue of all the faithful (EG 31). Further, Pope Francis affirms that ecclesial communion is not closed in, self-referential, and self-serving, but rather communion is other-oriented, and urges the faithful—the people of God on mission. In the words of Pope Francis, The Church’s closeness to Jesus is part of a common journey; ‘communion and mission are profoundly interconnected.’ In fidelity to the example of the Master, it is vitally important for the Church today to go forth and preach the Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance or fear (EG 23). For Pope Francis, the goal of missio (mission) is the building of communio (communion) within the church and the world.³³ Accordingly, communion can be understood as an analogical application of Trinitarian communion on the vertical and horizontal dimensions, expressing itself through the sacraments, ministry, ecumenism, and social mission.³⁴ Dennis Doyle describes this Trinitarian approach to the self-understanding and mission of the church neither to mean that communion ecclesiology implies an absolute interpretation (as if everything applicable to one dimension applies to others), nor that everything that is attributable to the part is equally attributable to the whole. It would be misleading, for example, to equate Trinitarian communion with the ecclesial collegiality existing among Catholic bishops.³⁵ The concept of communion offers profound insight into ecclesial self-understanding, with emphasis on the relationality that lies at the heart of the mystery of the church. Communion ecclesiology focuses on relationships, whether among the persons of the Trinity, among human beings and God, among the members of the Communion of Saints, among members of a parish, or the bishops dispersed throughout the world. It emphasizes the dynamic interplay between the Church universal and the local churches.³⁶

In the conciliar documents, communion ecclesiology can be seen as a rediscovery of the Trinitarian communion underlying the mystery of the church. As Pope John Paul II explains in Christifideles Laici, communio is central to the nature of the church (CL 19). This proposition has inspired normative magisterial teachings and contextual investigations regarding theologies of the church and mission, as well as distinct versions and visions of communion ecclesiology. However, the concept of communio remains of central significance to theologians as an archetype that point to the noninstitutional and spiritual reality of the Catholic identity.³⁷ In Catholic ecclesiological discourse, there exist two methodological prototypes: communion ecclesiology from above and from below. The former privileges a dominant theme witnessed at the council, while the latter embraces the diversity of ecclesiological visions that the council inspired, and shows a unique receptivity to the ecclesiological spirit and vision of the Second Vatican Council.³⁸ These dynamic approaches, among other things, indicate how theologians interpret the council’s theology of the church, and how they are understood and manifested in particular contexts. Without delimiting the institutional aspect, Vatican II communion ecclesiology integrates five interconnected foci of the church: the divine, the mystical, the sacramental, the historical, and the social.³⁹ These foci, according to Doyle, primarily constitute the doorway leading to a fuller and integral understanding of communion ecclesiology in the conciliar documents. Even though these aspects reveal the inextricable dynamics of the church as a community of the faithful, they are inexhaustive of the visible and invisible manifestations of ecclesial communion.

More than fifty years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the reception of its ecclesiology is ongoing and discernible at various ecclesiastical levels and in diverse pastoral contexts and locales. Ormond Rush envisions the hermeneutic of reception as encompassing the receiver’s understanding, interpretation, and application of conciliar teaching:

By reception, I mean an interpreter’s or group of interpreters’ hermeneutical activity of making sense of people, events, traditions, or texts. Reception is the assimilation and making one’s own of another reality. This process of appropriation involves the interpreter in an activity and creative way; the effect, of past events or texts is determined to a certain degree on the active reception of a receiver.⁴⁰

Considering the Second Vatican Council, reception then demands that the conciliar texts are read and received—in the sense of being understood, interpreted, and contextualized.⁴¹ This implies the recognition of the conciliar texts as organic, and requires active participation by the ordained and non-ordained in discerning, understanding and interpreting the signs of the times for the future of the church. Reception involves a creative process by which the people of God, in the sensus fidei and sensus fidelium, engage the conciliar texts beyond the context in which they came to birth.⁴² Since the close of the council, the reception of its ecclesiological teaching is ongoing and notable at the spiritual, kerygmatic, theological, and hermeneutical levels.⁴³Although these levels of reception are distinct, they reveal a conscious exercise by the faithful to re-read, reflect, and reintegrate the conciliar teachings into their particular locale, thereby moving the texts into contexts.

From the preceding, ecclesial communion draws the faithful to recognize their shared humanity, and their being empowered by the Spirit to become a living witness of unity and active agents of communion in the world, most especially in the face of social fragmentations and ecological dislocations. The experience of communion between God and the faithful, and among the faithful impels the Church as Family of God to advance the reign of God in the world. Thus, ecclesial communion is integrally related to social transformation. Given the plethora of socioeconomic, political, cultural, religious, and ecological issues facing the Global South, the church in Africa, and indeed African Christianity, cannot remain indifferent to the plight of Africans. The Church as Family of God has a responsibility toward promoting visible ecclesial communion through the agency of social transformation. This witness of communion—which moves beyond the walls of the church—transcends the community of the faithful to the whole of the African continent, and humanity. Ecclesial communion inspires the faithful, animated by the Spirit, to become active and primary agents of change in their locales. The church in Africa as a family of God in communion with the triune God and one another is on a mission to the people of Africa. The goal is to liberate Africans from societal entrapments and anything that inhibits human and cosmic flourishing and to guide them toward living the fullness of life.

The Council Came to Africa: An African

Communion Ecclesiology

A significant reception of the Second Vatican Council is the application of its ecclesiological teaching to diverse contexts and locales. Central to this book is the reception of the ecclesiological and social teachings of the council at the First and Second Special Assemblies for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. Of keen interest are the theological continuity between the First and Second African Synods, the reception of communion ecclesiology and social mission by bishops of Africa, and the implications of the synods theological reception for the social transformation of Africa. As noted earlier, the designation church in Africa is employed to speak of what is mainly applicable to the Catholic Church in sub-Saharan Africa. It is not meant to diminish the rich cultural diversity that marks African Catholicism, or to amalgamate the denominations that characterize African Christianity into a single ecclesiological category. In this book, I acknowledge this diversity, and envision the church in Africa as an expression of shared ecclesial and social contexts, as well as related pastoral and sociocultural challenges, plans, and prospects germane to African Catholicism within the broader African community.

Three decades after the council, the First Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops (First African Synod) was convened by Pope John Paul II in 1994. Its theme was The Church in Africa and Her Evangelizing Mission towards the Year 2000: ‘You shall be my witnesses’ (Acts 1:8). In the post-synodal exhortation, Ecclesia in Africa (EA), the pope highlighted the focus of the synod on evangelization and its relation to the proclamation, inculturation, dialogue, justice and peace, and communication (EA 8). Achievement of the First African Synod was the adoption of the Church as God’s family as its guiding principle for the evangelization of Africa (EA 63). The rationale for this fundamental option arose from the conviction that the family expresses the ecclesial self-identity appropriate for the church in Africa (EA 63). Though the imagery of family draws from the African cultural values that foster the bonds of ecclesial communion, the church as a family is principally modeled on the Trinity. The First African Synod Final Message