“I like to define the Church in Africa as the Church of the sheaves of wheat, the fruit of the missionaries, who are the heroes of the Church.” With this paraphrase of Psalm 126, Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Nigerian archbishop and secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for First Evangelization, began the meeting with some Vatican journalists organized by the Iscom Association in view of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming apostolic journey to four African countries.

“The missionaries were crazy, yes, but crazy with love for the Gospel. It saddens me when people focus only on the mistakes made. The missionaries brought culture, healing, prosperity. I am the fruit of that Church of the sheaves of wheat.” The archbishop recalled an impressive statistic: among the countries with the largest number of Catholics, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ranks fifth after Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United States. His own country, Nigeria, is tenth. Far more than European countries with a Christian tradition.

“We must look with gratitude to the missionaries. And the sheaves of wheat must return home: how can these Churches help the universal Church? You will see that the Pope will find a great welcome in a Church that remembers how much those who brought the Gospel suffered.” Continuing in his dialogue with the journalists, the prelate explained better how “in the West there is the feeling of a full house, with no room for the sheaves of wheat. There is a need for parish priests, but many reason: ‘No, no, let’s strengthen our laity.’ But in doing so, we touch the doctrine of the Church. Can a layperson replace a priest? It is necessary to make room for the ‘sheaves of wheat priests.’ Our Dicastery has several universities, about 60: we can better develop the idea of the Church of the sheaves of wheat, not to evangelize the West, but to support a mother who needs to be sustained in her old age. The Western Church is the mother Church of the Churches of the sheaves of wheat. It should feel open, without shame, without arrogance, without discrimination.”

The archbishop, who has extensive diplomatic experience in the service of the Holy See, recalled that the Section of the Dicastery where he works has jurisdiction over 69 areas in Latin America, all Caribbean countries, all of Africa and Asia except part of the Philippines and Australia, while collaborating with the Secretariat of State for China and some Churches in former Soviet countries. In total, 1,130 circumscriptions.

Regarding the countries the Pope will visit, the archbishop first spoke of Algeria, where he served as secretary of the nunciature: “We have four dioceses. I believe the main message will revolve around interreligious dialogue. The local Church is already committed to this dialogue; thank God, the period of violence between 1996 and 1998 has been overcome, but there is always a need to deepen the dialogue and find space for freedom of worship and religion.”

Similar problems exist in Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, where it is necessary to “deepen what the missionaries sowed, without misinterpreting inculturation, which is necessary but must allow local cultures to convert to Christ.” Monsignor Nwachukwu also touched on the problem of ethnocentrism, which even affects the appointment of bishops.

“We can define them as cradle Churches, because there is a tendency to remain as children, to receive nourishment from outside. It is necessary to encourage them to grow not only numerically, but also in self-sufficiency, to become adults, in a world where some want to monetize everything, even the Gospel. We must encourage the Churches to become autonomous, to be self-sustaining. Otherwise, their voices will continue to be treated as annoying by the ‘adults’ of the Church.”

In some of these states, particularly in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, there is a problem of democracy. The archbishop wondered how to help, and certainly not by confronting governments head-on. “In Cameroon there is a civil war. There are ‘eternal’ presidents with the support of Western countries. Democracy limps under the gaze of democratic West; we will have to find a path for the common good.”

One of the problems affecting several African countries is polygamy and, in general, the condition of women: “The situation is not uniform. There are ethnic groups where the woman is the heart, the central figure. Polygamy does not respond to sexual appetites but to cultural demands. In the past, it was necessary for labor; the rich sought more wives to have more children to cultivate the land. It has been tried to convert gradually.” And he told his own story, with polygamous grandparents (one had five wives, the other twelve), moving to his monogamous father until having two priest sons, and therefore celibate. “Other confessions are more open. The Catholic Church insists on this. Are there infidelities? Yes. Is everything resolved? No. The difference with the West, however, is that there polygamy is contemporary, here it is temporally successive: one marries three, four, five times… We must insist by highlighting the dignity and centrality of women because she is called ‘life’.”

Another hot topic is the persecution of Christians. “In Nigeria the situation is very sad; there is widespread insecurity due to various groups. Some take advantage to target Christians (schools, girls, etc.), especially in the North. Some stop to ask if there is a plan, if it is genocide or persecution instead of asking how to stop the cause of this problem. It is not a matter of terms, whether persecution exists or not. Is it true or not that women are massacred and raped in front of husbands and children? Is it true or not that villages are burned? The Pope was one of the first to denounce violence against Christians. I believe he will do so again on his trip. We are the builders of violence, but if we change hearts it can be overcome. Equatorial Guinea could be the Switzerland of Africa, but a conversion is also needed from the political class. Angola was the second African oil-exporting country, now it is no longer. A conversion is needed that puts the common good and human dignity at the center. The Pope knows the reality of Africa; he will surely speak of resources and their use for the common good.” But will he also speak of the West’s responsibilities? “What effect would saying it in Africa have?” the archbishop replied. “The West knows how much it does and undoes in Africa.” Then the invitation “not to speak of Africa in general anymore, not to put everything in one small basket. There is so much diversity among African countries. It is a mentality that needs to be corrected.”

There was also a passage dedicated to China and Islam and their role in the economies of African countries: “It should be the West that rethinks its presence, which right now would surpass the Chinese one. Listening to the Italian prime minister (the reference is obviously to the so-called Mattei Plan for Africa, editor’s note), or the Hungarian one, speak of Africa fills the heart. Also Russia. Western countries should review their policy. China is taking advantage of empty spaces left behind. We need to find a new way to fill those spaces. I look at China with critical eyes, not negative, and the same with the West.”

Regarding Islam, Nwachukwu stated that “it is not true that it is the religion of Africa, but in recent years political Islam has arrived bringing extremism. Whose fault is it? We want to be good with Islam; there is talk of Islamophobia but not of Christianophobia. To eliminate the negative effects, we must remove the cause. A dialogue with moderate Islam is needed to curb the violence of radical Islam.”

Finally, the response to those who accuse the African Church of being traditionalist: “No, it is faithful. We received the Gospel from missionaries who were willing to give their lives, and now someone with modern ideas wants to convince me to abandon those values to embrace their new fantasy. If I did that, I would become a bit foolish. In Europe, ideas emerge that are still untested, but those of the missionaries are the ones on which today’s Europe was built. Undoubtedly, needs do not end; the Church grows but so do the needs. They must help one another, while encouraging the West not to tire in the help that must continue.”