By Paschal Norbert
NAIROBI, APRIL 30, 2024 (CISA) – Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has said that the Church in Africa is united ahead of the 2024 Second Session of the Synod on Synodality set to begin in October and avowed that the discussion around Fiducia supplicans, the controversial Vatican’s declaration on same-sex blessings is buried in Africa.
Speaking in Nairobi on April 25 at a press conference of the African Delegation Seminar on Synodality, the president of Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) stated that the controversial Vatican document had indeed caused some disquiet in the continent and consequently, hugely contributed to the mistrust of the process of Synodality.
“The Church in Africa is united in communion, there is no division; I think that all over the world, people agree and in one accord with the Church in Africa,” he said, adding, “This is the reason why we shall no longer talk about Fiducia Supplicans; it has been buried.”
Cardinal Ambongo explained that the air of lethargy that is surrounding the Synod on Synodality in Africa and which is felt across the board from the faithful, priests to the bishops is partly to be blamed on Fiducia Supplicans, which he says played ” the part in trying to bring down this issue of synodality.”
He, however, admits that after meeting with the pope, “this question of Fiducia supplicans is buried and temporarily we are coming back on track.”
To allay the doubts of the majority that the said document was only discussed in the boardroom at the Vatican, Cardinal Ambongo expounded that his meeting with Pope Francis was positive and it “was published and decided that in Africa the blessing of homosexual unions doesn’t go with our continent and it was accepted by the supreme pontiff.”
“Fiducia Supplicans wasn’t primarily about cultural aspects; rather, it was best approached through the perspectives of theology, morality, the Bible, and the Magisterium,” he said.
Asked if the African Delegates discussed the emerging issues that rocked the first session of the Synod in 2023 including the ordination of women into the diaconate and ministry to the LGBTQ community, Cardinal Ambongo deflected but maintained that the Synod on Synodality is a new way Nof being for the Church and as such, the Church has not yet identified how to be ‘new’ in order to influence changes in the rules of the Church.
“Synodality means walking together, a new of being changed. And once the change is identified –a new way of being changed then we can begin to touch upon these various issues but from the point of view of the rules being changed. And that is why all these questions are put aside and divided into ten points that are entrusted to bishops for them to be taken care of,” he said referencing the ten themes outlined by Pope Francis for further discussion by Study Groups ahead of the second Synod session in October 2024.
Cardinal Ambongo, a member of the C9 – the Council of Cardinals assisting the Holy Father in the project of reforming the Church, also noted that nothing is in finality on the Synod, “We are in an intermediary phase between two sessions. I think it is after the second session and especially a publication of the apostolic exhortation that things will be simplified. At the moment the work is being done by the delegates who will proceed to the second session.”
The African Delegation Seminar on Synodality took place at Donum Dei Roussel House in Nairobi from April 23 to 26, 2024. It was organized by SECAM in collaboration with the African Synodality Initiative (ASI) as a preparatory seminar for the second session of the Synod on Synodality for the African delegates.
