Africa: No Communion to Civilly Remarried

The conference in Rome this week that Fr. Odozor helped organize is called African Christian Theology: Memories and Mission for the 21st Century. It runs from March 22–25 and is hosted by Notre Dame's Global Gateway Center. Father Odozor is a theologian who teaches at the University of Notre Dame.

It's even less of an issue for Africans now, Fr. Odozor explained, because people can have the validity of their marriages so easily vetted by the Church's annulment tribunals. "It's not an issue, especially given that people now have a chance to examine their marriages and ask if they were validly done [through the annulment process]. If it was validly done, then, well ... too bad!"

The priest was asked to compare Africa's discussion of Amoris Laetitia to the debate raging in the West, principally centered on the issue of admitting active adulterers to Holy Communion.

"We in Africa sometimes wonder at the way Catholicism in the West takes just one issue and runs with it, without looking at the whole context," said Fr. Odozor. "It's terrible ... even if there is a debate over divorced and remarried Catholics and Communion, that shouldn't be taken out of context," he noted.

The subject then switched to Pope Francis, and the priest was asked how he and fellow Africans felt about the Holy Father. "They love him, they love him," Fr. Odozor said. He explained they only wished he would visit Africa more often. "Holy Father, if you're listening, we love you and we'd love to have you around."

"He doesn't always put things in grand theological language," he noted. Speaking of him as a pastor, Father admitted, "You may not always like what they do, but you respect the intention. ... We theologians might spend a lot of time arguing over this or that, and that's okay, that's what we're paid to do, but the people love him."