The signs of the future?

Today, I attended a church in Cagliari. The mass was read by a young, handsome African priest, whose specific country of origin I do not know. His Italian was quite good, and his homily was certainly not out of place, as so often happens.

However, this service presented a persistent challenge that thoroughly disrupted the experience. He spoke incredibly loudly into the microphone. Almost the entire time, even sitting in the middle rows, I found the volume physically painful. Faced with this disruption, I had no choice but to spend the homily wondering why he was shouting, rather than listening to his message. He should have known that to get people onboard, he needed to make them comfortable enough to open their hearts to his inspiration.

This issue is a source of regular frustration, reminding me of my experiences back in London, where I have changed parishes twice, both featuring African priests. In the first parish, the priest was from Nigeria. He often celebrated mass without preparation, leading to chaotic readings. Once, the solemn Friday liturgy was in constant chaos as he returned to the sacristy several times and had to give orders to the server mid-service. Other times, his homilies consisted of shouting at the attendees, complaining that people no longer go to church. Each time, I wondered why he was complaining to the people in front of him about those who were not there. On Trinity Sunday, he even stated he could not understand the Trinity; I initially expected a rhetorical catchphrase, but he never resolved it, leaving me to wonder why he is a priest and why I should go to his mass.

In our second parish, one of the three priests is from the Republic of Congo. His homilies are terrible, and others seem to share this view. He frequently brings up examples from Congo that have no relevance to life in London, and shouts from the pulpit that we must have faith, without ever explaining how. Consequently, I immediately shut down whenever I see he is celebrating mass.

While this must be a coincidence, as surely not all African priests are bad, it is clear that these priests do not make a good advert for their peers. This worries me, particularly as the media nowadays discusses how the future of the Catholic Church lies in Africa. I am not sure the Church I love is one in the image of these priests. But of course, there are likely many good ones out there, and I simply have not met them yet 🙏🙏🙏