We have, in some ways, lost our faith, he declared. “The statistics prove it… When I witness communities of people reacting to faith as a group in places like South Korea, Africa, and portions of Central or Latin America, it gives me hope. Since I don’t believe that faith can be developed one person at a time, it presents me with a challenge to return to the United States and establish that community first. It must be constructed with a sense of community.

Dolan traveled with Fritz Zuger, a consultant for the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa, to see the initiatives the USCCB is funding in collaboration with different Catholic bishops’ conferences in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda, three countries that are members of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa. He attributed a natural religiosity among the people of God on the continent of Africa to the quick expansion of Christianity.

In an interview with ACI Africa on August 20 in Nairobi, Fritz said of Africans, “They knew communion even before Christianity came and they have maintained this relationship.”

He claimed that Africans are largely reliant on nature for their livelihood.

“Christianity is growing rapidly in Africa as a result of the people’s innate religiosity. They already have institutions that enable them to be receptive to God, according to Zuger.

In terms of the arrival of Christianity, he said, the Church in Africa is not a young institution.