By Nco Dube | 13 March 2026

There is a reported controversy brewing in the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Durban, but it is being deliberately misnamed. What is being sold as a cultural crisis is, in truth, a crisis of discipline, authority, and theological honesty. Two popular priests who practise ubungoma have been removed from parish leadership and placed on apparent involuntary sabbaticals, and the reaction from sections of the laity has been swift, emotional, and intellectually evasive.

This is not about African culture. It is about whether the Catholic Church is still allowed to mean what it says.

I write as someone who was born and raised in the Catholic Church, educated within it, and formed by its liturgy and moral language. I also grew up in a home where ancestral practices shaped our sense of family and continuity. I practise neither today. I am agnostic. But I remain culturally Catholic and unambiguously African. That distance allows me to see what many inside the argument refuse to confront.

The outrage currently being staged is not principled. It is sentimental.

The immediate trigger was the leak of a letter detailing an apparent routine reshuffling of priests, assistant priests, and deacons in the Archdiocese of Durban. Two names were conspicuously absent from parish placements: Fr Thembelani Ngcobo of Sacred Heart Parish in Montclair and Fr Sifiso Ndlovu of The Immaculate Conception Church in Pinetown. Both priests practise traditional healing. Both are popular. Both have now been placed on sabbatical.

Their supporters insist this is punishment. They insist it is victimisation. They insist it is cultural persecution.

But popularity is not a sacrament, and cultural fluency, while welcome is not a licence to rewrite doctrine.

Fr Ngcobo’s social media following grew during the Covid‑19 lockdowns, when his livestreamed homilies offered comfort to many. His liturgies incorporated African rhythms into Catholic hymns, departing from the restrained musical tradition of Catholic worship. Fr Ndlovu is admired for his oratory and his ability to connect Scripture to contemporary social challenges. None of this is in dispute. What is being avoided is the harder question: when does personal charisma become theological confusion?

To answer that, one must return to September 2025. A pastoral letter on syncretism was issued and signed by Archbishop of Durban Siegfried Jwara, retired Cardinal Wilfrid Napier, and six other bishops of KwaZulu‑Natal. The letter condemned the participation of some Catholic faithful in ancestral rituals and the consultation of traditional healers. It triggered fury. It was immediately framed as an attack on African identity. Some even floated the idea of a breakaway church.

That reaction was reckless then, and it remains reckless now.

In October 2025, Archbishop Jwara issued a clarification. It has been selectively ignored because it collapses the preferred narrative.

The Archbishop stated plainly that the Church is not opposed to ancestral veneration. Africans do not worship ancestors. They honour and seek guidance from departed family members who lived virtuous lives. This is not alien to Catholic theology. Anyone who understands the veneration of saints understands the logic at work.

The bishops’ concern was not culture. It was priesthood.

Archbishop Jwara made it clear that the pastoral letter was directed at priests who mix traditional healing practices, particularly ubungoma, with Catholic liturgy and parish ministry. This, he argued, creates confusion among the faithful and undermines the integrity of the Church’s worship.

This is where the argument becomes uncomfortable, and where emotional blackmail replaces reason.

A Catholic priest is not a cultural experiment. Through ordination, he is configured to Christ and acts in the person of Christ. His public ministry is not his own. He cannot perform sacramental duties in Christ’s name while simultaneously representing ancestral spiritual authority. A representative of Christ in the Catholic context cannot serve two masters. This is not colonial residue. It is foundational Catholic theology.

The Church has never claimed jurisdiction over what people do in their homes. Families may practise ancestral rituals privately. That is not the issue. The issue is what happens in the sanctuary, and who is authorised to stand at the altar.

Archbishop Jwara reminded the faithful that the Church does not condemn culture, but seeks its purification through prayer. Culture is not sacred by default. It is morally mixed, historically layered, and spiritually complex. The Church’s task is discernment, not applause.

What we are witnessing now is clerical populism dressed up as cultural resistance. Priests are being defended not because their actions are theologically coherent, but because they are liked. Because they feel authentic. Because they speak the language of the people. But the Catholic Church is not a popularity contest, and priesthood is not validated by social media followings or emotional attachment.

As someone who no longer practises either Catholicism or ancestral rites, I find it intellectually dishonest to frame this as a choice between being African and being Catholic. That framing insults both traditions. The Catholic Church in Africa has practised inculturation for generations. It has absorbed language, music, symbols, and communal sensibilities. But inculturation has limits, especially when it comes to the sacraments and ordained ministry.

Ancestral veneration may be meaningful. It may be sacred. But it is not Catholic liturgy. And Catholic priests, bound by vows and accountable to their bishops, do not get to decide otherwise.

This controversy is not about silencing African spirituality. It is about whether the Church is still allowed to be intelligible to itself.

The Church has drawn a line. It has explained why. One may disagree. One may walk away. But pretending this is cultural persecution is a refusal to engage honestly with the question being asked.

The issue is not culture. It is authority, coherence, and identity. And the Church has been clear about which identity its priests are called to serve.

(Dube is a noted Political Economist, Businessperson, and Social Commentator whose insights are regularly featured on Ukhozi FM and in various newspapers. For further reading and perspectives, visit: http://www.ncodube.blog)