Preparing for African ways in the Church

By Peter Harrigan
The doubtful future of foreign missionaries and the low rate of indigenous ordinations are common features of the Catholic Church in most black African nations.
In West Africa these factors, coupled with a rapidly increasing population, mean that a crisis in the ministry is arriving. Nigeria is Africa's most populous and powerful nation and contains an estimated Catholic population of nearly 1,000,000, concentrated mainly in the Federation's Southern States. And in this country the crisis has already arrived.
Foreign missionaries are finding it increasingly difficult to enter the country and priests already working in Nigeria are having trouble re-entering the
country. Seminaries report low rate and Inc nun-user of indigenous ordinations is extremely low.
The squeeze on foreign missionaries is all part of the policy,
of Africanisation in which foreign-dominated businesses are gradually being bought out and indigenised and top posts put into Nigerian hands. The policy applies just as much to the Church as it does to big business and the more realistic and progressive of the 554 foreign priests (mostly Irish and British) in Nigeria accept the policy as a necessary and in evitable corollary to development.
But the big reduction in foreign missionaries — 10 years ago there were over 1,000 — is
not being matched with an increase in the Nigerian
priesthood. There are now about 300 indigenous priests 200 more than 10 years ago.
To counter this disturbing overall decline many mis sionaries have devoted their work to finding a solution and the most original and exciting is the relatively new concept of developing "lesser ministries or a "second-class priesthood." Basically this means training priests"; not in traditional seminaries but in catechetical training centres. The catechists are trained to work as church leaders in rural communities and ultimely to replace missionaries and assist overworked Nigerian priests. They are also encouraged to return to their own home areas to work. The rule of celibacy is a major reason for the low level of admissions and the alarming dropout rate from seminaries. Marriage has great importance in Nigerian society and all too often the family of a seminarian will force him to opt out when they realise that he will not be able to marry. And in a country where only a privileged few can enjoy the benefits of a post-primary education many use seminaries as a method of furthering education with no intention of joining the priesthood. As in many parts of Africa high proportion of indigenous priests and bishops (there are now 17 Nigerian bishops) believe that a relaxation of the celibacy rule is required. A priest of the Society for African Missions, Fr. James O'Connell, who is Professor of Government in the Ahmadu Bello University at Zaria, caused a big stir recently after publishing results of a questionnaire he had conducted among priests and sisters in Nigeria: it showed that the majority of Nigerian priests and sisters, and a sizeable number of expatriate priests, favoured the abolition of celibacy.
Such a move would certainly give a big boost to indigenous ordinations. Another school of thought is that all the expatriate priests now in Nigeria should be completely phased out over the next three years.
This, the argument runs, would create a serious shortage of priests in the country and the "vacuum" would in turn encourage more Nigerians to enter seminaries and stick at the lengthy seven-year seminary training that leads to ordination. The "vacuum" argument is sound, for there is no shortage of capable and potentially devoted candidates for the priesthood in Nigeria; but the lack of any sense of urgency is one reason that dissuades many from taking up the vocation.
Coupled with these arguments, many say that the priesthood should offer more econcmic security and attractive conditions to attract more vocations.
Few of the colourful, die-hard missionaries now remain in Nigeria. But there are some. A hundred miles east of Kaduna is an Irish priest in his midseventies who springs straight from the pages of a Graham Greene novel: Rarely seen, he disappears from his isolated and ramshackle mission house for as long as five weeks, trekking alone deep into the bush to reach isolated villages where he will say Mass, preach and move on.
The new breed of foreign missionary are related far more to modern development. A large number are involved in teaching and in many states — where former mission-run schools have been taken over by the Government — priests have joined the Civil Service by signing contracts with the State to retain their teaching posts.
Most of the younger missionaries also realise that they are only a temporary factor filling in gaps that will ultimately be filled by Nigerians. Many of the remaining older missionaries who arrived before Nigerian Independence in 1960 are now hopelessly out of touch with their surroundings For the country has developed at an almost overwhelming rate and is currently riding high on a massive oil boom.
Missionaries have been criticised a great deal for failing to Africanise aspects of the ' Church that are easily adaptable to suit the environment. Such criticisms have on the whole been justified, for the missionary is invariably remarkably conservative when it comes to such suggestions. As a result much of the Church has an incomprehensible mystique attached to it: everything used is imported (including the priest) and represents an alien culture to the people.
But in a country rich in local art forms, customs and traditions the more progressive priests are now getting together to work and experiment with ways to Africanise the Church ready for the day when Nigerians are in complete control.
It is in this climate that the missionary is now working. One that is far removed from most people's view of "the African missionary." With the shift in emphasis to catechetical training centres it now appears certain that in this period of rapid flux in Nigeria, the turning out of lay priests is one of the most realistic answers to the priesthood problem in the country.