VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While no one expects cardinals to vote as geographical blocs for a new pope, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, president of the African bishops’ council, and the presidents of other regional conferences have connections and knowledge that many of their confreres do not.
They were elected to coordinate the pastoral work and be the public voice of the bishops of their regions and to represent the dioceses of their continent to the Vatican.
Congolese Cardinal Ambongo, the 65-year-old archbishop of Kinshasa, did that most publicly after Pope Francis approved a document allowing priests to offer blessings to persons in same-sex relationships as long as it does not give the impression that the church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage.
After the document, “Fiducia Supplicans” (“Supplicating Trust”), was published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in late 2023, Cardinal Ambongo, president of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar, or SECAM, surveyed the continent’s bishops and used the results to convince Pope Francis that African bishops could forbid their priests from offering the blessings.
A participant at the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops on synodality in 2023 and 2024, Cardinal Ambongo brought the concerns and viewpoints of his people to the global gathering.
“There are a lot of people who believe that this synod will bring solutions to all problems,” the cardinal told reporters during the first assembly in October 2023. But that is not the point, he said. “The synod will define the new way of ‘doing’ church, the new way of approaching problems, what the problem is but also how in the spirit of synodality we will approach that problem.”
The cardinal said before he left home for the synod, many people from across Africa asked him to bring solutions back with him for the problems that affect the continent, namely poverty and conflicts.
The cardinal said he was confident the synod will “bear good fruits” for the whole of the church and that he was struck by the joy, trust, enthusiasm and hope present among the synod participants.
When Pope Francis died, Cardinal Ambongo, who had hosted a visit by the pope in 2023, issued a statement saying the late pope had been “more than a shepherd to the universal church; he has been a profound source of inspiration, particularly for us in Africa. His unwavering commitment to social justice, peace, and the dignity of every human being resonated deeply with our continent’s struggles and aspirations.”
When visiting Africa, he said, Pope Francis took the time “to understand our realities, listen to our stories and amplify our voices on the global stage.”
Exploitation of people and of the earth are a big part of that reality, especially in Congo where violence has plagued the nation for three decades.
Speaking at a conference in Rome in October, Cardinal Ambongo said, “Many people suffer and die because of the exploitation of mineral resources in Africa. The extraction and transport of these minerals dispossess and displace families from their lands.”
In addition to the pollution and contamination of water and soil, he said, “the death toll from the exploitation of blood minerals is very heavy in Africa” because the extraction of minerals “gives rise to armed conflicts in several African regions.”
Cardinal Ambongo told his audience that in the past 30 years in Congo, “the war has caused more than 8 million deaths and 7 million displaced people. There are currently more than 100 armed groups sowing terror. Therefore, living in regions rich in mineral resources is fraught with great dangers: conflict, expropriation, respiratory diseases, illiteracy, etc.”
Born into a rubber tapper’s family in Boto Jan. 24, 1960, Cardinal Ambongo entered the Capuchin order and took his final vows in 1987. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1988 after studying moral theology at Rome’s Pontifical Alphonsian Academy. He taught at Kinshasa’s Catholic university and became superior of the Capuchins’ Congolese province.
In 2004, he was appointed bishop of Bokungu-Ikela and apostolic administrator of Kole, becoming archbishop of Mbandaka-Bikoro in November 2016.
In June 2017, he was elected vice president of the Congolese bishops’ conference and, as such, took a leading position in the search for a peaceful solution to the ongoing political crisis in the country, which was devastated by a conflict that displaced thousands of people fleeing violence.
He co-chaired the dialogue that, with the signing of the St. Sylvester Accords, led to new elections in late 2018.
Pope Francis named him coadjutor archbishop of the capital, Kinshasa, in May 2018 and he became archbishop that November.
In 2019, Pope Francis named him to the College of Cardinals and the next year appointed him to the international Council of Cardinals that advised him on matters of church governance.
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