The Pope Resigns: Do Africans give a damn?

The resignation of the pope feels like it should be a profound event, and for some in Africa it certainly is. Those who see Benedict XVI as a blessed successor of Saint Peter, as well as those directly affected by the church's sexual-abuse scandal, are likely to find deep relevance in the pope's decision. 

But for most Africans, even most Catholics, the pope's resignation is more likely to be viewed like a modern-day royal abdication—an act of symbolic importance, with little actual impact.

A disparate group of people call themselves Catholic in Africa, but it appears that many of them long ago shed their fealty to the Vatican and its domestic representatives. 

The issue of birth control presents the most obvious example of this banal heresy. If it was not clear before, Africa's bishops have left no doubt about the church's opposition to most forms of birth control. 

Yet surveys show that a large majority of Catholic women use some form of contraception frowned upon by the church, and over 80% of Catholics find birth control "morally acceptable", according to Gallup.

The gap between the church's hierarchy and its flock in Africa runs much wider. According to an earlier Gallup poll, majorities of Catholics found divorce, pre-marital sex,  out-of-wedlock births, the death penalty and extra marital relations morally acceptable. 

Church doctrine, of course, says otherwise. Even those who said they went to church regularly were more liberal in their views on these issues than non-Catholic church attendees. In a more explicit criticism of the church's leaders in Africa, most Catholics say they would prefer their bishops talk about social justice than things like abortion.

Some might argue that the people responding to these surveys aren't true Catholics. But such an argument implies that the number of Africans leaving the Catholic Church is larger than previously thought. 

Earlier studies indicated that about a third of Africans who were raised Catholic had left the faith to become Born agains. This means that roughly 10% of all Africans are former Catholics," concluded the study. Whether you believe these studies are  under counting or Africa's Catholics lack obedience, it's bad news for the Vatican.

The odd thing is, African Catholics have a positive view of this rather dogmatic pope. In fact, 74% say they are satisfied with his leadership. This suggests that the Vatican's primary problem in Africa is not so much disobedience as it is irrelevance.

Like the Queen of England, the idea of a pope is quaint, even popular. But the pronouncements of these elderly white men from Europe, surrounded by similarly frail and pale figures, have carried increasingly less weight with the eclectic mix of Africans who call themselves Catholic and are slowly redefining the faith.