CATHOLIC LAY MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA

The Catholic Church is organized as a hierarchical system with the Pope at its top, the laity at the bottom, and the ordained clergy in between. Lay people, numbering 198,587,000

Catholics living on the African continent in 2012, compose the majority of the Catholic Church, with the clergy accounting for approximately 40,133 people in Africa. In Catholicism, lay people are those individuals who are baptized into the Church and act as everyday ministers of the faith, bringing the principles of Catholicism to work, school, and home. The ordained clergy, composed primarily of priests, guide, nurture, and direct the laity.

Although the laity has comprised the body of the Church throughout its 2,000 year history, it was not until the Second Vatican Council (more informally known as Vatican II and occurring between October 11, 1962 and December 8, 1965) that the Church made the theological and cannon law changes, particularly through the adoption of Apostolicam

Actuositatem, that allowed the laity to take on greater responsibility and authority outside of the diocesan and parish structures. As a result, the number of Catholic lay movements in the latter half of the twentieth century exploded throughout the world. Pope John Paul II, who himself had been a lay leader in the Church before his ordination to the priesthood, actively embraced the lay movements and held a celebration for them on Pentecost 1998, during which 300,000 lay members gathered in Rome.

In Africa, there are a variety of Catholic lay movements that, like the greater mission of the Catholic Church, focus on evangelism, humanitarian relief, education, health, peace building and reconciliation, and economic development. In 2012, the Pontifical Council for the Laity organized a “Pan African Congress for Catholic Laity” to further energize, equip, and develop the lay movement on the African continent.

However, as there is no official definition of “Catholic lay movement,” it is difficult to identify what is and what is not a Catholic lay movement. For example, Catholic Relief Services

(CRS) is a United States-based Catholic charity that operates and partners with other charities in

Africa. CRS, however, is an official agency of the Catholic Church, which some may believe would disqualify it from being a lay movement. Clearer examples of lay movements operating in

Africa, although founded elsewhere, include Opus Dei, Community of Sant’Egidio, Communion and Liberation, Focolare Movement (also known as Work of Mary) and its Youth for a United

World, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, World Organisation of the Cursillo Movement,

International Young Catholic Students and Catholic Action Movement, and Worldwide Marriage

Encounter.

A number of other Catholic lay organizations have been initiated on the African continent itself, such Legio Maria (Legion of Mary) that was founded by the Luo people of western Kenya.

In addition, nearly every Catholic parish in Africa participates in proclamation of the gospel in word and deed in a way that could constitute lay movements.

References and Resources

“Global Catholicism: Trends & Forecasts” 2015. Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

http://cara.georgetown.edu/staff/webpages/Global%20Catholicism%20Release.pdf.

Accessed April 29, 2016.

Hanna, Tony. 2006. New Ecclesial Movements. Staten Island, NY: Alba House.

Lavender, Earl D. 1989. “Origins of Lay/Clerical Terminology.” Theology Digest 36: 2

(Summer, 1989):120-134.

Moloney, Deirdre M. 2002. American Catholic Lay Groups and Transatlantic Social Reform in

the Progressive Era. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Osborne, Kenan B. 1993. Ministry: Lay Ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, Its History and

Theology. New York, NY: Paulist Press.

Pope, Benedict XVI. 2011. “Africae Munus.” http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-

xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_exh_20111119_africae-munus.html.

Accessed April 29, 2016.

Pope, John Paul II. 1998. “Message for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New

Communities.” http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-

ii/en/speeches/1998/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19980527_movimenti.html. Accessed

April 29, 2016.

HALLQVIST ALBERTSON