“You are the hope of this 2000-year-old Church of ours: being young in faith, you must be like the first Christians and radiate enthusiasm and courage…You will also be a leaven of missionary spirit for the older Churches.” Saint John Paul II
In Africa, the number of Catholics is growing faster than the Muslim population. The Catholic Church is also growing at a faster rate than other Christian denominations: since 1980 Africa’s Catholic population has more than tripled to 200 million. But, above all, the growth and enthusiasm of the faith in Africa is a beacon of hope for the continent and the world at large.
In January 2017, the coastal region of northern Mozambique was battered for five long days by a severe cyclone. The tropical storm brought heavy rainfall and devastated large swathes of the countryside in two of the coastal provinces of this country in southeast Africa, already one of the poorest in the world. Thousands of homes were destroyed, and countless people left homeless.
In Algeria, the birthplace of Saint Augustine, there are approximately 5,000 Catholics living today. Algeria, in Northwest Africa, is the largest country in Africa, with an area of almost 930,000 square miles – around one quarter the size of the United States. Close to 97% of its 36.5 million inhabitants are Muslims.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella lies in the extreme west of Ethiopia, on the border with South Sudan. It is one of the poorest and most underdeveloped regions in the country, and is constantly plagued by violence, unrest and conflict.
Will you give to support the printing of the New Testament in the Central African Republic? We pray that it will help bring peace and reconciliation to this troubled country.
The commitment to teaching and formation also means these priests do not have any other opportunities of earning an income in order to support themselves, such as by working in a parish. As a result, they are very much dependent on Mass stipends.