The Church in Africa faces challenges from Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism

The mornings of Everdine Gilla’s childhood were defined by the rhythmic murmur of beads and the scent of incense. Raised in a devout Catholic home by her grandmother, the day did not begin until the Rosary was prayed.

“It was routine,” Gilla recalls.

 “My grandmother would say, ‘Let’s pray the Rosary,’ and we would. I knew all the decades. I could say them in my sleep. But for me, it was just mechanical.”

Gilla believed in God, she believed in the power of the altar, where she would often weep with her Bible pressed to her chest, but the Rosary did not unlock the door for her.

“I didn’t know how to connect with it,” she admits. “I’m still learning it. But I realized I didn’t need the beads to have my prayers answered.”

From Catholicism to Pentecostalism—and back to the Catholic Church

Circumstances eventually led Gilla away from her grandmother’s home and into the fold of a Pentecostal group. It was there, in the living room of her aunt and the pews of the new congregation, that Gilla encountered a different kind of morning.

There were no Rosaries. Instead, there was singing, clapping, and something that terrified and thrilled her: the open Bible.

“In the Catholic Church, I was a lector,” Gilla recalls. “I would stand at the pulpit, read the first reading, read the second reading, sit down, and that was it. I would go home and forget what I read.”

But the Pentecostal approach was jarringly different. “We would sit down as a family after praise and worship, and we would share the Bible. Everyone had to read a verse and explain it in their own understanding.”

For the first time, Gilla wasn’t just reciting words; she was wrestling with them. She was forced to ask herself what the Scripture meant and how it applied to her life.

“My aunt made me understand that the Bible has to be part and parcel of me,” Gilla explains.

“It’s like reading a book for an exam. You have to understand it to interpret it. She taught me not to just run to the Rosary or use the Bible to cast out demons, but to let the scripture be a backup for my life.”

That period of her life, she says, “molded her.” It gave her a “deeper knowledge” of God that she hadn’t found in her routine Sunday attendance at the Catholic parish. She realized that being a Christian wasn’t just about showing up; it was about being attentive. It was about listening to the priest or pastor and interpreting the message in a way that could guide her daily existence.

Today, Gilla has returned to the Catholic Church. She is still a lector on Sundays, but she is no longer the same girl who once merely recited lines.

The Pentecostal experience gave her a spiritual sword. She describes the Bible now as a weapon, “a tool for spiritual warfare” that she carries internally.

For Gilla, the structure of the Catholic Church provided the home, but the fervor of the Pentecostal tradition provided the discipline.

The growth and challenge of Pentecostalism in Africa

She has returned to the Catholic Faith, but thousands like her, having experienced the fervor of Pentecostalism, may never return.

That alone tests the Catholic Church in Africa, a continent frequently described as the demographic future of Catholicism.

As of 2023, Africa accounted for 20% of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. The continent’s Catholic population that year surged to 281 million, up from 272 million in 2022. But it faces intense competition from Pentecostal and Evangelical denominations, and the allure of the “prosperity gospel” that the late Pope Francis famously criticized.

In 1970, Pentecostals represented just 5 percent of all Africans, but that figure has now more than doubled to an estimated 12 percent.

Many Catholic leaders have noted these groups aren’t always spreading the Gospel to non-Christians but are “sheep-stealing” from the Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations.

According to Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah of Nigeria’s Sokoto Diocese, Catholics cannot ignore the passion of the Pentecostals and the extent to which they have made the Gospel come alive.

Archbishop Bienvenu Manamika Bafouakouahou of Brazzaville recently issued a warning to Catholics regarding the allure of Pentecostalism, arguing that these groups disrupt the Faith by offering “quick fixes” to life’s challenges.

 In a 2023 interview with Fides News Agency, the archbishop described the tactics of so-called “revival churches” as a form of “spiritual guerrilla warfare” that aggressively targets the Catholic Church.

He noted that these communities are particularly effective at drawing in young people by exploiting poverty and promising miraculous solutions to urgent problems. By providing comforting, easy answers to difficult circumstances, said Manamika, these groups are causing a significant “hemorrhage” of the Catholic faithful.

These concerns are not new. In 2017, the Bishops’ Conference of Congo-Brazzaville acknowledged the “dizzying rise” of Pentecostal movements, expressing alarm that their methods were leaving many Catholics distraught and confused about their own religious identity.

The bishops warned that the authenticity of the Christian faith was being threatened by syncretic practices blending spiritualist movements, traditional secret societies, and other religions. They attributed this trend to a popular conception of a “God-solution”—the idea that God exists solely to provide immediate answers to life’s problems. Consequently, they called on the faithful to “resist the temptation to join any movement likely to compromise their faith,” explicitly warning against apostasy.

However, some Catholic researchers and clerics caution that ignoring Pentecostalism may be counterproductive. In a 2019 research paper titled “Roman Catholicism versus Pentecostalism: The nexus of fundamentalism and religious freedom in Africa,” a team of authors concluded that while the strategic demonstration of Pentecostalism’s growth might be difficult to measure accurately, its impact is undeniable.

“All Christian forms are growing in Africa, but Pentecostalism enjoys the fastest growth rate,” the authors wrote. They attributed this expansion to the movement’s “intensive evangelistic fervor and passion for mission,” noting that it has visibly reshaped the religious landscape of the continent.

Africans make up over 20% of Catholics worldwide

Despite the rise of Pentecostalism, Africa remains the Catholic Church’s final frontier, showing exponential growth even as populations decline in Europe and the United States. According to Vatican statistics, the global Catholic population reached 1.422 billion in 2024, with Africa accounting for 288 million faithful—an increase of 7 million from the previous year. Africans now make up 20.3% of the Church’s global total.

Given these figures, Father Johan Viljoen, Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute of the Southern African Bishops’ Conference, believes the Pope’s visit to the continent is timely and significant. “It firmly places the Church where it should be, which is on the side of the poorest of the poor,” he told CWR. “He’s visiting some of the poorest, but the most devout Catholic communities there are.”

Father Viljoen argued that the expansion of Pentecostalism does not threaten the Church’s vitality in Africa. He noted that Masses in countries like Mozambique, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are filled with young people, challenging the narrative that youth are leaving the faith in droves.

“Statistics are showing… that the Church is declining very fast in Europe, North America, and even Brazil, but in Africa it is growing, and it’s growing quite fast,” he said.

While acknowledging that some young people leave for Pentecostal congregations, Viljoen attributed this shift to a desire for material wealth rather than a lack of spiritual fulfillment in the Catholic Church.

“They want material prosperity. They want to get rich fast,” he asserted. He contrasted the “prosperity gospel”—which he described as self-centered—with the Catholic mission to serve humanity through Biblical truth: “Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, work for justice.”

Viljoen cautioned against the Church altering its message to compete with these preachers. “The Church shouldn’t adapt or change the message of the Gospel to make it more appealing,” he said.

Emphasizing that Christians must be willing to face “trials and tribulations” to be united with God, he concluded, “The Church shouldn’t change anything. It should just stick to the truth.”