AFRICA/RD CONGO – The good seed and the fruits. The long path of Christian proclamation in the Land of the “Mighty River”

AFRICA/RDCONGO – The good seeds and the fruits. The long road of Christian proclamation in the Land of the “Mighty River”.

By Crispin Kisantu Bishop Kimbeni

Kisantu (Agenzia Fides). The upcoming visit of Pope Francis in the Democratic Republic of Congo will allow us to retrace one of our most fascinating adventures regarding the proclamation of Jesus Christ and the transmission of Catholic faith on the Continent.
A captivating story that begins with the first kingdoms that shaped the geography of the DRC today.
Nyim’a Lukenyi established the Kingdom of Kongo in 1275. The kingdom was considered to be the largest political entity on the west African coast. It grew geographically in the area of the DRC’s coastal strip, eventually encompassing Angola’s northern half. The influence of that kingdom projected throughout the surrounding region, as far as present-day Gabon, and remained intense until the arrival of Diego Cão, the Portuguese explorer who in 1482, with his three ships reached the mouth of the “Mighty River”, the Nzari, as the Bakongo called the present-day Congo River. The inhabitants welcome the newcomers with great hospitality, to the point that four of them will leave with Diego Cão for Lisbon, with the goal of learning Portuguese and thus serving as interpreters.

Missionaries arrive

During his second trip, Diego Cão was received by King Nzinga Nkuwu in Mbanza-Kongo, the capital, which was 3 weeks’ walk from the mouth, in the territory of the present Republic of Angola. After talks with the explorer the king sent one his emissaries, to Lisbon, to request the sending of missionaries. A group of artisans, peasants and priests set out on three caravels to reach the kingdom of Kongo in December 1490.

The Apostle of Kongo

The year 1491 saw King Donzwuau, Prince Ndonfunsu, the queen and some nobles receive baptism. The prince was the only exception. The rest of the group returned to their old practices, including polygamy, fetishism, and other religious practices that were not compatible with the Christian faith.
Ndofunsu, who was given the name Alphonso at baptism, faced hostility for his faith in Christianity and had to flee to Mbanza-Nsundi. The prince took the throne after his father died in 1506 He ruled until 1543 and assumed the title of “New Constantine” in the memories of the early Christians. Alfonso made the Kongo kingdom “Christian” and earned the title “Apostle to Kongo”.

The Diocese of Sāo Salvador (now Mbanza Kongo) was erected in 1596.
The Congregation of Propaganda Fide established Kongo’s Apostolic Prefecture in 1640.

The suppression of religious orders

Although the “first evangelization of Kongo” lasted for more than 300 years it ended with the departure from the last two Capuchins, in 1835, at a time when religious orders in Portugal were being suppressed. The decline in missionary work to transmit the faith is due to a variety of factors, including logistical difficulties and political vicissitudes. Also, the low number of missionaries who arrived to the region and the high mortality rate among Capuchins who have been sent to the region since 1645 are two of the many reasons. Some of them died immediately upon arrival, while others were ill for a few months. These were mainly Italian Capuchins. This was also the Holy See’s attempt to resolve the confusion between colonization and evangelization policies that were being pursued at the time by European powers.

The decline of Kongo Kingdom and missio antiqua

The slave trade was a major factor in the decline of Kongo Kingdom, starting in the 16th century. The situation became so bleak and violent that the missionary work, missio antiqua (missionary work), was abandoned. This acknowledgement acknowledged the failure.

The “secondevangelization” and apostolic work done by the baptized clergy

The faith of the Christians in the former Kongo Kingdom remained intact, even though it is practiced in different forms. Adolf Bastian, a German explorer, reached Mbanza Kongo in 1857 and testified that Christians continued to meet on feast days to sing, pray, and make processions. Children were taught prayers by their parents.

In the western part, the “second” evangelization did not come from nowhere. It was in the country’s rest that the Gospel was first proscribed. The gospel was new in the DRC and was meant to be a success.

The first “new missions” and the return to religious orders

In 1865, Holy See gave the Apostolic Prefecture at Kongo to the Spiritan missionaries. The first mission of the “second generation” of evangelists was established in Boma by the Spiritans in 1880. Further east, in the same year, the Missionaries of Africa (White Fathers), discovered Mulweva on Lake Tanganyika. The Scheut Fathers arrived at Congo in 1888, and the Jesuits in1893.
The missionary spirit of the new missionaries fuelled a new momentum. The Church was able to reach the heart of the continent thanks to better communication routes. She did not limit her apostolic work only to the populations along the coasts or at the mouth of one the largest rivers in the world.

The great explorers and the seed for faith

That was also the time of the great explorers: Burton, Speke, Pogge, Livingstone, Cameron, Stanley, Brazzà… From that season on, a new nation was being formed around the great river that brought together different peoples and cultures within a single state.
Leopold II of Belgium, King of the Belgians who had actively supported Stanley on his various exploratory missions, was made sovereign of Congo Free State in 1885 by the other European countries. From 1908, the country became a Belgian colony. It was independent and internationally recognized as a sovereign nation on June 30, 1960.
After many sacrifices and centuries of sowing the seed of faith, the fruit finally began to grow. Today, the DRC is a country with a majority of its population being Christian, with the largest group being the Catholics.
There have been times of hardship, with more or lesser open persecution, and there have been martyrs among missionaries as well as among native baptized. Blesseds Anuarite Bakanja and Isidore Bakanja were beatified in Kisangani by St. John Paul II in 1985 and in Rome in 1994, respectively.

Negrita is the first diplomatic relationship with the Holy See

In 1604, King Mani Kongo Ndolovwalu II sent Father Antonio Manuel Nsaku Ne Vunda as ambassador to Rome. The journey took three years, as the ship on which he traveled stopped in Brazil and Portugal. This forced the diplomat to stay there for long periods of time. The Ambassador was tired and very ill when he arrived at the Eternal City. Despite the efforts made by the doctors sent by the Pope to his bedside, he died on January 6, 1608. The event caused a sensation. Nsaku Ne Verunda, also known as Negrita was buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. His funeral monument can still been seen today. It is also the Roman Basilica where Pope Paul V, whose epitaph also celebrates the arrival of this Kongo ambassador, is also buried.
The Pope presented a large medal with his own effigy on the one side and Ne Vunda on the other side in anticipation of the act to allegiance that the Ambassador would perform for the King of Kongo. The Latin inscription on the medal reads: Et Congum Agnovit Pastorem Suum, And also Congo recognizes their Pastor.
In honor of this diplomatic mission, the Pope had a fresco created in the Vatican Library. It depicts Paul V giving the Apostolic Blessing and visiting a sick person.

The first Apostolic Delegate

Pope Pius XI erected a Apostolic Delegation to the Belgian Congo with the Apostolic letter Ad regimen totius Ecclesiae on January 18, 1930. The first Apostolic Delegate was Bishop Giovanni Battista Delle Piane (1898-1961), who was at the time Apostolic Administrator of Smyrna. The foundation stone of the building, which was to house the Delegation and is still on the site of the Pontifical Representation, were laid in 1932.
The Apostolic Delegation was elevated to Apostolic Nunciature on February 16, 1963 by Apostolic Nuncio Vito Robi (1911-1998).

The Catholic Hierarchy. The first bishop of sub-Saharan Africa.

Ndoadidiki (Henri/Henrique, his baptismal name), one King Ndofunsu’s sons, was ordained a bishop in Lisbon in 1518. He is the first black African bishop. However, the establishment a proper hierarchy will not take place until the turn of the 19th or 20th centuries.
In 1888, the Apostolic Vicariate of Belgium Congo was established. Since then, the number of ecclesiastical circumscriptions have increased along with the progressive evangelization.
The first Congolese priest of the second evangelization, Stéphane Kaoze, was ordained in 1917, while the first Congolese bishop was Pierre Kimbondo, ordained auxiliary of Kisantu in 1956. Today, the DRC’s hierarchy is made up entirely of Congolese Bishops. There are currently 48 diocesan dioceses. These are divided into six provinces ecclesiastical and 50 bishops. Pope Francis created Tshilomba the last diocese on March 25, 2022.
Nearly 1,500 parishes have 4,602 priests. They are supported by 3,500 religious men, 7,500 religious women, and countless catechists and lay persons who are involved in parish life. There are approximately 1,500 seminarians in the DRC.

Crispin Kimbeni Bishop of Kisantu

(Agenzia Fides, 23/1/2023)

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