Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich praised the boldness and the faithfulness of the Catholic Church in Africa after a pilgrimage the prelate took to the West African country Benin last week.

“The Church in Africa is a Church that knows its own value and is not afraid to speak,” Hollerich, a leading organizer of the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, told La Croix International, a French Catholic newspaper.

Hollerich, who serves as the relator general of the synod, participated in the annual Marian pilgrimage to the Notre-Dame d’Arigbo cave in Dassa-Zoumè. 

The prelate told La Croix that the Church in Africa is one that is “alive and full of faith” and that he came to “learn,” adding: “I am looking at this Church as a pastor from a European Church to see how we can move forward in the future.” He noted the “joy” seen in the celebrations in Africa, which he contrasted with European celebrations that he said “are sometimes very dull.”

“People do not always participate with their hearts,” the cardinal, who has served as archbishop of Luxembourg since 2011, explained. “It becomes merely a ceremony — a rite. However, here in Africa, what is done is magnificent. Even the pilgrimage I am attending shows this participation and deep faith in Africa. In Europe, we speak more of tradition than of faith. But tradition is only understood when there is faith to interpret it. So, it is beautiful to see the faith as it is lived in Africa.”

The Catholic hierarchy in Africa often leans more traditional and conservative than the hierarchy throughout the Western world. Earlier this year, African bishops declined to implement a Vatican directive that sanctioned “spontaneous” pastoral blessings for “same-sex couples” and other couples in “irregular situations.”

The Vatican declaration, Fiducia Supplicans, maintained a ban on liturgical blessings for same-sex couples, did not allow recognition of civil unions, and instructed the clergy to not take any actions that could make the blessings appear like a marriage. Less than a month later, the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar issued a statement that said there would be “no blessing for homosexual couples in the African churches.”

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, had earlier granted leeway to Church hierarchy in enforcing the directive, saying: “It’s proper for each local bishop to make that discernment.”

Pope Francis later said Africa was “a special case,” because “for them, homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”

Hollerich addressed the issue of the upcoming Synod on Synodality, which is scheduled to meet for its concluding session from Oct. 2 to Oct. 27, at which point officials will produce a final report to deliver to Pope Francis.

“My role … is to ensure that everyone is heard, that there are no political machinations within the Church, but that all the people of God, from all continents, are listened to and that the entire Church can journey together,” Hollerich said in the interview.