ST. PAUL VI: THE “AFRICAN POPE”

By Fr. Casmir Odundo, Kibet (St. Veronica Parish Keringet, Nakuru)

St. Paul VI with Archbishop Okoth in the Vatican

Before the days of Barrack Obama, the African American Community embraced Bill Clinton as the First Black President. “Bill Clinton is the First Black U.S President. White skin notwithstanding, this is our first black President. Blacker than any actual black person who could ever be elected in our children’s lifetime,”  commented Toni Morrison, in his 1998 article that appeared in the New York Times.

Last Sunday’s canonization of Pope Paul VI and six other saints got me thinking a lot about Pope Paul VI and whether despite the fact that he was an European,  we could still ascribe to him the title of “An African Pope”. Of course we know from Church History that there have been three African Popes already: Pope St. Victor I (189-199), Pope Militiades  (311-314) and Pope Gelasius I (492-496). However, as the dates of their Pontificates already suggests these noble African Church men, served as Popes in the very early years of the Church. The church is yet to have an African Bishop of Rome for over 1500 years now.

St. Paul VI kissing the ground of the Martyrs at Namugongo in 1969

Paul VI with President Milton Obote at Ugandan Parliament

Ugandan Shilling with image of Paul VI to mark the historic 1969 visit

Born in Brescia, Italy in 1897 to Italian parents, Paul VI was to say the least, “a Pope with an African heart and with Africa in his heart.” Even before he became Pope, St. Paul VI then as Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Cardinal Montini, the then  Archbishop of Milan (the largest diocese in the world with over 1000 parishes and over 2500 priests) in the year 1962, just a year before his election as Pope, Cardinal Montini made a pilgrimage to Africa. He visited many nations in Africa among them being my homeland Kenya. Other African nations he visited as a Cardinal are Ghana, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Congo and Sudan.   

In his Pontificate that lasted for around 15 years, Paul VI canonized 84 saints in total, 22 of them are the Ugandan Martyrs, canonized on 18^th October 1964 in the Vatican. “Who are they?” He posed during the homily for the canonization of the 22 Martyrs of Uganda. “They are Africans, of African colour and race...and they are saints.”

Following the Canonization of the Ugandan Martyrs, Paul VI made the historic trip to Kampala in 1969 becoming the first Pope to visit Sub Saharan Africa. On that occasion he ordained 12 African Priests into the order of Bishops, among them two from Kenya, i.e. His Grace Raphael Ndingi Mwana a’ Nzeki, Archbishop Emeritus of Nairobi (then Bishop of Machakos) and the Late Rt. Rev. Emiliano Njeru, (then auxiliary bishop of Eldoret). It was while he was in Kampala that he pronounced the famous prophetic words: “Africans be Missionaries to yourselves.”  

I recall vividly that when we visited Kampala at Rubaga Cathedral in the year 2014 as part of our seminary’s Silver Jubilee Celebrations (I was then a seminarian at St. Matthias Mulumba Seminary in Tindinyo) we were taken through various pictures and souvenirs of this historic trip. I even saw the Pepsi Cola drink that Paul VI drunk halfway in 1969, the remaining contents in the same bottle still carefully preserved in the Archdiocesan Archive in Rubaga.

In his Pontificate, Pope Paul VI appointed many Africans to important positions in the Holy See in an effort to universalize the Roman Curia.  He also appointed many indigenous African Bishops. For instance on 29^th August 1965, he appointed Fr. Francis Arinze, Coadjutor Archbishop of Onitsha, Nigeria at the age of 32 making him by then the youngest Roman Catholic Bishop in the world. On 28^th May 1972, he appointed Fr. Philip Sulumeti, Auxiliary Bishop of Kisumu at the tender age of 34. On 27^th February 1978 he appointed Fr. Zaccheaus Okoth, Bishop of Kisumu at the tender age of 35. Other Kenyan Bishops appointed by Pope Paul VI include: The late Bishop Urbanus Kioko on 9^th June 1973, Archbishop John Njenga on 19^th October 1970. While Cardinal Maurice Otunga was appointed Bishop before the Pontificate of Pope Paul VI, it suffices to note that it was Paul VI who appointed him Coadjutor of Nairobi Archdiocese on 15^th November 1969, eventually making him the very first African Archbishop of Nairobi. Later Paul VI created him Cardinal on 5^th March 1973. (The Very First Kenyan Cardinal). Paul VI created most of his successors Cardinals:  John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Paul VI is also remembered in history as the Pope who re-convened the Vatican II Council and brought it to a close. Church history reminds us that, the Council before the Vatican II Council, i.e. Vatican I Council (1869-1870) was never formally brought to a close.  So, the fact that Paul VI,  brought Vatican II Council to a close is significant. It was Paul VI who took the burden of implementing the decrees and the spirit of the Vatican II Council. He thus shepherded the Church in difficult moments of transition.

He is also the one who pioneered the Synod of Bishops, an idea conceived in the Vatican II Council. It was therefore significant that his canonization on Sunday 14^th October 2018 took place amidst a Synod of Bishops. He presided over five Synods of Bishops meetings in his Pontificate. The most famous one was the one on Evangelization convoked by Paul VI in September 1974. It is recorded that this Synod ended without the bishops being unanimous on certain issues and hence the then relator of the Synod, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (the future St. John Paul II) left the raw notes of the synod with Pope Paul VI. Pope Paul VI took them, read them slowly, put in his ideas, and he himself wrote a Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, on Evangelization in the Modern World,  Evangelii Nuntiandi. Evangelii Nuntiandi was the first ever Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation.

“To date, Evangeli Nuntiandi remains the best ever written Post Synodal exhortation, it has never been surpassed. It contains the testimony of Pope Paul VI,” commented Pope Francis recently.  Evangelii Nuntiandi is the blueprint for the New Evangelization.

Many scholars have commented on the intellectual gifts of Paul VI and it has been suggested that Benedict XVI's academic legacy is only second to Paul VI. Indeed many people have suggested that Paul VI was a genius. He devoted much of his time to reading and writing. He was a Canon Lawyer, Church Historian and a great Theologian. In his lifetime he wrote 7 encyclicals, many other exhortations and writings. His encyclicals are still very relevant to date. Among the notable ones are Ecclesiam Suam of 6^th August 1964; Mysterium Fidei (September 1965)  Populorum Progressio of 1967, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus of June 1967 (in which he defended priestly celibacy. To date no one has written such a detailed defense of celibacy as his.) And of course the most famous of them all is Humane Vitae of 25^th July 1968 in which he defended the family and upheld the Church teaching against ‘contraceptive mentality.’ Humane Vitae, though not initially well received by some, has today been appreciated more and has made many to see that Paul VI was indeed a prophet of our times. It is therefore worth appreciating that the two miracles for his beatification and canonization both involved the unborn. It is also significant that his canonization comes on the Golden Jubilee Anniversary of Humane Vitae. Perhaps God wants to remind us of his approval of the truths found in Paul VI’s Humane Vitae.

Archbishop Okoth of Kisumu kissing the ring of Pope Paul VI 

Pope Paul VI had great regard for women. He noted their contribution to the Church and the entire Salvation History. Of his seven encyclicals, two of them are devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary i.e. Mense Maio and Christi Matri. “The Blessed Virgin Mary is the ideal of authentic Christian living,” He wrote. Before his Pontificate, no woman had ever been named a Doctor of the Church. It was Paul VI who named two women for the first time, Doctors of the Church: St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila in 1970. It is again significant therefore that his canonization came just a day, before the feast of St. Teresa of Avila.

Paul VI was also the Pope who imposed retirement age at 75 for Bishops, 80 for cardinals in the Roman Curia. He also restricted the age for cardinals voting in a conclave to below 80.

He was the first Pope to Visit the United States and indeed the  Western Hemisphere. He was the first Pope to Speak to the UN Summit in New York. By his time, Paul VI was the the most traveled Pope, visiting seven continents. He was notably, the first reigning Pope to travel in an aircraft. No wonder he chose the name Paul at the start of his Pontificate. Like the Apostle Paul, he was a true evangelizer.

Similar to his successor John Paul II, an attempt to assassinate him was also made on Paul VI’s life in Manila but he escaped unhurt.  Again, similar his successor  Benedict XVI, Paul VI had also contemplated resigning as Pontiff, at one time due to ill health but did not eventually make that decision. His ecclesiastical life was unique because, unlike many priests and bishops, Paul VI never at one time in his life worked in a Parish. He was never a parish priest nor a curate.

He died on 6^th August 1978, on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord at 80 years of age. Reminding us of Psalm 90. “The length of our days is seventy years or eighty if we are strong.” His canonization therefore comes 40 years after his death. Ironically, 6th of August, the day of his death was the 33rd anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. 

Coincidentally, also, the years he served in his Pontificate seem to somehow correspond with the years our (Kenya’s) founding president Jomo Kenyatta Served. Jomo Kenyatta became Prime Minister in June 1963 the same month as Paul VI and he died in Augiust 1978 again the same month as Paul VI. both of them served for 15 years albeit in different capacities.

The gospel of Last Sunday during the canonization of Paul VI was on the rich young man who refused the challenge of Jesus to sell everything and follow him. Unlike this man, we recall how Pope Paul VI, after the second session of the Vatican II Council, placed his Papal Tiara on the altar and never wore it again. He instructed that it be sold and the proceeds given to the poor. Finally we cannot fail to mention the unique connection between Paul VI and the other six saints they were canonized together with. Much has been said already of his meetings with Bishop Romero of El Salvador. It suffices also to note that it was Pope Paul VI who beatified St. Maria Katharina Kasper and St. Vincent Romano.

His canonization came just barely four years after two other popes of the 20^th century were also canonized i.e. John Paul II and John XXIII. Before these canonizations of 2014, the last Pope to be canonized was Pius X in 1954. So the canonization of Popes is neither a usual nor an automatic thing. For me, the canonization of these recent Popes: John Paul II, John XXIII and now Paul VI points to the fact that despite the current crisis in the church, there is hope, because our leaders (and thank God for them) are holy men. Our church has been led by saints, how wonderful!  

St. Paul VI in his celebrated Post Synodal Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi noted: “Modern Man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” And St. Paul VI, is indeed that great teacher and witness of our age!

The author is parochial Vicar: St. Veronica Keringet Catholic Parish, Nakuru Diocese. Email casmirthomas28@gmail.com. 

(This article will be published in the October Issue of the Messenger of Mary Immaculate Margazine!)