Africanews
As external sources of financial support to the church dwindle to a trickle, African Catholic Dioceses are forced to rely more and more on their own internal resources. But these are very limited or underdeveloped. They cannot satisfy all the needs of the church and its personnel. Various groups in the church are therefore already feeling the pinch. Alternative ways of meeting these needs are also developing. Our correspondent, who is one of the best known African theologians and in charge of a parish in rural Tanzania, offers some reactions. |
A group particularly affected by the diminishing financial support coming from abroad for the Catholic Church in Africa are the diocesan priests. Not as a rule receiving a regular salary for their services, they depend on donations the faithful offer them. These are usually in exchange for prayers said by the priest for a specific intention of the donor. When the prayer requested is the celebration of a Mass, the donation is called a mass stipend. For other sacramental and para-sacramental services, as for example burials and marriages, it is called a stole fee. In the past, the bulk of these donations to most, if not all, dioceses in Tanzania, came from overseas. But even these are drying up, and most priests in dioceses that do not have alternative financial structures for their clergy are having a hard time.
Most older Tanzanian priests are used to a middle or upper class lifestyle in comparison the overall living standards of the population as a whole. The newly ordained priests as well as seminarians also evidently seem to aspire to the same lifestyle as a friendly conversation with any sample of them quickly reveals. So the developing situation hits all of them where it hurts. They complain, but the bishops concerned seem to have a standard reply: "You must motivate the faithful in your parishes to support you; the church here must learn to be self reliant."
"That's all very well," a young priest in one of the dioceses of the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania remarked in response to such urging. But try as I might, there is no way that I can squeeze enough funds from my parishioners to meet the day- to-day needs of the parish. It is therefore clear that my own personal needs cannot be provided for. He added, And the bishop knows it because he worked here himself as a priest some years ago, and he had the same complaints. Why was this eventuality not planned for?" he wondered. Indeed, the drying up of external funds seems to have caught the church unawares. Even though for the last 30 years or so there have been signs that this would eventually happen, few practical steps were taken to deal with it. Perhaps church leaders did not really believe that it would come about.
Motivations differ, however. The worker-priests (sometimes called "hyphenated priests" in Europe, and at any one time never more than one hundred strong) joined the work-force so as to be in closer touch with the workers and to evangelize them. The latter had been alienated from the church on account of its close association with the bourgeoisie. The priests voluntarily joined them at the workplace as workers themselves to share their lot and to show them that they cared. Today's motivation in Africa is different, as is the form the engagement takes. Priests now enter into part-time small business activities because of "economic necessity," as they see it. Also, whereas the European worker-priests constituted an open movement until it was suppressed by church authorities in 1954, priests today engage in economic activities clandestinely, and usually as individuals. Often, too, they operate by proxy: they use other individuals as fronts in these activities.
It is hard to predict the short and long term consequences of this state of affairs for the priests concerned and for the Tanzanian church in general. The European worker-priests movement was stopped because, as higher church leaders saw it, it compromised the priests position and role in society. Perhaps the most ambiguous element in terms of the position and role of the priests in society today in Africa is the secrecy with which they surround their economic activities. It is inevitable to wonder about two things in this connection. What does the situation do to the mental health of the priests involved? Secondly, does this conduct on the part of the clergy inspire an atmosphere of trust and a desire to establish a self-reliant church among the faithful?
There are three models. There is the oldest "tent-making" model of Saint Paul where the priest provides for his needs entirely by his own hands, never asking his congregation for any material support. Then there is the prevalent model of the Councils of Trent and Vatican I which stresses that "he who works at the altar lives by the altar." In this model all of the needs of the priests must be met by the congregation he serves. His responsibility is here meant to be entirely with sacramental ministry. Finally, there is the emerging model which is a combination of both the above. It seems to be saying as it develops that in certain circumstances a priest must work to complement what he receives at the altar.
The three are all valid and viable possibilities. What seems to be required in the church in Tanzania today is that they be openly and widely discussed, and a decision made on them based on the concrete economic situation of each diocese. Given the forums, there is no doubt that most diocesan priests are eager to do so. Failing that, unhealthy secrecy, double talk and spiritual uncertainty will without doubt continue. As one priest of the lake region ordained more than 20 years ago concluded, "These are the sort of things that cause scandal and damage the credibility of the church in the eyes of the world."
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