Central African Republic: ‘God hasn’t forgotten you!’

Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga is on a tour of his war-torn country, where young people find it difficult to lay down their weapons and find their way back to school. On his travels to the “margins,” which are particularly close to the heart of Pope Francis, the cardinal feels the pulse of an abandoned population. During his visit to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN)’s headquarters, he spoke about the situation in the Central African Republic and the need for the education of young people.

Do you believe the Central African Republic has overcome the civil war?
The current government is not threatened; the fear of a military coup that existed in 2020 is no longer present. But our society has terrible wounds and needs rebuilding.

How do you see the situation in your country?
I travel throughout the country to places where there is not a single official to be seen. The roads were already bad before the war, but now they are impassable. There are armed gangs in the streets, which seriously obstruct traffic and can be dangerous, but I trust in the Baraka (Arabic for “heavenly blessing”) and up until now, it has not left me in a lurch. And on my travels again and again, I see abandoned village communities. These people feel that nobody cares about them. They die like animals, without even a health center. They must be reminded that they are children of God. Therefore, I take off my cardinal’s robe, make myself small, travel through the land, and say to them: “Even if people have forgotten you, God has not forgotten you.”

In one village, during the confirmation of a young man called François, I was surprised that people were celebrating him in a special way and making a big thing of him. People explained that he was the village catechist. It was he who was keeping faith alive in this community, which had been without a visiting priest for a long time. And he wasn’t even confirmed yet.

How do you explain the neglect of the population?

In defense of the government, it must be said that our country is as big as France, and it is difficult to control such an area. Apart from that, there are still areas that are controlled by the rebels.

I recently visited Ouadda, a small town in the country’s northeast. People gave me a very friendly welcome and even organized a party for me. They were happy because they realized that they hadn’t been abandoned, and because while I was there, they didn’t have to observe the curfew imposed by the rebels. When I wanted to travel on, one of the rebels’ local young leaders blocked the way and said I couldn’t continue. 

The same evening, the parishioners prayed for us; the mayor, the pastors, and the Imams came to stand up for me. The next day, when I told the local rebel leader that I wanted to go, he at first blocked my way. But then, ten minutes later, he said I could go. I was relieved, but I rebuked him: I reminded him that he was a leader, that his word counted, and that therefore, he couldn’t just say anything. I was taken to his superior, and there he suddenly became like a small child that has been caught doing something. There are many people like that here. They have no formation, so they make up for it with muscles.

You strongly emphasize the importance of education. Why is it so important in your country?

In central Africa, we have such a young population! So many young people. However, during the unstable years since 2013, they have not been going to school, and even now, education is very patchy. Teachers often do not want to go into remote districts, because they are afraid of the rebels. Another problem is that they are badly paid.

Those who really get paid are the military because they have Kalashnikovs, and you don’t want to be on bad terms with them. Teachers, on the other hand, only have chalk. So, they often get their salaries late. Teachers who live far from the big cities must undertake long and dangerous journeys to collect their salary, because there are no local banks. Some spend two-thirds of their salary on the motorbike taxi. And the journey lasts up to two weeks, so their classes can only get taught for half the month.

And I am only speaking here of properly employed teachers, who get a salary from the state. As there are far too few of them, parents are locally recruited and trained to take over lessons. They only earn what the pupils’ parents want to give them. And that leads to unfair treatment of the children, as paying parents expect that their children get good marks in return.

We also lack buildings. Many schools have been burned down, and lots of lessons take place under a mango tree. The whole class must move around with the sun. When there is too much wind or rain, there are no more classes. Those are the normal conditions of learning.

Are you seeing a decline in the level of education?

Of course. I’ll give an example from this year. For the uptake of a junior seminary, only 20 out of 200 young people had the required level, and in a seminary, only four of the 23 applicants were accepted! Many children who get a score of around 13 out of 20 in their school get a much lower score for the same piece of work in a Catholic school, where there is no favoritism or nepotism.

What can the Church do when faced with this situation?

We help where we can. One of my highly qualified priests gives free lessons to help those who want to enter the seminary.

Education is decisive, because in the end, it determines the presence of seminarians, parish leaders, and the whole leadership of society….and not to forget the catechists, too. They are so important. They keep the flame of faith alive in our villages.

And the question of the education of girls is particularly close to our hearts. I saw in the villages pregnant girls as young as 11, girls who had been raped by armed young men and had no more chance of studying. I was horrified. So, in my homilies, I pointed to this catastrophe and asked if there were people who could help me take the girls out of this situation. And I was heard: a donor from Cameroon helped us with everything: study, accommodations…30 girls were sent to Cameroon. None of them has disappointed us. We have medical students, engineers. They rose to the challenge!

You took part in the episcopal synod at the Vatican from October 4-29, which marked the universal phase of the Synod on Synodality. Did people also speak about persecuted Christians there?

People spoke about it. And after the brothers from Sudan and Ukraine spoke, there was applause to show solidarity: We are with you!

The theme of the synod was: “For a synodal Church: communion, participation, and mission”. Despite the differences of bishops from all over the world, did you feel this communion?

At the beginning of the synod, there was lots of tension. People expected division and conflict. But the Holy Spirit came discreetly to calm our spirits, to help us see each other as brothers and not as enemies. What changed the atmosphere a lot was the three-day retreat at the beginning. Then also the fact that during the synod, we were sitting around a table and looking at each other. There were 36 tables, around which people of different nationalities sat. We had some roundtable discussions, we listened to each other, and when someone spoke, we stayed silent to take it in. Then we voted on the themes of the synod on a secret ballot, and we felt completely free.

That means that many of the themes tackled by the smaller groups were not submitted for discussion in the larger assembly. Were there frustrations?

If you really listen to the other, and if you are humble, you receive a lot, because the Holy Spirit also passes through my brother. If you are not humble, one sees frustrations. I must decentralize myself, deprive myself: there is more than just my country. It’s not a case of defending my position; I submit my concerns, but I also listen to the others. The Church is not me alone. It is all of us. When you have voted on a theme, it is no longer my theme; it has become ours. That said, if you thought it was necessary to tackle a theme which was not retained by the group, you could always speak up in the larger assembly. But always with this concern: we must build the Church of Christ and not my own Church! We are not working on our own agendas.

You seem very happy with what you experienced during the synod.

I came out of it enriched. And I have the impression that it was a new Pentecost for the Church. The Holy Spirit did His work to make my language a language of love understood by the other. Yes, the way of seeing things is very different in the different parts of the world. But Christ Himself prayed: “That they all may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” (John 17:21). God does not want uniformity, but unity in diversity. In music, harmony comes from diversity. The Holy Spirit works on us so that we are in harmony with Him. It’s important that the spirit of the world does not distance us from the Gospel. Our reference is not the world. If you want to be light or yeast, you must move toward Christ, toward His Word. The currents change, but Christ remains the same. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

Over the last five years, ACN has funded 175 projects in the Central African Republic, including almost 40 in the Archdiocese of Bangui. In 2023, ACN has supported formation, transportation, and renovation projects in the diocese.

—Sylvain Dorient