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The new religion also brought important material benefits. From the first, missionaries emphasized education and medical care (often building schools and hospitals before churches), and Christianity became the avenue to health and literacy. In many an emerging nation, church schools were the training grounds for future post-independence leaders. Though Senegal is less than 5% Catholic, able President Leopold Senghor and three of his Cabinet ministers are Catholic. Tanzania's President Julius Nyerere, who preached an aggressive socialism in his 1967 Arusha Declaration, is a former Catholic school teacher. Its prominent role in education and health has created a certain resentment against the Catholic Church in some new nations, but most countries below the Sahara still welcome the church's contribution. Even in the shattered Congo, where 115 priests and nuns were slain in the vicious civil war of the early 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church again runs most of the education system, and—apparently to ensure honesty—even handles the payroll for road-maintenance crews. But the church has an apostolic role beyond such service functions, and it is that role that is particularly endangered. Two particular problems:
THE PRIESTHOOD
The overriding complaint in Africa is a shortage of priests, a situation for which the church can only blame itself. The first black African Roman Catholic priest was not ordained until 1843, more than 350 years after the Portuguese arrived. The first black African Catholic bishop was not consecrated until 1939. Partly because of such footdragging, the ratio of priests to Catholic laity is one of the lowest in the world (one priest for approximately 2,300 Catholics, as opposed to one for 800 in the U.S.). There are now 14,400 priests in Africa, 3,400 of them black, and 351 bishops, of whom 115 are native; the continent has six cardinals, three of whom are black. Conversions continue at a remarkable rate, and a high birth rate swells membership. Even little Malawi, with 750,000 Catholics, is counting 50,000 more each year. But African Catholics have not supplied anything like enough candidates for the priesthood. The problem is more than priestly celibacy. Despite their polygamous proclivities, Africans have their own traditions honoring continence (Zulu warriors were expected to refrain from intercourse before battle) and celibacy carries a certain distinction. But it does discourage some vocations, and stringent educational requirements block others. Yet candidates must be found if the Church is even to care for its present members—let alone evangelize the 100 million Africans who still follow tribal religions.
AFRICANIZATION OF THE CHURCH