On September 8, Pope Leo will mark four months in office. I write this editorial as both a tribute to Pope Leo and a plea for Africa. It is already clear that Pope Leo has shown himself to be a steady hand at the helm—no missteps, only poise, purpose, and a calm clarity of vision. It was never going to…
In his message for the 2025 World Day of Prayer for Creation, Pope Leo XIV calls Christians to unite under the theme “Seeds of Peace and Hope.” He reminds us that “together with prayer, determination and concrete actions are necessary if this ‘caress of God’ is to become visible to our world.” This Season of Creation, he urges, is more…
A brutal Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis claimed at least 20 lives, including five journalists: Hussam al-Masri, Mariam Abu Dagga, Mohammed Salama, Moaz Abu Taha, and Ahmed Abu Aziz. They died for doing what every democracy claims to value—telling the truth. Israel dismissed it as a “tragic mishap.” But what we have seen in the conduct of…
❝ Out of Africa can rise a hope capable of reawakening the whole Church” — Stan Chu Ilo In a recent essay, Carlos Lopes warned of the “structural exhaustion” of the global order. Once-stable arrangements like free trade, multilateral institutions, and geopolitical balance are visibly fraying. Rising protectionism, populist nationalism, climate disruption, and deepening inequality have shaken the rules that…
This week marks a historic gathering as African bishops convene in Kigali, Rwanda, for the 20th Plenary Assembly of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). Over 250 participants including presidents of 54 national episcopal conferences, theologians, and global partners are taking part in this landmark assembly. The expectations from God’s people in Africa are high on…
This past week, at an Ecclesial Project gathering, someone asked me where Africans find hope amid all the troubles there. I reminded her: there is no such things as African hope or American hope. We all need hope today, just as our ancestors needed to live in hope amidst the challenges they faced in their own day. Each generation faces…
“When the ancestors dreamed of the continent, they dreamed of us—not as shadows of their past, but as the living fire of their hopes, and the witnesses of all the past heroes.” Across Africa, we walk on lands watered by tears, cultivated with prayers, and guarded by the spirits of those who came before us—men and women who stood tall…
Frantz Fanon once wrote, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” For many African Catholics today, there is a growing sense that God has entrusted our continent with a vital mission—to lead the Church and Christianity into a new era. It’s true that the Pope is not African, and Africans do not…
When I left Nigeria to study in Rome in 2001, my parents gave me two requests. My mother asked me to bring her holy water from St. Peter’s Square. My father asked me to “learn everything the white man knows, add it to your African wisdom from our ancestors, and use this knowledge to lift Africa higher and higher.” I…