The Movement for Freedom in Mozanbique - Page 9.
of the government;  this inspite of the fact that the overwhelming
majority of the Africans are not Christians, let alone Roman
Catholics.  To this programme was also attached the responsibility
of preparing those individuals v/ho v/ere to become assimilated to
the Portuguese culture.  The Portuguese believe that there is a
better chance for an African to become a Portuguese in spirit if
he is a Roman Catholic.  This belief v/as often expressed by
officials of the government, as illustrated by a statement in I960
by Dr. Adriano Moreira, then Under-Secretary of State for Overseas
Administration.
While emphasizing that political loyalty did not depend upon
Christian qualifications, Dr. Moreira declared that Catholic
missionary activity was inseparably linked to patriotism and that
the formation of Christian qualities led to the formation of
Portuguese qualities.  It is this attitude which led to the
separation of the education of the African children from that
of the Europeans.  This separation of the educational system of
the two racial groups is more peculiar v/hen one takes into consideration the fact that elsev/here in the v/orld, the Catholic
Church insists on educating the children of its members.  Yet in
Mozambique, the children of the Europeans, v/ho are more than 95
per cent Roman Catholic, are left in the hands of the secular
schools of the State.  The intent of this policy is to indoctrinate the children of the majority of the native, blacK Mozambicans
with Christianity, thereby assuring the government of a population
which is loyal to Portugal.  How the Portuguese could believe this
fantasy is very difficult to understand in view of the example
shown by other African states where the proportion of Christians,
especially Roman Catholics, is much higher than in Mozambique.
Our own neighbour, Tanganyika, has not only a higher Roman
Catholic population, but it also has the first and only black
African Cardinal   the Catholic Church has ever had, and its
first prime minister, who later became its first president, is a
devout Roman Catholic.  There is no evidence anywhere in Africa
to.support the idea, cherished by the Portuguese officials, that
the more Catholics they will be able to create in Mozambique, the
more Portuguese Mozambique will be.
This attitude of the Portuguese government is so entrenched
that it constantly influences policy, even v/here decisions involving the admission of foreign Christian missionaries, Catholic
or Protestant, into the country are concerned.  Since the 17th
century, foreign missionaries have been puspected of "denationalizing the natives", and of acting as advance agents for foreign