John Paul II affirmed African cultural and religious values in 1994.

Evidence

Although Africa is very rich in natural resources, it remains economically poor. At the same time, it is endowed with a wealth of cultural values and priceless human qualities which it can offer to the Churches and to humanity as a whole … They are values which can contribute to an effective reversal of the Continent’s dramatic situation and facilitate that worldwide revival on which the desired development of individual nations depends. Africans have a profound religious sense, a sense of the sacred, of the existence of God the Creator and of a spiritual world. The reality of sin in its individual and social forms is very much present in the consciousness of these peoples, as is also the need for rites of purification and expiation. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 702

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Provides official Catholic recognition of the moral and religious capacity the chapter defends; useful counterweight to colonial prejudice.

Related

• African religion permeates every department of life and cannot be isolated (similarity 0.80)
• Africans’ religious nature is affirmed by religionists and disputed by empiricists (similarity 0.80)
• African philosophy must grow from indigenous cultural resources to enrich humanity. (similarity 0.78)