African church vocations still strong says Bishop Zziwa

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT |  Catholic Church vocations in Africa remain strong despite turbulent waves sweeping across the continent, the Bishop of Kiyinda – Mityana Diocese has said.

Bishop Zziwa who was speaking on Wednesday at the Uganda Episcopal Conference Secretariat, Nsambya, says the Church has firmly withstood numerous devastating storms responsible for declines in Church congregation as well as enrolments of young people into ministry.    

In Europe and the Latin America, the Church has been rocked by sex scandals involving high ranking bishops sodomizing altar boys.

Bishop Zziwa says the Church in Africa has been fortunate to escape sweeping waves of religious radicalization, adverse influence of social media and proliferation of new faiths amongst others. 

In Uganda, the modern Church faces contemporary poverty issues, unprecedented surge in sexual and gender-based violence, increased incidence of moral decadence, reduced number of men in Churches as well as growing trade in prostitution and pornographic materials.

As traditional Churches lose huge share of her populations to mushrooming Pentecostal denominations, Bishop Zziwa says the number of laities, priests, bishops, Archbishops and Cardinals have exponentially grown since the first Papal visit of Pope Paul VI in 1969.

Archbishop of Gulu Archdiocese John Baptist Odama says his diocese is ready and willing to export sisters and clerics to evangelize Europe on the wake of a dying church in the Continent which evangelized the African Continent.    

To survive some of the storms, the Church has had to adjust some of her programming to accommodate changing trends of fashions and media influences. Such initiatives include installations of giant monitors onto which sermons are projected alongside powerful public address systems.    

The way of worships and hymns has also undergone dramatic changes to accommodate demands and needs of today’s youth.  

The Catholic Church has a population of One Billion people across the world.  

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URN