Catholic Church helps fill a growing void in Africa

From The New York Times (via the Post-Gazette)

The young woman slept soundly on the church's cool marble floor before the altar, a break from the chaos at home. In the courtyard, neighborhood teenagers filled giant gasoline cans with purified water from a stone fountain. In an aisle, a rail-thin young woman from a nearby slum said she had not eaten since the day before but was expecting sustenance at the church.

Behind its high spiked iron gates in this frenetic megalopolis of anywhere between 11 million and 21 million, the church of Christ the King is protector, feeder and healer.

In the 6 a.m. darkness, this working-class church is already filled with parishioners in shirt-sleeves and T-shirts, a pool of hymn-singing light in a blacked-out neighborhood. Six Masses are celebrated each Sunday for up to 10,000 people, and 102 people were baptized Feb. 16. The parish priest, the Rev. Ikenna Ikechi, dreams of building a multistory community center to accommodate his growing flock. "Our only limitation is space," he said.


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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/world/catholic-church-helps-fill-a-growing-void-in-africa-676650/#ixzz2LofZyBBB