SANCTIFYING OFFICE
Liturgy
Cardinal Ambongo has stressed the importance of the liturgy in the parishes of Kinshasa, making this subject one of his “battle-horses” according to La Croix’s journalist Matthieu Lasserre in an August 2024 article.
The cardinal considers the Zairian rite to be a great asset for the Church in Africa through its “creativity,” as it highlights the “Eucharistic feast” in a “very joyful” way: “Everyone comes for that,” he told a press briefing during the Amazon Synod in 2019. He called the Zairian Rite one of the “major achievements of the Church of Congo,” and an “unstoppable success” because it “inculturated the liturgy into our way of doing,” he said.
He has not spoken out either for or against the Vetus Ordo. The traditional liturgy has not been developed in the Congo since the Novus Ordo and its Congolese adaptation.
The Sacraments
In an interview given to the French TV station KTO in July 2022, Cardinal Ambongo said he was concerned that, because of shortcomings in evangelization and work on conversion, the faith of the Congolese had remained “on the surface.”
However, in a general way, he speaks more of the people’s natural needs than about reception of the sacraments. In particular, he stated in the July 2022 interview that the Church in Congo is a Church “at the side of the people in search of greater dignity and humanity,” and gave a mainly political description of a cardinal’s role. A cardinal should, in his eyes, “sound the alarm when the city is asleep” in times of social crisis, but also give people “pride” in their Catholic religion at a time when Islam and evangelical “religions of success” are putting “pressure” on the people of Congo. Liturgically, this expresses itself in his insistence on the Mass as a “Eucharistic feast,” and not as a renewal of Christ’s sacrifice.
Interior Life
There are no substantial writings or statements by Cardinal Ambongo on the interior life. As far as the fight against the Devil is concerned, he has said we must have recourse to synodality in order to overcome his spirit: “Combat the Evil One by using the weapons of synodality,” he stated in his homily at a Mass during the Synod on Synodality on October 13, 2023.
Vocations
Compared with much of Africa which has no shortage of religious vocations, parish priests in the Diocese of Kinshasa have been complaining for almost a decade that it has too few of them, according to La Croix International. In some parishes, the article says no young people have aspired to religious life for several years. “The problem of the crisis of vocations is very real,” said a priest in the diocese of Kinshasa.
Cardinal Ambongo, who has led the archdiocese since 2018, does not appear to have stemmed the crisis. In fact official figures appear to show that a collapse of vocations occurred under his watch. Numbers of priests in Kinshasa archdiocese had been increasing for many years until 2006 after which they levelled out at around 1,000 until 2019. They then dropped precipitously from 1,196 in 2019 to just 682 in 2021. The same pattern holds for male and female religious over the same period, with the former falling from 1,721 to 1,164, and the latter almost halving from 1,028 to 543.
GOVERNING OFFICE
Synodality Cardinal
Ambongo is extremely favorable to the synodal process. He believes it is a “new way of being Church,” insisting that the synod does not aim to solve all the Church’s problems, but rather to propose new approaches to tackling them in a spirit of collaboration, as he stressed during a press briefing at the Synod on Synodality in October 2023.
He also emphasized what he considered to be the significant contribution of the Church in Africa to the Synod. According to him, the African representatives did not come in a spirit of making demands, but rather wishing to share pastoral challenges specific to the continent while participating in the universal Church.
As for the results of the Synod, he did not express any particular expectations. He wanted to adopt a nuanced position, expressing his confidence that the conclusions of the synod would be accepted as the will of God, while calling for moderation of the excessive expectations of some members of the Church who hoped it would solve all the problems of the time.
Cardinal Ambongo has also used the expression “a new Pentecost” to describe the Synod on Synodality. According to him, synodality in itself is the main issue of the synod insofar as it represents a new way of being Church, and that, de facto, it implies a change in the way the Church functions. Following the Synod’s 2024 second session in Rome, Cardinal Ambongo called synodality a “kairos” moment – an opportune moment – for the Church and especially for Africa and Congo, insofar as it offers new ways to solve problems together. At the same Vatican press briefing, he said “Africa brought its specificity by insisting on the sufferings of the people on the continent.”
The Place of the Laity
In a 2019 interview with KTO, Cardinal Ambongo explained that during his pastoral visits as archbishop, he likes to address the entire parish council, without privileging the parish priest, so as not to give the impression that “the Church belongs to the priests.” He stressed the importance of training lay people to serve the Church because for him they are the pillars of the Church in Africa: “We train lay people to serve the Church. And the Church in Africa is essentially led by lay people,” he said during the Amazon Synod.
Young People
Cardinal Ambongo has paid particular attention to young people in his pastoral work for the diocese of Kinshasa. He considers African youth to be the future of the universal Church and has emphasized pastoral care, formation and in-depth evangelization of young people in his diocese. During Pope Francis’ visit to the Congo, he organized a meeting with more than 100,000 young people. Training young people is important to him, both for the Church and for the African continent: “Dreaming of a new Africa means above all committing ourselves to investing in the education of our young people.”
Political Commitment to Social Justice Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo is conspicuously involved in Congolese politics and has engaged in a fierce fight against poverty and corruption in the country.
According to the cardinal, he is driven to speak out by a commitment to human dignity that stems from his faith: “Faith must go hand in hand with the uplift of man,” he has explained.
The cardinal does not hesitate to criticize the actions of the Congolese government. In particular, he described the presidential election of December 2023 as a “gigantic organized mess,” a serious accusation that implied that he suspected the government of being corrupt.
He has pinpointed problems with Congolese democracy, saying “the Church in Congo has chosen the side of the people.” This has led him to become a significant opposition figure, according to the Belgian website Cathobel. He is especially concerned about the challenges posed by Kinshasa’s urbanization — a megalopolis of 17 million inhabitants plagued by “widespread poverty.”
In his view, the Church must be able to urge the government to take concrete action for the poorest people in Kinshasa; he does not hesitate to use his position to defend social justice, criticize abuses of power, and advocate better governance in the DRC.
Notably Cardinal Ambongo’s political statements never mention the social kingship of Jesus Christ, nor are they made with any explicit Catholic references.
Relations with the State
Despite his public run-ins with the government, Cardinal Ambongo sees “more collaboration than difficulties” when it comes to Church-State relations.
Speaking to the Catholic Omnia Omnibus University in Kinshasa in May 2024, he pointed out that since independence, the Congolese bishops have worked well with the state, operating in almost every sector of national life for the betterment of the country. He also highlighted a framework agreement recently signed between the Holy See and the Congolese state, reinforcing this collaboration.
His university talk took place shortly after legal proceedings were opened against him due to his criticisms of the government. However, Isidore Ndaywel, a Congolese lay leader and historian who is reportedly close to Ambongo, said he did not think the lawsuit would go any further.1Congo’s public prosecutor accused Ambongo of having failed to encourage the Congolese army in its fight in the eastern part of the country. Sometimes there are “hitches” and conflict situations, particularly when the Church criticizes certain government actions, Ndaywel asserted.
TEACHING OFFICE
Cardinal Ambongo’s public declarations, speeches and conferences often focus on one of his main concerns: social justice. In a March 2024 talk he gave at the Pontifical Antonianum University on “mission and inter-religious dialogue in Africa,” he mainly addressed issues such as “exploitation of natural resources” through “neocolonialism.” He complained that resource-rich Congo lives in dire poverty because of internal greed and external “avidity” of continents and countries such as Europe, North America, India, China. “Congo is the plate from which everyone eats, except for our people,” he said.
The Uniqueness of Salvation in Jesus Christ and His Church Cardinal Ambongo frequently speaks of Africa’s own need for evangelization, stressing that while Africa sends many missionaries to other continents, priests in his own continent have become scarce.
In a message prior to the celebration of “SECAM Day” on July 28-29, 2024, he noted that “Christianity which flourished in the past” in North Africa has “fallen to zero.”
He said that the Catholic Church in Africa is doing its part in terms of evangelizing the world today, but he noted that while the Catholic Church on the continent has known “remarkable growth,” only 30 percent of Africans are Christian, and 18 percent are Catholic. Africa continues “to hunger and thirst for Jesus and for the Gospel.”
Cardinal Ambongo stressed that the Catholic Church in Africa has a responsibility to evangelize those on the continent who still profess non-Christian religions. “The Catholic Church in Africa considers it its duty to proclaim Jesus Christ to these non-Christians, for they, too, have the right to know the riches of the mystery of Christ,” he stated in the same message.
However, asked by the French Catholic TV station KTO about the risks of a shift towards paganism as a result of the Church’s ecological concerns, he replied: “What we call paganism, I would put under the heading of the ‘culture of peoples.’ […] Every culture is called upon to be evangelized, there are positive things to keep and negative things.” He made no clear mention of the boundaries between the two.
Catholic Identity and Education
Cardinal Ambongo has expressed a keen wish to preserve a strong Catholic identity, but does not seem to believe that all should become Catholic.
In an interview with Vatican News in October 2020 about Catholic education, he said: “We will hold on to our Catholic identity. But that does not mean we do not want others. We are Catholics and we want to be Catholics. Let Protestants be Protestants and Muslims be Muslims. We are going to work with them. But everyone has to keep their own identity. It’s a question of knowing what we want. Either we are Catholics, or we are not. And, if we are Catholics, we must also educate in accordance with the values that Catholics believe in. It’s a question of responsibility towards our students’ parents. It would be unacceptable and irresponsible on our part for a parent to send their child to us and for that child to take away values that are not Catholic.”
In particular, during this interview he insisted that teachers in Catholic primary schools must be of the Catholic faith, in view of the fact that they teach all subjects including catechism. He explains: “I don’t know who would accept a religion class in the Catholic Church being taught by a Muslim, for example.”
During a Mass celebrated for the intentions of catechists from Kinshasa and Kisantu in May 2022, he quoted at length from Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter Antiquum Ministerium instituting a “lay ministry” for catechists. He stated that a bishop is the first catechist in his diocese, while associating men and women of profound faith and human maturity with his ministry. “Your commitment is noble, and even indispensable to ecclesial life,” he said.
“Every catechist is at once a witness to the faith, a teacher and a mystagogue, a companion and a teacher who instructs in the name of the Church,” he added: “Pope Francis has therefore rightly instituted the lay ministry of catechist, which has a strong vocational value.”
Mission
Without calling into question the duty of Catholics to be missionaries, in a KTO interview in 2018, Cardinal Ambongo said the role of the Church is to “lead all men and women to their final beatitude, regardless of culture or religious denomination.” He added: “In the midst of these people there is a category that we call the baptized,” which seems to imply that baptism is unnecessary for salvation.
However, as soon as he became archbishop, he repeatedly called for mission in his diocese, whether it be by priests, religious or lay people. He told KTO in 2019 that everyone, especially priests, should, in the words of Pope Francis, “go to the peripheries.”
Inculturation
While Cardinal Ambongo affirms “Catholic identity,” he insists it should be subject to cultural variations, raising questions about his understanding of the universality of the Church:
“The Church of tomorrow will be Catholic, it will be universal but it will take into account the particularity of each people and each country,” he has said. Cardinal Ambongo places particular emphasis on the dignity of each person’s culture. In particular, he has declared he is “very sensitive to respect for everyone’s culture.”
“We can no longer say that such and such a culture is superior, that such and such a culture is lagging behind,” he commented in the same interview. He sees inculturation of the faith as necessary: “Each culture must appropriate the Gospel in its own way.” Speaking of the Congo, he added: “The Christianity that was brought to us was Belgian Christianity, as it was lived in Flanders. It had nothing to do with our culture.”
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo is seen as a fitting heir to Cardinal Joseph Malula, who was also active on the political front and who instigated the “Zairian rite,” a special version of the Roman rite for Congo and a step towards the Africanisation of Catholicism in Africa. Malula made inculturation one of the priorities of his ministry.
For his part, Cardinal Ambongo announced the publication of an “inculturated catechesis” for the Congo, by preparing pastoral documents on the subject, as well as a “catechism on marriage,” as he told Vatican News in 2020. In a 2023 homily, he stressed that the Catholic Church’s doctrine will never change, in particular regarding marriage.
On the 34th anniversary of Cardinal Joseph-Albert Malula’s death on June 6, 2023, Cardinal Ambongo posted the following message on X: “On this occasion, I pray that the Lord may flood our hearts with the charity and the double passion for the Church and for the nation that illustrated [Cardinal Malula’s] socio-pastoral activity in view of the advent of a synodal Church.”
Relationship to Tradition
Cardinal Ambongo has spoken bluntly about the “disappearance of the West” because “it is losing its own roots” but seems unsure of its causes. He told KTO in early 2024:
“The roots of the West are precisely the values that were brought to us by the West during colonization, and we believed in these values. But today we see that in the West these values no longer exist, and that is somewhat baffling. We ask ourselves: ‘Where is the West going at this pace?’ We get the impression that the West is no longer prepared to assume its own culture. Everything is relativized, everything is called into question.”
Cardinal Ambongo makes a clear distinction between the “young churches” and the “old churches” and believes opposition to Francis comes primarily from within “the old churches, such as in the USA, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc.” In Africa, he told KTO in October 2019, “there is not so much opposition because we are a very young church.”
He sees the Church as a cultural reality and calls Africa, in Benedict XVI’s words, the “spiritual lung of humanity.”
He told the Belgian publication Cathobel in April 2024 that spiritually Africa has “a lot to contribute.” He said:
“It is the continent, along with Asia, where human beings conceive of their existence as being in relationship with a Higher Being. The reality of God counts for the continent, and the behavior of the men and women who live there is inspired by it. This is somewhat the opposite of what we see today in the West, where we have the impression that man has acquired his independence and no longer needs a Supreme Being. He has made his own law, and I believe that, in this respect, Africa has something to contribute.”
Priestly Celibacy
Cardinal Ambongo has been resolute in upholding the priestly celibacy rule. On April 5, 2022, he organized a meeting with all the Catholic priests of Kinshasa to “clarify” to what extent priestly celibacy was not being respected.
He later told KTO in a 2022 interview that it was “as if the discipline of celibacy had been relativized,” and he insisted that the Congolese bishops be able to verify that “many priests” live a life of priestly celibacy. The document published after the meeting was careful to first celebrate these priests.
According to one of the participants who later spoke to the Belgian website 7sur7 under condition of anonymity, Cardinal Ambongo stated: “The Church puts responsible paternity first and the cardinal reminded us of this principle. Every priest is free to ask permission to look after his children, if he has any. He will be a layperson [laicized].”
Ambongo told KTO that a child’s right to his or her father comes before priesthood: “Between the Church’s right to retain its priest and the child’s right to have a father, the choice is very clear,” he said, the implication being that, as a pastor, he wished to give priority to the family.
Prior to the April meeting, the Bishops’ Conference of Congo (CENGO) had sent out a message to priests during their ordinary plenary assembly, reminding them that they had “committed to remaining chaste and celibate for the Kingdom at their diaconal ordination.”
In his KTO interview, he said seminarians should be given a clear vision of what celibacy means, and choose it in all freedom: “But if you do, you must live in coherence with your free decision.”
Women Priests and Deacons
Although Cardinal Ambongo has not gone on record in favor of women priests, he has said the Church in Africa has “no particular difficulty” with the prospect of studying a women’s diaconate.
Speaking to reporters October 22, 2024 during the Synod on Synodality, he said that he felt that the subject should be explored in greater depth.
German Synodal Way
During his 2022 interview with KTO, the Cardinal was asked about the German Synodal Way which favored the ordination of women as priests and other dissenting novelties. He did not strongly condemn the Synodal Way but expressed surprise that it had taken place at a “national” level when synodality is a matter for the “universal Church.”
Contraception and Abortion
In a video-message to the young people of Congo for Doctors Without Frontiers, Cardinal Ambongo called on them to be aware of AIDS, to be tested for the disease “after an unfortunate relationship,” and to ask an appropriate medical center for help. He mentioned neither fidelity nor abstinence.
He said the Church in Congo was “open” to the beatification of King Baudouin of Belgium who reigned from 1951 to 1993 and who was well known for having temporarily stepped down so as not to sign a pro-abortion law. Ambongo’s comments surprised some since, although King Baudoin was seen as a unifying force in his home country, he was regarded as a cause of destabilization and colonialism elsewhere, especially in Africa.
Homosexuality and “Fiducia Supplicans”
Cardinal Ambongo openly declares homosexuality is a “deviation,” as taught by the Bible, and that it is “not in conformity with the will of God” — comments he made in a January 2024 interview about the rejection by African bishops of the blessing of homosexuals as couples provided for by Fiducia Supplicans.
In the same interview, he explained that “homosexuality is not legalized in Africa. That’s what really shocked me. How can you bless things that are legally forbidden?” He also spoke of the “decadence” of the West and blamed the UN for imposing its LGBT ideology through UNICEF and WHO, speaking of its “culture,” however, rather than errors.
The publication of Fiducia Supplicans by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of the Holy Father, provoked an outcry in Africa, including within the episcopate.
As president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) and a member of the Pope’s Council of Cardinals (C9), Cardinal Ambongo was the intermediary between the African episcopate and the Sovereign Pontiff , and it was Ambongo who published a statement recalling that the “doctrine on marriage and sexuality remain unchanged.”
“Bishops’ conferences in Africa, who have strongly affirmed their communion with Pope Francis, consider extra-liturgical benedictions offered by Fiducia Supplicans will not be able to be given in Africa without giving rise to scandal,” the statement read.
Following negotiations with the Holy Father and DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, he managed to obtain Rome’s approval so that the blessing of “irregular” couples could not take place in Africa.
While his stance is based on a cultural argument, he did reaffirm the traditional position of the Catholic Church on the subject, quoting relevant passages from the Old and from the New Testament. “Unions of persons of the same sex are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil,” read the statement he signed in the name of SECAM.
In the statement written on behalf of Africa’s bishops, he defended the importance of acting in obedience and in dialogue with Rome, but he criticized the Pope for the “lack of synodality in the way the text was published” and for imposing it on the universal Church without consultation, disregarding the sensitivities and cultures that make it up.
Asked two months before Fiducia Supplicans if he would accept a synod outcome that expressed support for the blessing of same-sex unions as the will of God, Ambongo demurred, explaining that he did not want to express his own opinion on such issues because “the Lord himself through collective discernment will tell us” what direction the Church needs to take. Somewhat credulously, he said “no one has come here with his or her own agenda,” adding: “We are all brothers and sisters listening to the will of God for his Church.”
Defense of the Family
Cardinal Ambongo stresses the importance of the family as “the basic unit of humanity,” as he told a meeting organized in the suburbs of Kinshasa in January 2024, shortly after his statement on Fiducia Supplicans. Through his opposition to Fiducia Supplicans, he also wished to defend a traditional conception of the couple and therefore of the family.
Polygamy
During the Synod on Synodality, African delegates, including Cardinal Ambongo, wanted to address polygamy — an issue specific to Africa — through a new document. According to a report by The Pillar, Ambongo told participants at the 2024 assembly of the Synod on Synodality that the synod’s final document would offer “a comprehensive answer” to the question.
“What is the most appropriate form of pastoral care to support people in polygamous relationships?” Ambongo asked the Synod. He pointed out that as well as traditional polygamy, Africa was “witnessing the emergence of new forms of polygamy through new forms of cohabitation involving children recognized as legitimate.”
“Affirming the doctrinal elements is not enough,” he said. “Pastoral accompaniment for polygamists is urgently needed.” A draft document is expected to be presented to SECAM’s plenary assembly in July 2025, and will cover issues regarding both Catholics who fall into polygamy and people living in polygamy who convert to the Catholic faith.
Immigration and Fratelli Tutti
Although he has not spoken out against immigration, Cardinal Ambongo, like most African bishops, seems more concerned about emigration, which he says is draining the lifeblood of African countries.. He was present at the 38th Meeting for Peace, organized by the Sant’Egidio community and held in Paris from 22-24 September 2024. The annual meeting, which has its roots in the 1986 Assisi meeting of world religions, was held in the church of Saint-Séverin in Paris, during which Cardinal Ambongo gave a meditation on peace, “the very heart of the Gospel.”
Islam
The Democratic Republic of Congo does not have a high percentage of Muslims among its population. Nevertheless, there are tensions with certain armed groups in some parts of the country. On this subject, Cardinal Ambongo stated that a distinction should be made between moderate and fundamentalist Islam: “Muslims who are with us, for example in Kinshasa, who work with us, who collaborate with us, who also work for the development of the country. These are not the problem.”
Laudato Si’ and Ecology
Although he has never given a precise and detailed opinion on Laudato Si’, Cardinal Ambongo has a close affinity with Pope Francis when it comes to safeguarding the environment.
He is the former President of SECAM’s Commission for Environmental Resources, and has, for example, slammed the voracity of mining companies in eastern Congo. This clearly reflects the concerns of Laudato Si’ regarding the exploitation of natural resources and the social and environmental impact of such activities.
In his homilies, he often addresses the need for peace and social justice, central themes in Laudato Si’, but in Cardinal Ambongo’s preaching, it is often social justice that takes first place. In 2019, the cardinal was the patron of a Laudato Si’ conference held by the Centre Missionnaire Laudato Si’ in Kinshasa that focused on “Pastoral Care and Ecological Citizenship.”
Cardinal Ambongo has called the climate crisis “a lived reality for people across Africa” and “a moral outrage, a tragic and striking example of structural sin facilitated by callous indifference and selfish greed,” and has called on world leaders to “heed to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth.”
- 1Congo’s public prosecutor accused Ambongo of having failed to encourage the Congolese army in its fight in the eastern part of the country.
