The Final Call

Pope Benedict XVI in Africa

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(FinalCall.com) - When ultra-conservative Pope Benedict XVI arrived on African soil for a seven-day visit to Cameroon and Angola, he was received with the highest of African hospitality from the common people to the highest levels of government. But there are questions: What is really behind the pontiff's visit to Africa and why now?

Graphic: MGN Online/Harold Muhammad

The March 17-23 visit—a first by the Pope since assuming office in 2005—took place at a time of economic turmoil, civil strife, wars and rumors of wars in diverse places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Somalia. There is a growing competition among faith traditions contending for the hearts of Africans and his visit corresponds with a time of great economic potential and prosperity for business development in Africa.

Analysts who follow faith trends observe, in distinction from Europe and the western world where Catholic conversions are on a decline, Africa has become a missionary's marketplace, where various denominations of Christianity and Islam all appear to be growing with record numbers. The Catholic Church is reported to have up to 150 million members on the continent.

In countries like Angola, where Catholicism was imposed on the people by Portuguese imperialists, Catholics are said to make up 60 percent of the population. And while Catholic membership is down in Western and European nations, Islam is the fastest growing faith in Europe, the U.S. and Africa. While consensus figures are in dispute, observers concede Muslims make up the majority of the 900 million people of Africa.

Dr. Lawrence Mamiya, chairperson of the Department of Religion and Africana Studies at Vassar College in New York, agrees stagnant religious growth in Europe versus increased growth in Africa—along with the strong presence of Islam and other Christian denominations such as Evangelicals and Pentecostals—were primary reasons for the pontiff engaging Africa.

“There certainly is competition for the soul of Africa between Christianity and Islam. This competition has been going on a while. So far there are more Muslims than Christians on the African continent. So yes, the competition between the religions is a major motivation and factor in the trip,” said Dr. Mamiya to The Final Call via e-mail.

Furthermore, critics who remember the historical role of the Bible-toting missionary, who served as the advance person to the gun-toting colonialist, place the visit in the perspective of Africa's strategic position as the last economic frontier for a world in trouble.

According to a March 12, 2009 article in Time magazine by Alex Perry called “Africa, Business Destination,” the International Monetary Fund puts Africa's average annual growth for 2004-2008 at more than six percent better than any developed economy.

“Economists expect Africa to buck the global recessionary trend to grow nearly 3.3% this year,” Time reported.

These are attractive figures for investors in need of alternative markets to support their own waning economic affairs.

As the conditions are favorable for Africa to be the economic mammary gland for the rest of the world, so it was during the years of colonialism, imperialism, exploitation and the misuse of religion as an effective tool in the violation of the continent.

“The church, from its earliest days in West and Central Africa, was always another aspect of European domination of Africa,” wrote researcher G. Pascal Zachary, editor of “Africa Works” and visiting scholar at U.C. Berkeley's School of Information.

“While the media is careful to emphasize the Pope's moral mission, religious ‘rule from Rome' is another echo of colonialism in a world where such echoes are no longer heard,” added Mr. Zachary.

Furthermore, the notoriously secretive Vatican may be looking to court Africa with its rich resources to offset financial challenges rooted in Europe and America.

In America's case, it's the financial burdens of a church—saddled with legal troubles in the tens of millions of dollars—stemming from years of sexual abuse scandals and the overall affect of the economic fall of America.

According to published reports, the U.S. wealth of the church is estimated at $13 billion, including assets such as real estate holdings with each parish financially administrated autonomously.

Nonetheless there is enormous debt obligation because of payoffs to the victims of abuse, such as in the L.A. archdiocese, which paid out $660 million in 2007. The archdiocese had to pay the debt by selling off some of its real estate and taking out loans to help pay the settlement.

However on an in-flight press conference between Rome and Cameroon, Pope Benedict XVI denied his visit had anything to do with economics and politics.

“Naturally I am not going to Africa with a political and economic agenda, which would lie outside my competence, I am going with a program that is religious to do with faith and morals,” said the pontiff.

Critics maintain, however, in light of the tremendous challenges facing the Vatican and the western world, the questions remain: why Africa and why now?

According to a 2008 AP story, hurt by a fallen dollar, the Vatican disclosed a $13.5 million deficit in 2007, citing a sharp decrease in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro which is the currency commonly used by the Vatican.

Now with Europe and the western world experiencing a worse economic outlook, does the Pope really expect us to believe that he personally visited Africa for strictly “religious” purposes—and economics and politics were not in the equation?

“Given the past history of the Vatican in supporting the colonizing attempts of African countries by European powers in the 19th and 20th centuries, the visit can be seen in the context of imperialism or at least an attempt to bring former African colonial countries back into the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church,” said Dr. Mamiya.