Cardinals-elect Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD; Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM; and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbohe discuss the contributions of the Church outside Europe during a Synod on Synodality press briefing on Oct. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, Oct 8, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).
Cardinals-designate from three continents said Tuesday the Church in the global south has a lot of nonmaterial gifts to share with the West, including the richness of priestly vocations and a joy-filled faith.
“When the Holy Father is talking about peripheries, I think the peripheries are moving. … Maybe the peripheries are moving towards Europe,” Tokyo’s Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, said in response to a question from CNA during a press briefing on the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 8.
The Japanese bishop’s comments on the contributions of the Church outside Europe were echoed by Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Korhogo, Ivory Coast, and Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, of Porto Alegre, Brazil, who also participated in the press briefing.
All three men are participants in the synod and will be made cardinals at a consistory on Dec. 8, as announced by Pope Francis on Sunday.
The cardinal-designate from the Ivory Coast, Dogbo, said the Synod on Synodality discussed the theme of the exchange of gifts on Tuesday morning.
“We who come from African dioceses, we can say that they seem to be poor from a material standpoint, but spiritually these dioceses are so rich. And faith is lived with joy,” he said. “And this is something we must share with the universal Church.”
Cardinals-elect Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD; Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM; and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo answer questions during a Synod on Synodality press briefing on Oct. 8, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
He also mentioned the great grace of many priestly vocations in the Church in Africa.
Kikuchi of Tokyo also pointed out the large number of vocations to the priesthood coming from countries in Asia, though he remarked that Japan is unfortunately not included in this.
“There is a point in [the synodal assembly] in which we discussed the exchange of gifts from one Church to the other — those who have and those who don’t have. Formerly it was understood as rich Churches, those who have money and resources, who support the poor countries like in Asia and Africa,” Kikuchi said.
With more priestly vocations coming from Asian and African countries, however, “the exchange of gifts is changing … from the developing countries to the developed countries,” he said.
Spengler, president of the Brazilian bishops’ conference and president of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) since 2023, said Brazil and other Latin American countries are celebrating the anniversary of the arrival of immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other countries to the continent.
“Somehow [these immigrants] promoted a process of evangelization in Latin America in a historical context other than our own, and they did this so well,” he said. “Today, if we have a Christian tradition that is strong and lively [in Latin America] we owe it to immigrants.”
The archbishop said the immigrants were brave to leave their own countries and cross the ocean, in some cases more than 200 years ago, to a continent where there was little at the time. But most importantly, he added, they brought the Catholic faith with them.
He said today’s challenge for the Church in traditionally Christian countries is understanding how to present the faith to the next generation.
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Sister Scholastica Radel (left) and Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, discuss the recent exhumation of the order’s foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, in an interview with EWTN News In Depth on May 30, 2023, at their abbey in Gower, Missouri. / EWTN News
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 4, 2023 / 08:00 am (CNA).
Her flashlight was dim, so when Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell first peered inside the cracked coffin lid and saw a human foot inside a black sock where one would expect to find only bone and dust, she didn’t say anything.
Instead, she took a step back, collected herself, and leaned in for another look, just to be sure. Then she screamed for joy.
“I will never forget that scream for as long as I live,” recalled Sister Scholastica Radel, the prioress, who was among the members of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, who were present to exhume the remains of their foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster.
“It was a very different scream than any other scream,” the abbess agreed. “Nothing like seeing a mouse or something. It was just pure joy. ‘I see her foot!’”
What the sisters discovered that day would cause a worldwide sensation: Roughly four years after her burial in a simple wooden coffin, Sister Wilhelmina’s unembalmed body appeared very much intact.
In an exclusive TV interview with EWTN News In Depth, the two sisters shared details of their remarkable discovery — revealing, among other things, that Sister Wilhelmina’s body doesn’t exhibit the muscular stiffness of rigor mortis — and reflected on the deeper significance of the drama still unfolding at their Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus in rural Gower, Missouri.
They also clarified that Sister Wilhelmina’s coffin was exhumed on April 28, nearly three weeks earlier than CNA had understood. The sisters explained that it took about two weeks to remove dirt, mold, and mildew before they moved her body to the church. You can hear excerpts from the interview and other commentaries in the video at the end of this story.
Pilgrims visit the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, the foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, in Gower, Missouri. EWTN News
Of particular significance to the members of the contemplative order, known for their popular recordings of Gregorian chants and devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass, is that the traditional habit of their African American foundress also is surprisingly well-preserved.
“It’s in better condition than most of our habits,” Mother Cecilia told EWTN’s Catherine Hadro.
“This is not possible. Four years in a wet coffin, broken in with all the dirt, all the bacteria, all the mildew, all the mold — completely intact, every thread.”
For the sisters, the symbolism is profound. A St. Louis native, Sister Wilhelmina spent 50 years in another religious order but left after it dispensed with the requirement of wearing its conventional habit and altered other long-established practices. She founded the Benedictines of Mary in 1995 when she was 70 years old.
“It’s so appropriate, because that’s what Sister Wilhelmina fought for her whole religious life,” Mother Cecilia said of the habit.
“And now,” Sister Scholastica said, “that’s what’s standing out. That’s what she took on to show the world that she belonged to Christ, and that is what she still shows the world. Even in her state, even after death, four years after the death, she’s still showing the world that this is who she is. She’s a bride of Christ, and nothing else matters.”
‘I did a double take’
The Benedictine community exhumed Sister Wilhelmina, almost four years after her death, after deciding to move her remains to a new St. Joseph’s Shrine inside the abbey’s church, a common custom to honor the founders of religious orders, the sisters said.
Members of the community did the digging themselves, “a little bit each day,” Mother Cecilia said. The process began on April 26 and culminated with a half-dozen or so sisters using straps to haul the coffin out of the ground on April 28.
The abbess revealed that there was a feeling of anticipation among the sisters to see what was inside the coffin.
“There was a sense that maybe God would do something special because she was so special and so pure of heart,” Mother Cecilia said.
It was the abbess who looked through the cracked lid first, shining her flashlight into the dark coffin.
“So I looked and I kind of did a double take and I kind of stepped back. ‘Did I just see what I think I saw? Because I think I just saw a completely full foot with a black sock still on it,'” she recalled saying to herself.
Members of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, lead a procession with the body of their foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, at their abbey in Gower, Missouri, on May 29, 2023. Joe Bukuras/CNA
Sister Wilhelmina’s features were clearly recognizable; even her eyebrows and eyelashes were still there, the sisters discovered. Not only that, but her Hanes-brand socks, her brown scapular, Miraculous Medal, rosary beads, profession candle, and the ribbon around the candle — none of it had deteriorated.
The crown of flowers placed on her head for her burial had survived, too, dried in place but still visible. Yet the coffin’s fabric lining, the sisters noted, had disintegrated. So had a strap of new linen the sisters said they used to keep Sister Wilhelmina’s mouth closed.
“So I think everything that was left to us was a sign of her life,” Sister Scholastica reflected, “whereas everything pertaining to her death was gone.”
Another revelation from the interview: Contrary to what one would expect in the case of a four-year-old corpse, Sister Wilhelmina’s body is “really flexible,” according to Sister Scholastica.
“I mean, you can take her leg and lift it,” Mother Cecilia observed.
EWTN News In Depth also spoke with Shannen Dee Williams, an author and scholar who is an expert on the history of Black Catholicism. Sister Wilhelmina’s story, she said, is an important reminder of “the the great diversity and beauty of the Black Catholic experience across the spectrum.”
“It’s a really important story that reminds us of what is the great diversity of what is the Black Catholic experience.” – @BlkNunHistorian explains the significance of Sister Wilhelmina choosing a traditional habit for her community. pic.twitter.com/nJmyQ6UYjA
— EWTN News In Depth (@EWTNNewsInDepth) June 3, 2023
‘A unifying moment’
There has been no formal declaration by Church authorities that Sister Wilhelmina’s body is incorrupt, nor has an independent analysis been conducted of her remains, the condition of which has puzzled even some experienced morticians. Neither is there any official process yet underway to put the African American nun on a possible path to sainthood.
Pilgrims visit the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, foundress of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, in Gower, Missouri. EWTN News
In the interview, Mother Cecilia called what’s happening at the abbey “a unifying moment for everybody” in a time of discord.
“There’s so much division, and it’s crazy,” she said. “We’re children of God the Father, every single one of us. And so you see, Sister Wilhelmina is bringing everyone together . . . I mean, this is God’s love pouring forth through people of every race, color,” she said.
“They come and they’re blown away, and it makes them think,” the abbess said. “It makes them think about God, about, ‘OK, why are we here? Is there more than just my phone, and my job, and my next vacation?’”
As for what comes next, no one can say. “We love God so much, his sense of humor, the irony, this humble little black nun hidden away in a monastery is a catalyst for this. It’s like a spark to send fire to the world,” Mother Cecilia said.
“It’s just remarkable,” she said. “But this is the kind of thing that God does when we need a wake-up call.”
Vatican City, Mar 14, 2017 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis urged Catholics in Tuesday’s homily not only to avoid evil, but to pursue good in concrete actions, likening the Lenten conversion to a journey.
A statue of St. John Paul II is seen in front of the entrance to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 22, 2025, where Pope Francis continues to receive treatment for respiratory issues. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Or, instead, might it be that the very scripted apology for sins against sin-nod-ality– mouthed by visibly obsequious leading cardinals–is actually of more Asian inspiration? As in the late 1940s when Chinese peasants also denounced their past, their villages, their friends, their families, and even themselves—so as to “cross over” (to “fanshen”) from backwardist stuff and into the new-world of “freedom”? Is the ground-level and sinicized Church in China now the model for an “inverted pyramid” Church?
What is synodality? Yes, there really are structures of sin, but is it really true–the sin of gradualism–that “time is greater than space”?
Evangelization and conversion are ongoing and never ending opportunities. Cardinals-elect Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop Jaime Spengler, and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbohe are blessed with a constructive vision. May their tribe increase.
Yes, Europe is the new periphery!
Even from Europe, the Austrian Cardinal Schonborn has recently said as much. https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/09/10/cardinal-schonborn-we-must-accept-the-decline-of-europe/ But, now, what more we need is for the Synod members to also discover that the coupling (!) of synodality with logical positivism is, itself, merely a navel-gazing European hiccup. Very peripheral to things Catholic!
Or, instead, might it be that the very scripted apology for sins against sin-nod-ality– mouthed by visibly obsequious leading cardinals–is actually of more Asian inspiration? As in the late 1940s when Chinese peasants also denounced their past, their villages, their friends, their families, and even themselves—so as to “cross over” (to “fanshen”) from backwardist stuff and into the new-world of “freedom”? Is the ground-level and sinicized Church in China now the model for an “inverted pyramid” Church?
What is synodality? Yes, there really are structures of sin, but is it really true–the sin of gradualism–that “time is greater than space”?
Evangelization and conversion are ongoing and never ending opportunities. Cardinals-elect Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, Archbishop Jaime Spengler, and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbohe are blessed with a constructive vision. May their tribe increase.