« Pour ne pas tomber dans l’indifférence » : La pauvreté religieuse dans « un continent saturé de mauvaises nouvelles »

AUTEUR : JEAN LUC ENYEGUE SJ

ABSTRACT

In a continent “full of bad news” and where poverty is effectively chronic, the poverty professed by the consecrated can only look like an oxymoron. In practice, it is like a constant challenge faced by the consecrated to give sense to their vows with the risk for many among them to stray from the ideals of their religious life. This essay argues that poverty can only be a good news for Africans if, starting with Christ’s example and lifestyle, it is freely accepted against the trend of consumerist ideology and dictatorship of possession on the one hand, and on the other hand, if it is oriented toward genuine worship of God, “the standing man.” In this sense, religious poverty aims at enriching the poor, that is, the Lazarus from our streets, neighborhoods, and villages. This end becomes difficult when the consecrated are confronted with their increasingly deprived social background. In this case, the African consecrated must be creative and set up mechanisms of solidarity inspired by African traditional cultures, but also by a discerned adaptation of religious traditions like that of the Jesuits, which this essay debates.