ACI Africa, Aug 29, 2023 / 13:15 pm
The rapid spread of Christianity in Africa is due to its people’s inherent structures of community life as well as the “bonding together” of community members, according to Bishop John Patrick Dolan of Phoenix.
Dolan, who returned from a 12-day trip to the African countries of Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya on Aug. 22, weighed in on the ease of the spread of Christianity among Africans, noting that faith “naturally happens” where there are existing structures of communion.
“Faith begins where there are strong families and communities bonding together and they are not living behind their phones. In such a setting, faith naturally happens and grows. I think in the United States we have lost a lot of that,” Dolan told ACI Africa, CNA’s partner news agency in Africa, in an interview.
The bishop, who serves on the subcommittee for the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa, an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), said that in the U.S., “people have become very individualistic.”