Dependency and Power in Catholic Charities in Africa: Towards a Trinitarian Ethic for Decolonizing Faith-Based Aid

Abstract

This essay argues that Catholic international development in Africa must move from asymmetrical charity toward a Trinitarian framework of partnership grounded in participation, reciprocity, and mutual gift exchange. Drawing on postcolonial theory, liberation theology, Catholic social teaching, mission history, and theological accounts of power in Augustine, it contends that the ethical renewal of Catholic aid requires a reconfiguration of relational power rather than merely improved accountability or managerial efficiency. The essay first traces the historical architecture of dependency within missionary modernity, highlighting the continuity between nineteenth century mission finance and the contemporary reliance of many African ecclesial institutions on external funding. It then situates Catholic charitable practice within the broader global development regime shaped by modernization paradigms and managerial governance, which often reproduce vertical relationships in which agenda setting and evaluative authority remain concentrated in the Global North. Through a critical analysis of four predominant models of faith-based aid in Africa, the Savior Model, the Hierarchical Model, the Benevolent Interventionist Model, and the Participatory Partnership Model, the essay exposes persistent asymmetries of power. As a constructive alternative, it proposes a Trinitarian ethic of partnership rooted in perichoretic communion, co-responsibility, assets-based over needs-based approaches and synodal discernment as a path toward decolonizing faith-based aid and fostering integral human and cosmic flourishing.