The Church in Africa faces challenges from the influence of a secularised Western culture, from the difficulties of authentic inculturation, and from the tensions and conflicts of societies divided along tribal and linguistic lines. In all these challenges, the Extraordinary Form can prove helpful, encapsulating as it does many of the principles of concern for tradition, reverence, and a sense of sin and of the sacred, that characterise African spirituality; providing a stable bulwark against syncretism which allows a more open attitude to African cultural practices; and avoiding the problems of preferring one language, often a former colonial one, over others. While the availability of the Extraordinary Form remains very limited in Africa, it is growing, and Africa’s bishops and religious orders should seize the opportunities which it represents. . . . . . .
The 25th in the FIUV Position Papers series, called
“The Extraordinary Form and Sub-Saharan Africa” is now available in the
FIUV Positio section.
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