The Catholic Mass in Burkina Faso

Most people in Burkina will say that the religious make-up is 50% Muslim, 50% Christian and 100% Animist (local traditional beliefs). Majority of the Christians here practice Catholicism, though there are also Protestant and Evangelical churches here, too.

Born, raised and confirmed Catholic, I was pleased to be placed in a Catholic host family, though I would've been happy to learn different cultural values in any host family. But, I have never felt like such a bad Catholic. My host brother and mom cross themselves every time before they eat. They know I'm Catholic, so I'm honestly surprised that they haven't stopped me each time I hungrily dive into my breakfast or dinner. Pray or not, they're going to make me serve myself first anyway. I've been with them for 8 weeks now, and it amazes me how I start to eat and then see my host dad pray to himself and I'm like DANGIT I forgot again. I'm an American volunteer in West Africa…I think God will forgive me. Hmmm…I haven't yet written about the Catholic Mass in Burkina, but I've totally been meaning to! It is absolutely beautiful, and hot and sweaty and claustrophobic and super long, but beautiful nevertheless!!

Me and my host mom at church!

French Mass

The first time I went to mass was my second weekend with my host family; the first weekend I was oblivious to the fact that the French mass was Saturday evening and I was hanging out with friends at the pool at the local hotel…such an oasis…but such a bad Catholic. Anyway, I went the next Saturday evening with my host brother, his cousin and my friend Meghan. We got there early and sat on the bench. I would not even call it a pew, it's just a hard wooden bench with minimal leg room and no back. The altar is setup like any other Catholic church's alter, with a cross, altar, tabernacle, priest's chair, etc. There's a beautiful mural on the wall with angels looking down over the congregation. I was absolutely shocked when I saw the sound system setup: they have large speakers, multiple microphones; they also have a keyboard and drum set for music. There are definitely some wealthier people who live in Léo, but it's also possible that they sound system was a donation from Europe. Who knows!

Catholic Church, Léo, Burkina Faso

People started to file in to sit down and to my horror I realized that I sat on the wrong side of the church…my friend Meghan and I were surrounded by men as we watched all of the women file into the right side of the church. My host brother just smiled back so I just told myself I'm going to stand out as the bright white nasara no matter where I sit, so I might as well stay. Well, good thing we stayed because the priest's homily was about the need for a change in family dynamics. Rough French translation: "How can you talk about empowerment of women and gender equity, and then sit on opposite sides of the church? It's stupid!" His statement caused a lot of nervous laughter, but his point was absolutely valid. People won't listen to the foreigner say that, but someone respected like a priest? Absolutely.    

The beautiful thing about the Catholic mass is that the order is EXACTLY the same throughout the world. It's my little piece of home in Burkina Faso. Well, I don't understand the mumbled French half of the time, but I catch names and phrases during the readings, which jar my memory enough that I can follow along. "May the grace of God be with you always…et avec votre esprit." The greetings and congregational responses are exactly the same. "Et avec votre esprit" directly translates to "And with your spirit." They say the penitential prayer, they sing the Nicene creed, the sing the Our Father, etc. The worst part is that I'm absolutely 100% lost during every single song because I can't catch a word they're singing. Okay, not every song. I sing as loud as I possibly can during the Hallelujah because that is the only universal word I can catch! It's beautiful though because the songs have African influence in the beat and execution and it's SO COOL. Women sway their hips and wave their arms, men and women clap their hands, sometimes a couple women will do their yodel scream thingy of which I don't know the name, and every single verse is sung…always. In the US, it's usually only a couple of verses so that the mass' duration doesn't exceed one hour.

During the offering, anyone who can make a donation walks to the front to drop in a coin. Well, that's one way to do it. Up until here, every mass I've been to utilizes ushers to go up and down the aisles to collect the money in baskets. Nope, if you don't make a donation here, it's obvious. Well, it's obvious if you're "le blanc" (the white). Thank goodness I had small coins. Meaghan and I followed my host brother up to the front and I had to let go the number of eyes watching me. Yes, it's a spectacle that there's a white person here, but haven't you ever heard that staring is rude? Probably not because people stare all the time. I'm just so glad that I had coins.

When it was time to receive the Eucharist, my host brother leaned over to ask if I was going to go up and I said, "yes, I'm Catholic." In the Catholic church, you're only supposed to receive the Eucharist (body of Christ) if you're not in a state of sin, to put it simply. So, really a majority of people, including myself if we're being honest, should not be taking the Eucharist because they haven't been to confession since breaking one of the Ten Commandments, or since performing other unholy things. One of these things includes not receiving the formation to take the Eucharist. Most baptized children take their first Eucharist in second grade in the US, and adults usually receive the sacraments of baptism and communion at the same time when they convert. Anyway, we saw a Peace Corps friend walk up with his host family and take the Eucharist. He's Jewish. It's fine. Meaghan and I thought it was funny. It's not like lightning is going to strike down on him. There's a language, cultural and religious barrier here for a lot of us, so it's completely understandable that he had no idea he wasn't supposed to receive the communion.

The mass ended up taking about 90 minutes, which isn't bad at all. But, it started raining at the end of the service, so I walked back home in the dark with my host brother and to my host mom's horror, Meaghan rode her bike home in the mini storm. She asked about 3 times if Meaghan had made it home safe, yet. Our host parents are so concerned with our safety here. It's frustrating at times to be treated like a child, but comforting to know they're just as concerned with out safety as Peace Corps requires.

Stone benches act as overflow seating, or seating for mothers and fussy infants, outside the church.

La Grotte de Vierge Marie - The Cave of Virgin Mary
Before people go in the church, they often bow and/or cross themselves in front of the Virgin Mary

Summer Mass

During the summer, the French and Mooré masses are combined since a lot of the priests travel to Europe for formation. So, lately I've been going to the 7:30am mass with my host mom and brother. Well, not only do I still not understand the songs, I don't understand the half of the mass that's in Mooré. Probably the most unbearable part is once the end of the second hour hits and I'm sweaty and thirsty and antsy from sitting in the same spot and they read 10-15 minutes of weekly announcements in French. Then they read them in Mooré. Oh, then they also read them in Léo's local language, Nuni. Holy moly. But, ever since I've started local language classes, I've been able to pick up some of the words, though I can't comprehend the context.

After mass, everyone walks around to greet and socialize with each other.

Who knows what the Catholic Church at my site will be like!