Married Priests And The Rise Of Breakaway Catholics In Africa
Splinter Catholic movements within Kenya have gradually found their voice in the country’s religious scene and have maintained a steady following despite strong opposition from conservative voices in the local Catholic Church.
The rise of the breakaway Catholic churches traces its roots to the May 2006 wedding of ex-Catholic priest Godfrey Shiundu to ex-nun Stella Nangila. Shiundu was later ordained a bishop of what’s come to be known as the Reformed Catholic Church.
Since then, the country has seen more groups splintering from the Roman church and creating their own niches.
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Shiundu has remarked on the growth of his church in recent years, citing over 50 priests and 12 bishops in his fold within the East African country as well as several clerics in other countries across the African continent.
Many breakaway churches cite several factors leading to their splintering away, including the inflexible doctrine of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church and the freedom to exercise charismatic forms of religious expression.
“There were people who were not happy with the mechanical way of doing things in the Roman Catholic Church,” said Bishop George Jamba, the presiding Bishop of the Independent Catholic Charismatic Church of Kenya. “Thus, they joined our church to have the freedom to express themselves in terms of worship and the way of doing things. With confession, they believe that through the gift that they’ve been given by the Holy Spirit, they can express themselves freely.”
It should be noted that these splinter groups represent a very vocal minority within a larger religious context in Africa. Last year, data from the Vatican showed that Africa added the greatest number of Catholics compared to other regions of the world. The African continent gained 40 million people in the time frame studied, 8.3 million of whom are Catholic.
But Jamba said the splinter movement began to emerge between 2008 and 2009, adding that his church deals a lot with healing and deliverance.
“There are people who feel burdened,” he added. “They are very faithful churchgoers, but at the same time, they don’t see any difference in their lives. To face these challenges better, they needed to find a way to shout and pray directly to the Holy Spirit.”
In an interview with Religion Unplugged, Jamba said the breakaway churches are comfortable with the “splinter” label that is commonly used to refer to them in the Kenyan press. He said that the splinters have moderate followings — and they are growing.
“Some of these churches have up to a thousand congregants, some have up to 2,000 [followers] and the least is about 500 followers,” he said.
The splinters operate independently of one another, but they have an umbrella group called the Married Bishops Conference, of which Jamba serves as the secretary general. He said one of the highlights of the splinter movements is optional celibacy. They also emphasize the need for people to worship as they desire. According to Jamba, members of the movement worship as happened with the apostles on the biblical day of Pentecost, where everybody can express themselves in the language they understand and in a way that God can understand them better.
“We have got optional celibacy. A priest may continue with celibacy if they so wish, but if one wishes to marry, they are allowed,” he said. “Secondly, everyone here expresses themselves in their own free way, and freely, without somebody praying for them. We allow the power of the Holy Spirit to guide them.”
The churches recognize the pope as one of the leaders of the Christian church, but “we are not under him,” the bishop said.
About the general feel of his congregants in the splinter movement, Jamba described it as a sense of relief for people who previously had no avenue for venting their disquiet with Catholicism.
“People in the movement are very happy,” Jamba said. “Previously, if you were denied participation in the Roman Catholic Church, that was the end of it. But now, we have created alternatives. We have created parallel avenues.”
Acknowledging that there is skepticism of the new movement among conservative Catholics in Africa, Jamba said the splinter churches are eager to forge ahead, stoically defining their destinies while unbothered by the waves of negative energy. The movement insists that it recognizes all other churches and maintains that it has valid apostolic succession.
“We are moving on. We are unbothered by all that skepticism,” he said. “This is a different — and independent — movement, and we are on equal footing with any other church. The Roman Catholic church holds the view that we are illicit, but that’s according to them. We insist that we are valid, and that’s because we have valid apostolic succession.”
Joseph Maina is a Kenyan journalist. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and media studies from the University of Nairobi. For the past decade, he has served as a correspondent for various print and digital publications in his native Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa.