The Synod on synodality is drawing to a close without any twists and turns. This session went more unnoticed than last October’s. And it wasn’t easy. The only diversion occurred in the last week with the clash between two well-known prelates: the cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu and the cardinal elect Timothy Radcliffe. On the one hand, therefore, the leader of the African bishops and on the other one of the most liberal theologians of the Church.
Back and forth
It’s all the fault of an article published on L’Osservatore Romano signed by Father Radcliffe. The cardinal-elect, originally from the United Kingdom, was not very tender with his African brothers “guilty” in his eyes of having refused the adoption of the declaration Confidence supplicans. According to Radcliffe, the African episcopate’s no to the blessings of homosexual couples did not go down well “African bishops are under strong pressure from the evangelicals, with American money; from the Russian Orthodox, with Russian money; and Muslims, with money from the rich Gulf countries.” An inadmissible accusation for Ambongo, spokesperson for the African Church’s opposition to Confidence supplicans and brought up directly in the article.
The clarification
Ambongo wanted to clarify with the person concerned, asking for an explanation of those words. The place of clarification was the Synod. The African cardinal himself revealed the episode, urged by the American Vatican correspondent Michael Haynes.
Responding to the journalist, Ambongo revealed that Radcliffe justified himself by saying that he had “I only read the article on October 21st and it is shocked that such things could have been written and attributed to him.” Then, confronted by his Congolese brother, the British Dominican backtracked and sensationally denied the authorship of the article published in an official organ such as “L’Osservatore Romano”. Subsequently, Radcliffe issued a note to specify that the “disowned” article was actually a comment by Phil Lawler on “Catholic Culture” and that this would be at the center of the confrontation with Ambongo. In essence, however, the elected cardinal did not deviate from what was stated in the article he signed which certainly did not please the African bishops. “Lawler’s reading of the Observer article – wrote Radcliffe – he misinterpreted what I had written. I have never written or suggested that the positions adopted by the Catholic Church in Africa were influenced by financial considerations. I only recognized that the Catholic Church in Africa is under strong pressure from other religions and churches well funded by external sources.” In short, the distances remain and the progressive Catholic world which has its headquarters in Northern Europe does not seem to understand the positions of the African Church, evidently judged to be too retrograde.
Radcliffe was awarded the purple by Francis in the next consistory in December, while the episcopate of sub-Saharan Africa which rebelled against Confidence supplicans it will only express Ignace Bessi Dogboarchbishop of Abidjan and the fourth Ivorian in history to enter the Sacred College. The Pope of the suburbs, in this case, seems to have preferred Europe to Africa for the composition of the college.