Cardinals-designate from three continents say the Church in the global south has a lot of nonmaterial gifts to share with the West, including the richness of priestly vocations and a joy-filled faith. Source: CNA.
“When the Holy Father is talking about peripheries, I think the peripheries are moving. … Maybe the peripheries are moving towards Europe,” Tokyo’s Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi SVD, said in response to a question during a press briefing on the Synod on Synodality yesterday.
His comments on the contributions of the Church outside Europe were echoed by Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Korhogo, Ivory Coast, and Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, of Porto Alegre, Brazil, who also participated in the press briefing.
All three men are participants in the Synod and will be made cardinals at a consistory on December 8, as announced by Pope Francis on Sunday.
Cardinal-designate Dogbo said the Synod on Synodality yesterday discussed the theme of the exchange of gifts.
“We who come from African dioceses, we can say that they seem to be poor from a material standpoint, but spiritually these dioceses are so rich. And faith is lived with joy,” he said. “And this is something we must share with the universal Church.”
He also mentioned the great grace of many priestly vocations in the Church in Africa.
Cardinal-designate Kikuchi also pointed out the large number of vocations to the priesthood coming from countries in Asia, though he remarked that Japan is, unfortunately, not included in this.
“There is a point in [the Synodal assembly] in which we discussed the exchange of gifts from one Church to the other – those who have and those who don’t have. Formerly it was understood as rich Churches, those who have money and resources, who support the poor countries like in Asia and Africa,” Cardinal-designate Kikuchi said.
With more priestly vocations coming from Asian and African countries, however, “the exchange of gifts is changing … from the developing countries to the developed countries,” he said.
Cardinal-designate Spengler said today’s challenge for the Church in traditionally Christian countries is understanding how to present the faith to the next generation.
FULL STORY
New cardinals say Europe is becoming the Catholic Church’s new ‘peripheries’ (By Hannah Brockhaus, CNA)
