Pope Leo XIV Discovers #ThePentecostProject

FACT OR OPINION: #NoPoverty2030 is #MissionPossible  (John 14:14)

Africa includes 20% of the Catholics of the entire planet and is characterized by a highly dynamic spread of the Catholic Church. The number of Catholics increased from 272 million in 2022 to 281 million in 2023, with a relative variation of +3.31%. The Democratic Republic of Congo confirms its first-place position for the number of baptized Catholics, with almost 55 million, followed by Nigeria with 35 million; Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya also register significant figures.  Photo Clubs of Mozambique

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired

#ThePentecostProject April 14, 2026 (1516 days to June 9, 2030), Alkebulan -- Pope Leo XIV is the first pope of documented African descent to visit “The Birthplace of Humankind” while serving as pope.  His historic Apostolic Journey, a term used by the Roman Catholic Church, structures the “Holy Father’s” visit outside Vatican City for pastoral, diplomatic, and missionary purposes.  But, for the first U.S. born Bishop of Rome, this four-nation #LearningJourney may signal reality of the future church as well as the Global Village. “You must be born again.”

The Gospel truth about Alkebulan navigates a circular path from the words, “IN THE BEGINNING” to a modern-day, logical choice, “CHAOS OR COMMUNITY?”  Most modern scholars place the church’s beginning around AD 33, based on the timeline of Jesus’ life and ministry.  Before the church became the church, the Romans used “Africa” to name their first North African province, Africa Proconsularis, after defeating Carthage in 146 BCE. At that time, Rome was pagan; the Catholic Church and the papacy did not yet exist in an institutional sense.

Ancestral Intelligence (AI) has not yet confirmed the existence of a pope who is clearly documented as “Black” in the modern racial sense. The pope most often referred to as the first Black pope is Pope Victor I (reigned c. 189–199 CE), because he was African-born, making him the first African pope in history.  But, Pope Leo’s footsteps among the ruins of Hippo Regius will ultimately rediscover his spiritual father, Saint Augustine of Hippo if not the reality of #Pentecost in the Holy Spirit of #BlackJesus.

Good morning! As-salamu alaykum!

#ThePentecostProject, in the spirit of the Free African Society, is a Spirit-led, community-rooted movement of self-determination, mutual care, moral formation, and public witness—organized by the people most affected, not imposed from above.

1. The Free African Society (1793): the spiritual DNA

The Free African Society (FAS)—founded by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones in Philadelphia—was:

·         Voluntary: free Black people organizing themselves

·         Mutual-aid centered: care for the sick, burial of the dead, aid for widows and orphans

·         Spiritually grounded: Christian faith expressed through action

·         Self-governing: refusal to be controlled by institutions that demeaned Black dignity

·         Publicly accountable: moral authority rooted in service during crisis (e.g., the 1793 Yellow Fever epidemic)

 

Key principle:  Faith becomes credible when oppressed people organize their own care, voice, and witness. This is the lens through which to read #ThePentecostProject.

 

2. Pentecost (Acts 2): the theological parallel

Pentecost is not hierarchy descending—it is community ignited:

·         The Spirit falls on ordinary people

·         Many languages are spoken without being erased

·         Authority comes from witness, not office

·         The result is sharing, care, and common life

In Acts 2:42–47, the marks of Spirit-filled life mirror the FAS:

·         Mutual aid

·         Shared resources

·         Public trust

·         Growth rooted in justice and joy

 

3. What #ThePentecostProject means in this spirit

Seen through the Free African Society, #ThePentecostProject is not a campaign; it is a method of liberation by communion.

A. Community-first, not institution-first

Like the FAS, this Pentecost vision:

·         Begins with people organizing themselves

·         Honors lived experience as theological data

·         Treats mutual care as sacred work

·         Pentecost is measured by whether people eat, heal, bury, teach, and protect one another.

B. Self-determination with spiritual legitimacy

The FAS did not ask permission to exist.

Likewise, #ThePentecostProject (in this spirit) insists that:

·         Communities may name their own needs

·         They can speak for themselves

·         Their faith does not require validation from dominance structures

·         This is apostolic authority from below.

 

C. Storytelling as sacred witness

The FAS created institutions so Black lives could be seen, valued, and remembered.

#ThePentecostProject does the same when it:

·         Centers marginalized voices

·         Treats testimony as theology

·         Shares “the mighty works of God” through lived struggles

 

4. Africa and the African Diaspora as Pentecostal teachers

In FAS spirit, Africa is not a recipient—it is a teacher.

Africa and the diaspora understand faith as:

·         Communal

·         Embodied

·         Rhythmic

·         Resilient under domination

That is why this Pentecost framing:

·         Resists respectability politics

·         Honors joy amid suffering

·         Treats survival and care as spiritual genius

·         Much like the FAS, the community becomes the catechism.

5. Organizational ethics: what this Pentecost avoids

In the Free African Society spirit, #ThePentecostProject refuses:

·         Top-down “empowerment” without power-sharing

·         Visibility without material care

·         Spiritual language divorced from justice

·         Inclusion that demands assimilation

Pentecost without liberation is Babel in religious dress.

6. What this calls forth today

·         Practically, #ThePentecostProject (in the FAS spirit) looks like:

·         Mutual-aid networks with spiritual grounding

·         Faith communities organizing their own schools, funds, care circles

·         Lay authority rooted in service

·         Multilingual, multi-cultural worship without hierarchy of worth

·         Public moral witness during crisis (health, migration, violence, climate)

 

Not slogans—structures of care.

Final integration

The Free African Society teaches us how Pentecost behaves under oppression.

It does not wait. It organizes. It cares. It testifies. It becomes church.

 

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”

 Aramaic is believed to have been the language recorded at Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 when #BlackJesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”   Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. 

By Eric Stradford, U.S. Marine Corps, Retired, and Stephanie A. Walker Stradford

April 18, 2025 – In the midst of chaos and confusion over the future of the American family, there is good news from Mother Africa. Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

Good Friday ends the Lenten Season for 2.4 billion heirs of salvation. Each year, Jesus’ True Family celebrates diversity, equity and inclusion (DEIty) over a period starting Ash Wednesday and lasting for 40 days (excluding Sundays).

Select factions within The Black Church of Jesus The Christ have invested wisely in things hoped for, while others frantically react to perceived threats on their temporal existence.  Meanwhile, the Black Family has been asked to believe “trouble don’t last always” by religious leaders and government officials who deny #BlackJesus as undisputable evidence of things not seen. 

In the biblical context, “signs, wonders and miracles” refer to divine indicators of God's power and presence.  Approximately 37 phenomena are recorded in the four Gospels of Jesus The Christ.  These reports of “miracles” justify one’s own belief of God's intervention in human affairs.

The Gospel of Mark, captured faithfully by John Mark acting as Peter's scribe, records 18 miracles of Jesus. They include calming a storm, feeding 5,000 plus women and children, walking on water, and cursing a fig tree. 

While Mark did understand Jesus as the Son of God, he typically made sure that people understood his humanity as being a part of the unique personhood of Jesus. “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then Jesus looked at those sitting around him. He said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  My true brother and sister and mother are those who do the things God wants.”  Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

Mark’s report on Family, included in the fourth of seven last words of #BlackJesus, comforts the world’s historically disadvantaged.  In this Word of Abandonment,  'Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?' -- which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time.  He was not some less powerful demigod as the Romans or Greeks would have understood. He had and has the attributes of God and humanity fully expressed and fully powered. 

Mark was believed to have been born in or around 5 AD in Cyrene. Perhaps by coincidence, or family relation, Mark records at 15:21, the role of another brother from Cyrene. 

“There was a man from Cyrene coming from the fields to the city. The man was Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers forced Simon to carry the cross for Jesus.”  According to the Coptic tradition, Cyrene is a city in the Pentapolis of North Africa, which is now Libya. Aristopolus was believed to be his father, and his mother’s home was believed to be in Jerusalem, which served as a center for Christian life.  

Aramaic is believed to have been the Afroasiatic language recorded at Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34 when #BlackJesus cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”   Semitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, Hebrew, Maltese, and numerous other ancient and modern languages. These languages are spoken by more than 330 million people across much of West Asia, North Africa, and parts of the Horn of Africa. Semitic languages are divided into three major branches: East Semitic, West Semitic, and South Semitic.

The Semitic languages of Ethiopia are believed to have been influenced by a range of Cushitic languages, and vice versa. 

While the Chadic and Cushitic languages are diverse and poorly studied, the Semitic languages have a more well-studied history and are part of a wider linguistic family called Hamito-Semitic.

To understand the languages Jesus might have used on the cross, it’s crucial to picture the linguistic melting pot that was first-century Judea within a broader dynamic of “family migration” by Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japeth.

The primary languages in the region studied as Judea were:

Aramaic: This was the vernacular language, the language of the people. It was the everyday tongue spoken in Galilee, where Jesus grew up, and likely the language he used most often in his daily life.

Hebrew: While no longer the primary spoken language, Hebrew remained the language of religious scholarship, the synagogue, and the sacred scriptures. Educated individuals, especially those involved in religious life, would have been familiar with it.

Greek: Following Alexander the Great’s conquests, Greek had become the lingua franca of the eastern Mediterranean, the language of commerce, administration, and higher education. Many people in Judea, particularly those in urban areas, would have been able to understand and speak Greek.

Latin: While less common, Latin was the language of the Roman administration and the military. It’s plausible that some individuals, particularly those who interacted with Roman officials, would have had some knowledge of Latin.

Followers might note here, the number of languages natively spoken in Africa is variously estimated at between 1,250 and 2,100, and by some counts at over 3,000.  In every generation, the Free African must reclaim his or her own value. 

Ka TUMELO re lelapa: By faith, we are family.

A kingdom that fights against itself cannot continue. And a family that is divided cannot continue.  And if Satan is against himself and fights against his own people, then he cannot continue. And that is the end of Satan.