Church and Carnival: inculturation to evangelisation

By Bryan Matadeen

After my reflecting and journeying on the relationship between Church and Carnival, I found my outlook to be refined but not completely changed.

Previously, I was quite dismissive of Carnival overall. Carnival, when viewed in its proper place, is not inherently bad or something to be completely condemned. It has its historical significance and is the culture of the people. Thus, it is good when Carnival in its qualities is appropriately and positively expressed.

Carnival, being the culture of the people, can serve to unify the people who identify and participate in it as it presents opportunities for socialisation and genuinely positive entertainment. Furthermore, Carnival presents the opportunity for the showcasing of various talents and gifts associated with the visual and performing arts.

However, we cannot be naive that negative expressions of Carnival can be toxic to our society as negatively expressed aspects of Carnival can serve to promote environments of irresponsibility, alcoholism and lust to name a few.

It is appropriate to say that each individual should exercise personal responsibility in the festivities of Carnival. I have participated and listened to various conversations on the topic of Church and Carnival: Carnival has its good, its bad, and people should exercise their personal responsibility.

However, I believe as a Church we are called to much more than simply challenging individuals to exercise personal responsibility. Certainly, condemning Carnival is not healthy nor the appropriate way to respond.

Pope Francis has a beautiful remark: “Faith must be inculturated and culture must be evangelized. The inculturation of faith, evangelization of culture — always.”

This remark was stressed by the Holy Father reflecting on Sts Cyril and Methodius who evangelised the Slavic people by translating the Bible to their native language.

Commenting on St Cyril, Pope Francis said, “Indeed, to proclaim the Gospel and to pray, one needed a proper, suitable, specific tool. So, he invented the Glagolitic alphabet. He translated the Bible and liturgical texts. People felt that the Christian faith was no longer ‘foreign,’ but rather it became their faith, spoken in their mother tongue.”

Similarly, this is what we are called to do as church, as the body of Christ, as believers in Christ, as salt of the earth and light of the world. We are called to the inculturation of faith and evangelisation of culture. We are called to meet people where they are with the intentionality to bear witness to the truth and love of Christ.

We are called to emulate and make use of the good of Carnival to promote healthy environments of socialisation and entertainment. In doing so, we are then making Carnival something that glorifies God and an expression of faith. Culture then becomes a tool of evangelisation and salvation. It is what we allow it to be.

The heart of Carnival presents beauty to culture. It is the beauty of the people. However, it can be toxic to society, and we are called to not be passive towards that reality. We are called to be companions to each other on the journey to holiness.