Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – "Our Church is strongly oriented towards the mission and committed to helping create a cohesive and united society," Fides is told by Archbishop Seraphin Rouamba, Archbishop of Koupéla and President of the Bishops' Conference of Burkina Faso and Niger (CEBN), in Rome for the Bishops' Ad Limina Visit.
A few years ago, your Bishops' Conference decided to strengthen its missionary movement. Can you explain, Your Excellency, what are these reforms consisted in?
On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of evangelization, in 2000, the Jubilee Year, our diocese became aware of the fact that we needed to make an extra effort for the mission. The mission is part of being the Church, but we realized that this concept was formalized. We divided the Bishops' Conference in three groups, and each year it is one group's turn to send missionaries to the rest of the country, to those dioceses most in need and to other countries. There is a special committee of the Commission for the Clergy to determine each year which missionaries will be sent to which diocese, within the country and in countries that request it. These include, first of all Niger, as we are part of the same Bishops' Conference, as well as Chad and Mali.
This mechanism, operating at the level of the Bishops' Conference, is designed to work with dioceses in other African countries. Each diocese of Burkina Faso also has links to a diocese of other continents, especially those of Europe and even send missionaries to Europe.
What is the role of foreign missionaries in your country?
In Burkina Faso, we still have some foreign missionaries, but now several of our dioceses have none. For example, in my diocese the last of the White Fathers missionary left in 2008 and the last missionary expatriate, a Belgian, left this year. So in my diocese, there are now only two diocesan priests working. In terms of religious, we still have with us some foreign nuns. We want to always have at least a parish in the diocese with missionaries, so as to stimulate the missionary spirit of the faithful. Everyone must understand that people have come from abroad specifically to bring the Gospel to them and to communicate the richness of faith. Now we want to send our missionaries abroad.
From the religious point of view, Burkina Faso is a complex nation. Can you describe the religious situation of your country?
Official statistics say that in Burkina Faso, Muslims are 60.5% of the population. We have some doubts about this figure, as we do not know how it was obtained. Also, the official statistics say that Catholics are about 19-20% of the population while Protestants are 4%. I also believe that official statistics underestimate the number of members of the African traditional religions. From our experience, we think that the number of followers of traditional religions is higher than official statistics claim (15.5%), because each year we baptize thousands of adults who convert to Catholicism from traditional religion.
What are the prospects for the future?
We are confident about the prospects of the Church in Burkina Faso. The Catholic Church, although numerically a minority, actually has a recognized place in the social life of the country, as it contributes to social development and in particular, to building solidarity in society. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 20/3/2010)
