Our Church: Catholic in Every Way
I try to make Sunday the Holy Day that it is. Frequently I turn on EWTN for the special Sunday afternoon presentations it broadcasts. There is good music, and often there is Mass in celebration of the dedication of a new church or shrine. Sometimes it is a Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, where our Diocese has made a pilgrimage.
On the First Sunday of October they broadcast the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for the beginning of the African Synod. The Bishops of all Africa were present. Our Metropolitan Archbishop, the Most Reverend Wilton D. Gregory, was also there: The Holy Father had appointed him as one of the Auditors of the Synod. Bishops from all the African countries and all the Rites of the Church were present. The Bishops from the Eastern Rites in Ethiopia and Egypt stood out with their colorful garb and head coverings.
The liturgy with its music and the national garb of those attending gave witness to the spread of the Church in Black Africa. I thought of the martyrs of Africa who died for their faith years ago. Most memorable were the martyrs of Uganda. Their refusal to enter into debauchery as their king commanded cost them their lives. Martyrdom has always been the seed that fueled growth of the Faith.
I also remembered St. Josephine Bakita, and St. Moses the Black, a hermit in Northern African in the early years of the Church. We must also remember that the mother of St. Martin DePorres was a daughter of Africa. St.Catherine of Alexandria, St. Augustine of Hippo and his mother Saint Monica were also African.
The celebration was very vibrant and very Catholic. The Sistine Choir of boys and adult men was magnificent. The choir has taken on a wonderfully catholic – small c – aura: I noticed that it contained singers from Africa, Asia and other parts of the world. In addition there were two choirs of Africans who sang their local songs. At one point the music sounded so familiar and the conclusion was tongue-trilling. It was Swahili! I have heard it so many times at the Mass in Swahili which Father Pius Wekesa celebrates at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh.
I was impressed by all of this because it manifested true evangelization. The successor of St. Peter had shown that our Catholic Church truly embraces all cultures.
Msgr. Thomas P. Hadden