Leading African prelate calls for greater recognition of African Church’s importance
April 25, 2026
The president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) said he was “proud and happy” after Pope Leo’s apostolic journey to four African nations and called for a greater worldwide recognition of the importance of the Church in Africa.
“The universal Church of tomorrow will have to engage with the African Church, and this is a responsibility for us that we must embrace,” Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, O.F.M. Cap., of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, said in an interview with Vatican News.
“For us African Catholics, I believe the main message was about deepening our faith and understanding our identity as Catholics,” Cardinal Ambongo continued. “From a sociopolitical perspective, he emphasized peace, justice, and good governance.”
The prelate foresaw positive “fruits for the Church in Africa, whose role should be recognized universally. Considering the work Pope Leo has done in his first year of pontificate, we are confident about the future.”
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Cardinal Ambongo led the Church in Africa’s opposition to the blessings of same-sex couples following the 2023 publication of Fiducia Supplicans, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings.
His call for greater universal recognition of the Church in Africa comes at a time when no African prelates lead dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, the former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, retired in 2021, and Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, former prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, was transferred to a different position in 2022.
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