Archbishop Cordileone: Christians in the West have lost ‘spiritual stamina’

(LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has said that Catholics in Africa serve as a role model to Christians in the West for their willingness to suffer martyrdom.

The archbishop of San Francisco visited Nigeria and consecrated 14 deacons for the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi on August 22. In his homily during the Holy Mass at the Sesugh Maria Pilgrimage Center, Cordileone thanked Nigerian Catholics for their great witness to Western Christians who he lamented have often become weak and complacent in their faith.

“I must admit to feeling humbled, even out of place, that I, as a Westerner, preach these words to you here,” the American archbishop said.

“Our roles should be reversed. For you are the ones who are laying down your lives for our Lord. Too many of your brothers and sisters are doing so literally with their blood,” he added.

He said the West needs Africa’s witness and “in particular, the witness of Nigeria.”

“We pray and we long for an end to the bloodshed and persecutions of our beloved brother and sister Catholics here in your country,” Cordileone stated, adding that, in the West, “physical comforts and conveniences in that culture of selfishness have softened our spiritual stamina.”

“But for those of us who do pay attention, the heroic sacrifice and suffering of your priests and people grieves us, but also inspires us. You suffer to the point of bloodshed, yet remain joyful in your Christian faith.”

“The irony is, though, that we need this witness in the West. The West is overtaken not with the persecution of blood and with arms, but an interior persecution marked by isolation, depression, loneliness, and anxiety,” Cordileone explained.

“In the United States, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people,” he observed.

He attributed the West’s challenges to excessive individualism and selfishness.

“It is love that makes communion possible, and that is what God designed us for,” he stated.

“Selfishness leads one to live opposite to the way God created us,” which in turn contributes to widespread anxiety and depression among people living in the West, the archbishop argued.

African Catholics also serve as an example for Westerners on family life and culture, he stated.

“We no longer understand these basic truths in the West, not even what it means to be a family born of the mutual self-giving love of husband and wife,” the prelate said.

He acknowledged that “powerful forces in the West” are trying to force their secularized “values” on the rest of the world and especially Africa.

“Thank you for resisting. I know the pressure is great, especially for national leaders on this continent,” Cordileone stated.

He told African Christians that Catholics in the West who remain steadfast in Church teaching and promote the dignity of every human being stand in solidarity with them.

“We stand with you, we are with you and support you, and you support us,” he stated.

Cordileone praised Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Makurdi Diocese for his continued work supporting persecuted Christian in Nigeria. He said the “shepherd and father” of the diocese “continues to be a voice for the persecuted, even to the point of great personal suffering, yet does not back down.”

“May God send His holy angels to protect the people of Nigeria,” the archbishop prayed. “May He soon grant peace and harmony to your homeland. May Nigeria emerge stronger and holier to be a light of faith, truth, and evangelization to the whole world.”