THE INCULTURATION OF CONSECRATED LIFE TODAY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRIC

Abstract

The debate on the process of the inculturation of the consecrated life in Africa is and remains of great relevance for the religious Institutes because of the relevance of its theme and also for the solidity of the life of faith in the African cultural realities. In the milieu of Roman Catholicity, we all agree that inculturation theologically "means an intimate transformation of authentic cultural values by their integration into Christianity, into various human cultures"1. Whatever the case may be, we cannot be spared, in order to be credible and less intellectualistic or academic, to face the problem of interculturality because, as we know, "the Christian faith really opens up a mode of intercultural life, in that it connects people of different cultures in a "we" that is the fruit of the conversion of each to a reality different from its original culture?1 ". Interculturality, in fact, clears the way for an explicit conversion that makes it possible to deal with the inculturation process with keenness for fear of being inconsistent and thus succumb to a sort of folklorism, ethnocentric fundamentalism and a return to the past without expected results. In this Africa thirsting for fecundity, Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to His Church by the Spirit, has much to contribute to this great continent. Thanks to the profession of the evangelical counsels, the characteristic traits of Jesus - chaste, poor and obedient - become "visible" in the middle of the world in an exemplary and permanent way and the eyes of the African faithful are called to return to the mystery of the Kingdom of God who is already acting in history, but who is waiting to take his full dimension in the heavens (VC, 1).