HI-Touch Pastoral Approach in the 21st Century

Sylvester O. Ajunwa

HI-Touch Pastoral Approach in the 21st Century

A response to the problem of insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria

Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

Zugl.: Würzburg, Univ., Diss., 2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ajunwa, Sylvester O., 1969- author.
HI-touch pastoral approach in the 21st century : a response to the problem of insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria / Sylvester O. Ajunwa.
pages cm
doctoral Universität Würzburg 2013
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-3-631-66069-0
1. Pastoral theology—Catholic Church. 2. Pastoral theology— Nigeria. 3. Christianity and culture—Nigeria. 4. Pastoral care—Nigeria. 5. Catholic Church— Nigeria. I. Title.
BX2347.A38 2015
253.09669—dc23

2015016722

D 20
ISSN 2196-0615
ISBN 978-3-631-66069-0 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-05455-2 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-05455-2
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
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About the author

Sylvester O. Ajunwa is a priest of the Catholic diocese of Ahiara in Imo State, Nigeria. He holds two degrees from the Urban University in Rome, Italy and a PhD in Pastoral theology from the Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg, Germany. He is the founder of the “Lay Initiative For Evangelisation (L.I.F.E)”.

About the book

“Human Integrated Touch” (HI-Touch) is a pastoral care approach that could be a response to the lingering problems of Christianity marred by an insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria. Arguing for an integrated approach to humans and the human condition, the study presents the HI-Touch as a form of pastoral care that is not only based on religious affiliations, but also on human authentic values vis-a vis an authentic Christian faith in a dynamic society. The growth of atheism in modern societies is a not only a conceptual denial of the existence of God but an elimination of God from the affairs of man. The right way to overcome this is through a new order of human relations that calls for love, mutual respect, hospitality, empathy, communion, and dialogue with one another in all human situations.

Acknowledgement

The success of any intellectual enterprise cannot be attributed to one person alone. It is always a summed up efforts of many. This work then is a collective effort of many who assisted in various forms to its realization. To all of you I am deeply indebted. First of all I express my thanks and adoration to God whose power at work within us can do immeasurably more than we can conceive or imagine.

I am grateful to my moderator Prof. Dr. Erich Garhammer for his academic mentorship and guidance in the formation, development and actualisation of this work. I am grateful too to Dr. Habil. Bernhard Spielberg who followed me closely with all constructive criticisms till this work is accomplished. My thanks also go to Prof. Dr. Chibueze C. Udeani for accepting to be the Zweitgutachter and for his academic suggestions.

My gratitude goes to the Würzburg diocese for the opportunity offered to me to study in Würzburg University Germany. Also to my home diocese Ahiara, Mbaise particularly my former bishop, Late Most Rev. Dr. V. A. Chikwe, I will remain thankful.

Many other friends helped in the success of this work: Rev. Fr. Dr. Mike Akaigwe, Rev Fr. Dr. Prudentius Aroh, Rev Fr. Uchenna Ugwueze, Rev. Fr. Anthony Nnaji, Rev. Fr. Dr. Benedict Nwachukwu Uduaku, Rev. Fr Dr. Rowland Onyenali and Rev Fr. Dr. Gerald Anyanwu; to you and many others my deepest appreciation for all your contributions and suggestions that formed the ideas developed in this work. I am equally grateful to Rev. Sr. Christiana Idika for all her constructive criticisms and suggestions. Many thanks to Dianna Fry for taking time to proof read this work.

My unalloyed gratitude goes to the Families of Mr. and Mrs Itsuleli, Mr. and Mrs. Okpere, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Ozoude, Mr. and Mrs. Ikeakor, Mr. Peter Monye, Mr. and Mrs. Onyewueke, and Ottmar and Gerlinde Rupp in Würzburg for their unshakeable support to me all these years in my ministry as a priest and the success of this academic work. To all the members of Lay Initiative For Evangelization (L.I.F.E) who have been supporting and encouraging me in various forms I remain ever grateful.

I am deeply indebted to my parents late Mr. and Mrs. Augustine Ajunwa and my brothers and sisters especially Mr. Ralph Ajunwa for their love and support.

List of Abbreviations

← 14 | 15 →

Chapter One:  The Anatomy of the Problem of the Insufficient Organic Link between Faith and Daily Life in Nigeria

In contemporary Nigeria, on travelling with city and intercity buses, one would meet many people who claim to be pastors as well as men and women who claim that they are sent by God with the mandate to spread the good news of salvation. Entering offices one would meet people carrying bibles, and wearing sacramental of all sorts as signs of Christian faith. Getting to the homes one would see emblems like ‘This House is covered with the Blood of Jesus’, and images of Jesus, Virgin Mary and the saints. Along the streets there are big billboards of prayer programs, advertisements of night vigils, and crusades and pictures of self acclaimed anointed men and women of God of the new Pentecostal Churches. Standing at any corner for a few minutes, one would see a Catholic priest, religious man or woman or a Pentecostal pastor passing by. These facts point to the intensive religious atmosphere evident in Nigeria. Looking at the exuberance of Christian faith in Nigeria and how faith is intermingled with almost every issue in Nigeria, what then is the meaning of the insufficient organic link between faith and daily life? Is the claim as in this work of the insufficient organic link between faith and daily life an assumption or a reality? If it is true that such an insufficient organic link exists, what are the situations and conditions that create and encourage it? Is the problem associated with the Christian faith and practices or is the problem with Nigeria as a country?

This chapter will begin by establishing the fact of the problem of the insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria. It will explore its manifestations and anatomy. The next step will be to trace the root causes of the problem. Since the root of the problems may be linked to the formation of Nigeria, the chapter will first of all look at Nigeria from a historical perspective, tracing the formation of Nigeria by colonial imperialists, and how Christianity came into Nigeria. This will give a glimpse of how life in Nigeria from political, economic, social, cultural and religious aspects has been conditioned and affected from the roots. To be able to make the difference, the chapter will extend the search to the pre-colonial era. This will involve looking at life expectations and worldviews before colonialism and early missionary activities and how these worldviews changed after the colonial and early missionary activities ← 25 | 26 → that brought Christianity to the shores of Nigeria. At the end of the excursus, one will be in a better position to understand the preconditions that determine most activities and how these preconditions affect the way of life in Nigeria and the way Christian faith is practiced.

1.1 The Problem of the Insufficient Organic Link between Faith and daily Life: An Overview

In his book, “The future Church: How Ten Trends are Revolutionizing the Catholic Church” John Allen identified changing demography as one of the trends of the 21^st century. In the light of the demographic changes and their effects on the Catholic Church, he remarks that the history of the Catholicism in the 21^st could be summarised in the following sentence: “The centre of gravity shifted from North to South.”¹ To substantiate his claim, he says that the demographic changes and shifts show that the Church was formerly dominated by Europe and America but, today finds two-thirds of its members living in Africa, Asia and Latin America. According to him, what makes the twenty-first century unique is that the close identification between the West and Christianity disintegrated. At the beginning of the twentieth century he highlights that just 25 percent of the world’s Catholic population lived outside Europe and North America and by the end of the century, 65.5 percent of the Catholic population was found in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.²

Nigeria is one of the major countries in West Africa that is experiencing this tremendous growth in the number of churchgoers, not only for the Catholic Church but also for the other Christian denominations. The credit for this growth is normally given to the European missionaries who championed the early missionary activities and laid the foundations for this phenomenal growth in number. John Allen formulated this well by saying “where Europe went, Christianity went along for the ride and where Europe did not venture, Christianity generally did not penetrate.”³

Christianity penetrated Nigeria through European colonial projects in Africa within the period of 1880–1960.⁴ Most of the West African Churches owe their ← 26 | 27 → foundation to this period and today from statistics Christianity has become one of the major religions in most African countries. Christianity in Nigeria is strong. Among many other Christian denominations in Nigeria the Catholic population alone is estimated to be 19 million in number. The dioceses have increased to 56 in number, with 9 Metropolitan arch-dioceses, 44 dioceses and 2 Apostolic Vicariates and 1 Apostolic Exarchate of the Maronite rite. Nigeria and Congo have the highest number of priests in Africa. However 70% of the priests in Nigeria come from the Igbo ethnic group. The Catholic population in Nigeria is expected to increase to 47 million by the year 2050 and that makes Nigeria one of the most highly populated Catholic nations in the world.⁵ The number of religious men and women is constantly on the increase. A good number of Nigerian priests and religious are now working in countries and parishes across the globe, providing health care services and pastoral services to the Churches in Europe and America who once sent missionaries to Nigeria. The reverse is now the case reflecting in practical terms what John Allen calls a demographic change of the Church, where the Church is turning to the global south.

However, numbers by themselves do not tell the whole story. A critical analysis shows that, despite these great numbers, the Christian message has not become deeply rooted and is not organically connected with practical issues of social concern and ways of life. Among many other reasons one of the outstanding reasons for this is associated with the manner, form and circumstance that the Christian message was brought to Nigeria and many other parts of Africa and also the ways and manner Christianity is being practiced till date. Christianity came to Nigeria within the environment of European colonization of Nigeria. Within this atmosphere of colonialism John Bauer succinctly highlights that the early missionaries failed to understand how much the Africans had to suffer from the European colonial invasion that placed a whole continent into a position of inferiority.⁶ This failure has developed into more cultural, social and identity problems that are associated with the growth of Christianity. The identification of Christianity with European civilization and its spread with the European garb has its implications that one could rightly ask: can there be a truly Christian Nigerian? If the answer is in the affirmative for surely there could be, the next question raises some curiosity and that is: could there be a Church that is truly Christian Nigerian, a Church in which faith and life-orientations and challenges ← 27 | 28 → are brought into open dialogue without pre-conditions? The difficulty in answering this last question lies in the nature of early missionary work in Nigeria and the unpreparedness of the indigenous missionaries who took over missionary work to take fundamental, radical and integrated missionary steps that would launch a Church that is truly Nigerian. At the moment, practical experiences show that this has not started and that the situation is getting complicated. The complication has two aspects. The first outlook is the difference between Christianity with the garb of the European civilization and the traditions and cultures in Nigeria. The second outlook is the new culture in Nigeria, colloquially called the “Nigerian factor” that is evolving rapidly in contemporary Nigeria, which is raising social concerns in Nigeria. Strongly connected to these two aspects is the phenomenal religious growth in Nigeria (the great number of professed Christians, the enormous time and energy expended in religious activities, public and private prayers). But one thing is still manifest and that is, that life along the streets, work places, market places and social places in Nigeria still shows elements of social disorder. The Christian religious atmosphere does not affect or influence the social life ethic. John Onaiyekan identifies this phenomenon as “an insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria.”⁷ This will be further explained as the discussions here gradually develop.

This problem of the insufficient link between faith and daily life may not just be a Nigerian or African problem alone. It can also take a global dimension because of socio-economic, cultural and political changes occurring in the world and the consequent challenges that come with these changes. However the Nigerian problem appears to be a triple tragedy. The first tragedy as already indicated is linked to the saga of colonialism and early missionary activities that brought Christianity to the shores of Nigeria with the garment of European civilization which has left Christianity still looking foreign to the cultures of Africa and in particular Nigeria. The second tragedy is connected to the dominant and secular culture that manifests great signs of corruption, war, anarchy, exploitation and poverty. And the third tragedy is the disunity and disparity among Christian denominations and the Christian message they preach. This makes it difficult in Nigeria to articulate what the true Christian message and vision are. A deeper look into these three tragedies will help one to grasp the meaning of the insufficient organic link between faith and daily life as it relates to Nigeria. ← 28 | 29 →

The first tragedy of disparity between faith and daily life in Nigeria is linked to the foreignness of Christianity in relation to African cultures in general because of its European garb. At the workshop organized by the Religious Superiors’ Association of Tanzania for the Bishops and the Major Superiors of congregations at Mbaga spiritual centre Dar-es-Salaam, in July 1992 in preparation for the Synod of Africa, this issue of the foreignness of Christianity to African cultures was a major topic. From the discussions at the workshop and evidences provided, it was clear that many Christians in Africa tend to live in two worlds. They live in the world of Christianity which they have put on as it were from the outside, and their inner African world where they are more at home and live their deeper inner life. This indicates the problem of double selves. Tension can arise as it always does between these two selves especially in times of crisis, when traditional values come in confrontation with their Christian counterpart and especially when the obligation of the former outweighs the later.