Pope Francis’ trip to the African continent is a reminder that the Church is alive and vibrant around the world. This is witnessed in the wonderful reception that our Holy Father has received in his Apostolic Visit.

Cardinal George Pell of the Prefecture for the Economy in the Vatican called this age the “return of the great African theologians,” praising, among others, the work of Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect for the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, whose new book, “God or Nothing,” is a modern masterpiece.

Cardinal Sarah states that he wrote the book because “God is disappearing from society, from culture, from the economy, no one is interested in God.”

The cardinal said “God exists, that God is our life,” and, without God, “we are nothing. Without God man doesn’t know where he is, where he is going and therefore it’s a testimony of faith. Without God we are lost.”

The Church in Africa and its leaders are truly examples of faithful, affirmative orthodoxy in our Catholic Church and we are blessed by its presence. Aware of the unique cultural milieu in which the African people live, they are uniquely African and uniquely Catholic.

We can learn much from the African Church and we pray that some of that infectious fidelity to the Church and her teachings will be examples to Catholics around the globe.