Tanzanian cardinal fears too many African priests serving in US, Europe
February 17, 2012
One of Africa’s leading Catholic prelates has expressed concern that American dioceses, by recruiting priests from African countries, are contributing to a shortage of clergy in their native lands.
Cardinal Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, told John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter that he would favor programs that trained African seminarians for priestly work both in Western world and in their own countries.
The cardinal also observed that until recently, Church leaders in Africa had a tendency to believe that “child abuse is not our problem.” He reported that African bishops are now recognizing that they too must cope with the issue.
Cardinal Pengo said that Catholicism in Africa must face a challenges from both Islamic fundamentalism and what he called “Christian fundamentalism”—a reference to Evangelical Protestant sects that have been proselytizing energetically in Africa.
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