Pope's African Visit Comes at a Defining Moment for the Church

The Catholic church is witnessing its fastest growth in Africa. Recent statistics show 2.1% growth between 2019 and 2020. Out of a global population of 1.36 billion Catholics, 236 million are African (20% of the total).

African Catholics are not simply growing in number. They are reinventing and reinterpreting Christianity. They are infusing it with new language and spiritual vibrancy through unique ways of worshipping God. Given its expansion, the Catholic church in Africa is well placed to be a central driver of social, political and spiritual life. In many settings, the church provides a community of hope where the fabric of society is weak because of war, humanitarian disasters and disease.

Pope Francis will visit the DRC from January 31 to February 3, 2023 and then spend two days in South Sudan before returning to the Vatican. During the visit, Pope Francis intends to be in dialogue with African Catholics - but also to listen to political leaders and young Africans.

Pope Francis has convened a worldwide consultation on the future of the Catholic church. This consultation, called a synodal process, began in 2021 and will conclude in 2024.

It is the most ambitious dialogue ever undertaken on bringing changes in Catholic beliefs and practices since the Second Vatican Council's reforms in 1965. It is exciting for reform-minded Catholics, but distressing for conservative Catholics.

The ongoing synodal process has exposed the fault lines in modern Catholicism on the issues of women, celibacy, sexuality, marriage, clericalism and hierarchism. How Pope Francis - who marks a decade of his papacy this year - manages these increasingly divisive issues will, in my judgement, largely define his legacy.