Religion

19, January 2020

First woman appointed to top Vatican post ⁰

Pope Francis has appointed Francesca Di Giovanni to be the new undersecretary for multilateral affairs in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

It is a first at the Vatican for a woman.

Di Giovanni said she did not expect the appointment, but was looking forward to advance a “feminine point of view” in her new role.

The Pope “surprised us, as he often does, with this decision”, Di Giovanni said.

Speaking to local media on Wednesday, she said she had not yet had the chance to speak with the Pope since her appointment, but that she intents to write to him.

14, January 2020

7 Christians killed as Boko Haram strikes villages in French Cameroun ⁰

At least seven Christians were killed as gangs of around 300 Boko Haram militants raided five Christian villages in Far North Cameroon, reports a Barnabas contact.

In the first attacks, which began late at night on 6 January, two men were killed and two children kidnapped when heavily armed militants invaded the village of Hitere, Tourou district. Hitawa village, in the same district, was also raided and looted.

In Moudokou village, Moskota district, three Christians were killed in a raid and a ten-year-old boy was kidnapped. Another Christian man was murdered by the Islamists in an attack on Guitsenad village.

A survivor of the recent brutal Boko Haram attacks sits in a church in one of the villages in Far North Cameroon

On 7 January, a seventh Christian was murdered in a Boko Haram assault on a fifth village, Guedjelé in Koza district.

The two church buildings used by the affected communities were sabotaged and burnt.

Eyewitness reports described heavily armed militants encircling villages and shouting and chanting menacingly throughout the night. In the prolonged attacks, the militants swept through the communities breaking into homes to kill, loot, burn and destroy.

A local pastor pleaded for prayer, “We don’t know what to do. Pray for those who lost their beloved. Pray also for little children left without even clothes.”

At least ten Christians were murdered in an intense wave of Boko Haram attacks late in 2019. Seven were killed and 21 children and young adults were kidnapped in Mayo Sava district in December. In November, a 12-year old Christian schoolboy was hacked to death when he resisted militants’ attempt to abduct him as a “child soldier” during a raid on Tourou district. Earlier the same month pioneering pastor, David Mokoni, and a hearing-impaired Christian boy were killed when militants attacked their church in Moskota village.

Source: Barnabas Fund

13, January 2020

A Bombshell Book. Ratzinger and Sarah Ask Pope Francis Not to Make an Opening for Married Priests ⁰

They met. They wrote to each other. Precisely while “the world rumbled with the uproar created by a strange synod of the media that took the place of the real synod,” that of the Amazon.

And they decided to break the silence: “It was our sacred duty to recall the truth of the Catholic priesthood. In these difficult times, everyone must be afraid that one day God will address to him this harsh reproof: ‘Cursed are you, who did not say anything’.” An invective, this latter, taken from Saint Catherine of Siena, a tremendous flogger of popes.

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI and Guinean cardinal Robert Sarah sent this book of theirs to the presses shortly before Christmas, and here it is coming out in France in mid-January, published by Fayard with the title: “From the depth of our hearts,” and thus even before Pope Francis has dictated the conclusions of that Amazonian synod which in reality, more than on rivers and forests, was a furious discussion on the future of the Catholic priesthood, if celibate or not, and if open in the future to women.

It will be a serious problem, in fact, for Francis to make an opening for the married priesthood and the female diaconate after his predecessor and a cardinal of profound doctrine and of radiant holiness of life like Sarah have taken such a clear and powerfully argued position in support of priestly celibacy, addressing themselves to the reigning pope almost in the words of an ultimatum, through the pen of the one but with the full agreement of the other:

“There is an ontological-sacramental bond between the priesthood and celibacy. Any curtailment of this bond would mean calling into question the magisterium of the council and of the popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. I humbly beg Pope Francis to protect us definitively from such an eventuality, setting his veto against any weakening of the law of priestly celibacy, even if limited to one region or another.”

The book, 180 pages long, after a preface by editor Nicolas Diat, is divided into four chapters.

The first, entitled “What are you afraid of?”, is an introduction signed jointly by the two authors, dated September 2019.

The second is by Joseph Ratzinger, is of a biblical and theological slant and has the title: “The Catholic priesthood.” It bears the date of September 17, before the synod began.

The third is by Cardinal Sarah and is entitled: “To love right up to the end. An ecclesiological and pastoral look at priestly celibacy.” It has the date of November 25, one month after the end of the synod, in which the author participated assiduously.

The fourth is the joint conclusion of the two authors, with the title: “In the shadow of the cross,” and with the date of December 3.

In the chapter that he signed, Ratzinger mainly intends to bring to light “the profound unity between the two Testaments, through the passage from the Temple of stone to the Temple that is the body of Christ.”

And he applies this hermeneutic to three biblical texts, from which he derives the Christian notion of celibate priesthood.

The first is a passage from Psalm 16: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup…”

The third is these words of Jesus in the gospel of John 17:17: “Sanctify them in truth, your word is truth.”

While the second is two passages from Deuteronomy (10:8 and 18:5-8) incorporated into Eucharistic prayer II: “We give you thanks admitting us into your presence to perform the priestly service.”

To illustrate the meaning of these words, Ratzinger cites almost in its entirety the homily he gave at Saint Peter’s on the morning of March 20 2008, Holy Thursday, during the Mass of the sacred chrism with which priests are ordained.

A homily reproduced below, as a sample of the whole book and of its pages directly dedicated to the question of celibacy.

“We do not invent the Church as we would like it to be”

by Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI

Holy Thursday is an occasion for us to ask ourselves over and over again: to what did we say our “yes”? What does this “being a priest of Jesus Christ” mean? The Second Canon of our Missal, which was probably compiled in Rome already at the end of the second century, describes the essence of the priestly ministry with the words with which, in the Book of Deuteronomy (18: 5, 7), the essence of the Old Testament priesthood is described: astare coram te et tibi ministrare [“to stand and minister in the name of the Lord”]. There are therefore two duties that define the essence of the priestly ministry: in the first place, “to stand in his [the Lord’s] presence”.

In the Book of Deuteronomy this is read in the context of the preceding disposition, according to which priests do not receive any portion of land in the Holy Land – they live of God and for God. They did not attend to the usual work necessary to sustain daily life. Their profession was to “stand in the Lord’s presence” – to look to him, to be there for him. Hence, ultimately, the word indicated a life in God’s presence, and with this also a ministry of representing others. As the others cultivated the land, from which the priest also lived, so he kept the world open to God, he had to live with his gaze on him.

Now if this word is found in the Canon of the Mass immediately after the consecration of the gifts, after the entrance of the Lord in the assembly of prayer, then for us this points to being before the Lord present, that is, it indicates the Eucharist as the centre of priestly life. But here too, the meaning is deeper. During Lent the hymn that introduces the Office of Readings of the Liturgy of the Hours – the Office that monks once recited during the night vigil before God and for humanity – one of the duties of Lent is described with the imperative: arctius perstemus in custodia – we must be even more intensely alert. In the tradition of Syrian monasticism, monks were qualified as “those who remained standing”. This standing was an expression of vigilance.

What was considered here as a duty of the monks, we can rightly see also as an expression of the priestly mission and as a correct interpretation of the word of Deuteronomy: the priest must be on the watch. He must be on his guard in the face of the imminent powers of evil. He must keep the world awake for God. He must be the one who remains standing: upright before the trends of time. Upright in truth. Upright in the commitment for good. Being before the Lord must always also include, at its depths, responsibility for humanity to the Lord, who in his turn takes on the burden of all of us to the Father. And it must be a taking on of him, of Christ, of his word, his truth, his love. The priest must be upright, fearless and prepared to sustain even offences for the Lord, as referred to in the Acts of the Apostles: they were “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name” (5: 41) of Jesus.

Now let us move on to the second word that the Second Canon repeats from the Old Testament text – “to stand in your presence and serve you”. The priest must be an upright person, vigilant, a person who remains standing. Service is then added to all this.

In the Old Testament text this word has an essentially ritualistic meaning: all acts of worship foreseen by the Law are the priests’ duty. But this action, according to the rite, was classified as service, as a duty of service, and thus it explains in what spirit this activity must take place.

With the assumption of the word “serve” in the Canon, the liturgical meaning of this term was adopted in a certain way – to conform with the novelty of the Christian cult. What the priest does at that moment, in the Eucharistic celebration, is to serve, to fulfil a service to God and a service to humanity. The cult that Christ rendered to the Father was the giving of himself to the end for humanity. Into this cult, this service, the priest must insert himself.

Thus, the word “serve” contains many dimensions. In the first place, part of it is certainly the correct celebration of the liturgy and of the sacraments in general, accomplished through interior participation. We must learn to increasingly understand the sacred liturgy in all its essence, to develop a living familiarity with it, so that it becomes the soul of our daily life. It is then that we celebrate in the correct way; it is then that the ars celebrandi, the art of celebrating, emerges by itself. In this art there must be nothing artificial.

If the liturgy is the central duty of the priest, this also means that prayer must be a primary reality, to be learned ever anew and ever more deeply at the school of Christ and of the Saints of all the ages. Since the Christian liturgy by its nature is also always a proclamation, we must be people who are familiar with the Word of God, love it and live by it: only then can we explain it in an adequate way. “To serve the Lord” – priestly service precisely also means to learn to know the Lord in his Word and to make it known to all those he entrusts to us.

Lastly, two other aspects are part of service. No one is closer to his master than the servant who has access to the most private dimensions of his life. In this sense “to serve” means closeness, it requires familiarity. This familiarity also bears a danger: when we continually encounter the sacred it risks becoming habitual for us.

In this way, reverential fear is extinguished. Conditioned by all our habits we no longer perceive the great, new and surprising fact that he himself is present, speaks to us, gives himself to us. We must ceaselessly struggle against this becoming accustomed to the extraordinary reality, against the indifference of the heart, always recognizing our insufficiency anew and the grace that there is in the fact that he consigned himself into our hands. To serve means to draw near, but above all it also means obedience.

The servant is under the word: “not my will, but thine, be done” (Lk 22: 42). With this word Jesus, in the Garden of Olives, has resolved the decisive battle against sin, against the rebellion of the sinful heart. Adam’s sin consisted precisely in the fact that he wanted to accomplish his own will and not God’s. Humanity’s temptation is always to want to be totally autonomous, to follow its own will alone and to maintain that only in this way will we be free; that only thanks to a similarly unlimited freedom would man be completely man. But this is precisely how we pit ourselves against the truth. Because the truth is that we must share our freedom with others and we can be free only in communion with them.

This shared freedom can be true freedom only if we enter into what constitutes the very measure of freedom, if we enter into God’s will. This fundamental obedience that is part of the human being – a person cannot be merely for and by himself – becomes still more concrete in the priest: we do not preach ourselves, but him and his Word, which we could not have invented ourselves. We proclaim the Word of Christ in the correct way only in communion with his Body.

Our obedience is a believing with the Church, a thinking and speaking with the Church, serving through her. What Jesus predicted to Peter also always applies: “You will be taken where you do not want to go”. This letting oneself be guided where one does not want to be led is an essential dimension of our service, and it is exactly what makes us free. In this being guided, which can be contrary to our ideas and plans, we experience something new – the wealth of God’s love.

“To stand in his presence and serve him”: Jesus Christ as the true High Priest of the world has conferred to these words a previously unimaginable depth. He, who as Son was and is the Lord, has willed to become that Servant of God which the vision of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah had foreseen. He has willed to be the Servant of all. He has portrayed the whole of his high priesthood in the gesture of the washing of the feet.

With the gesture of love to the end he washes our dirty feet, with the humility of his service he purifies us from the illness of our pride. Thus, he makes us able to become partakers of God’s banquet. He has descended, and the true ascent of man is now accomplished in our descending with him and toward him. His elevation is the Cross. It is the deepest descent and, as love pushed to the end, it is at the same time the culmination of the ascent, the true “elevation” of humanity.

“To stand in his presence and serve him”: this now means to enter into his call to serve God. The Eucharist as the presence of the descent and ascent of Christ thus always recalls, beyond itself, the many ways of service through love of neighbour. Let us ask the Lord on this day for the gift to be able to say again in this sense our “yes” to his call: “Here am I! Send me” (Is 6: 8). Amen.

Culled from L’Espresso

2, January 2020

Pope’s bodyguards criticised over slapping incident ⁰

Pope Francis’s attempt to wrest himself from the grasp of an ardent follower this week have left some asking — where was the pontiff’s security detail?

Often dubbed the “People’s Pope,” Francis’s ability to engage with crowds — and his apparent relish in doing so — puts him in close proximity with the throngs who gather to greet him.

Whether taking selfies with the faithful, shaking hands, or blessing children, the head of 1.3 billion Catholics around the world is protected by bodyguards from a special corps charged with the pope’s security.

But on New Year’s Eve in Saint Peter’s Square, televised images showed a woman behind a barricade grabbing Francis’s hand, while three men in black can be seen in the background.

The Pope swats at the woman’s hand to free himself, before one of the men is seen restraining her hands. Francis later apologised for setting a “bad example.”

By Thursday, after the images circulated online, some people took to Twitter to question how the incident could have happened.

“The guy has a literal army to protect him and has to do his own slapping?” asked one Twitter user.

Another commented: “The Pope has a very lax security detail.”

The Vatican’s security department declined to comment.

One security expert however said bodyguards should have intervened earlier.

“It’s the Pope’s security team who should be apologising,” said the founder of Italy’s elite special police interventions unit, whose identity is protected but who goes by the name Commandant Alfa.

“The lady wouldn’t let go of the Pope’s hand, and he was forced to slap her hand a little bit in order to get out of the way,” Alfa told the AGI news agency. “But it shouldn’t have gotten to that point.”

The pope’s chief bodyguard and head of Vatican security, Domenico Giani, resigned in October after an internal security memo related to a Vatican financial probe was leaked to the press.

– Personal style –

Papal security became a top priority at the Vatican after the 1981 assassination attempt of pope Jean Paul II by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk, in Saint Peter’s Square. Heightened security measures that followed included making the Popemobile bulletproof and the addition of metal detectors on entering the square.

But even overly enthusiastic fans have posed security risks. In 2009, before a Christmas Eve Mass given by then pope Benedict XVI, a woman who later said she wanted to give the pontiff a hug jumped over a barricade and grabbed his robes, pulling the 82-year-old to the ground. Benedict was not injured but a French cardinal broke his leg in the melee.

When Francis became pope in 2013, his low-key style and desire to bring the Roman Catholic Church closer to the people posed new headaches for the Vatican’s elaborate security team, whose colourful Swiss Guards are the most visible members.

“You have to respect the personal style of each pope,” said Francis’s spokesman at the time, Federico Lombardi.

“It’s not for the heads of security to decide these things.”

Source: AFP

31, December 2019

Boston: Rev. Sister Agnes Njume celebrates Forty Years as a Religious ⁰

Christians of the Cameroon Catholic Community of Boston, gathered in their numbers to celebrate with Sister Agnes Njume on the occasion of her fortieth anniversary as a professed religious with the Sisters of Saint Therese of Buea on Sunday December 28, 2019, Feast of the Holy Family at St. Anne’s Parish Salem of the Archdiocese of Boston.Equally in attendance, were several religious, former students of Sister Agnes, the Alumni of her High School, her family, friends and the Bakossi Community of New England.

The Anniversary Mass which started at 1pm ET was presided by Bishop Arthur Kennedy PhD, Auxiliary Bishop of Boston. The Entrance Procession was beautifully led the CWA of Boston, nicely clad in their CWA Uniform. Sister Agnes Njume is an alumnus of Queen of the Rosary College Okoyong and is an active member of their alumni association known by the acronym OPSA. OPSA New England led the Lectionary Procession. In his homily, which lasted 12 minutes, Bishop Kennedy commended Sister Agnes Njume for the role she played in nurturing young girls in Cameroon and preparing them to lead families which are God fearing following the example of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

Bishop Kennedy forcefully denounced the German philosopher, Karl Marx’s book, The Holy Family, published in 1884, which was a scathing attack on Christianity and on the person of Jesus, and mocked everything which the Holy Family of Nazareth stood for. Of course, under Marxist philosophy, everything is guided by economics and politics and the state controlled absolutely everything. Basically, the book promoted distrust within the family, with parents not trusting children and vice versa. Consequently, the family itself could not be trusted. Sister Agnes Njume, throughout her forty years of dedicated, committed and passionate service, fought against the ills promoted by a Marxist cultural attack on the family which completely undermines Christian doctrine. Sister Agnes has been a champion for the family, a champion for the poor and a champion for the girl child. Consequently, it was providential that herFortieth Anniversary celebration as a Religious took place when the Holy Mother Church was celebrating the Feast of Holy Family.

After the Profession of Faith, Sister Agnes Njume once more as she did forty years ago and as she has done several times within the past forty years, while kneeling at the foot of sanctuary, solemnly, passionately and joyfully renewed her religious vows of celibate chastity, poverty and obedience in front of Bishop Kennedy. At the end, the assembly applauded her with joy and the famous Bakossionsoonsoonso was chanted.

During the offertory, after the first collection, Sister Agnes Njume and the other women religious present, led the offertory procession with beautiful liturgical dances accompanied by popular songs in the Bakossi language (Akosse). The entire assembly stood up and danced with their monetary gifts to thank God for the gift of Sister Agnes Njume to the church. After the Prayer After Communion, Fr. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai, Pastor of the St. Anne Parish thanked all for coming and presented to the assembly, the many religious who had turned out for the beautiful liturgy to pray and celebrate with Sister Agnes Njume. He was also very appreciative of Bishop Kennedy who willingly accepted to preside over the Mass and persevered with a long Cameroonian Liturgy. In response, Bishop Kennedy expressed his joy to celebrate for the first time with the Cameroonian Catholic community in Massachusetts and in particular with Sister Agnes Njume who had done a lot to promote Christian values and teach not only by words but by the example of her life following the example of St Therese of the Child Jesus. Bishop Kennedy gave the final blessing and the Mass ended at 2:50pm ET. After Mass, groups and individuals took various photographs to immortalize the event.

By 3:30pm, all had gathered in the Parish Hall for the Reception. Sister Agnes Njume thanked God for having chosen her, though unworthy to consecrate her entire life to the service of God and God’s people. She was immensely grateful to her parents especially her dad who initially introduced her to the idea of being a woman religious. She rendered her sincere thanks to all who have supported her in her formation and throughout her life as a religious and now as a Graduate Theology Student at Boston College especially the wonderful Cameroonian community in Massachusetts. She thanked all dearly for coming especially those who had travelled from various states within the United States of America to celebrate with her and more importantly, to pray with and for her. She was particularly grateful to Rev. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai, who she described as a son, for having made this celebration possible. She was very appreciative of the organizing committee for their sacrifices. From the remarks made by her friends, colleagues, former students and those who had had a personal encounter with Sister Agnes Njume, the following characteristics of her life stood out, which not only young religious can emulate, but all those who come in contact with Sister Agnes Njume: her self-less service, her commitment, her unparalleled dedication, her straightforwardness, her prayer life and most importantly her sincere love for God and God’s people.

A cake was prepared in her honor which she cut. There was much merry making by all. By 6pm ET the celebration came to an end.

By Anselm Ndumbe)

31, December 2019

Andrew Nkea Fuanya: The Family, Community and Traditional Value Archbishop ⁰

Pope Francis has promoted an African bishop known for his emphasis on family, community, and traditional values. In an announcement released on Monday, the Holy See Press Office confirmed that the pope has named Bishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya as the new Archbishop of Bamenda in Cameroon.

Bishop Fuanya, 54, has served as the Bishop of Mamfe, also in Cameroon, since 2014. He came to international attention during the 2018 meeting of the Synod of Bishops on young people, faith, and vocational discernment.

In contrast to the situation in many European countries, Fuanya said during the synod, the Church in Cameroon and in many parts of Africa is growing – including among young peoples.

“My churches are all bursting, and I don’t have space to keep the young people,” Fuanya during a Vatican press conference in October last year. “And my shortest Mass would be about two and a half hours.”

A 2018 study by Pew Research found that church attendance and prayer frequency was highest in sub-Saharan Africa and lowest in Western Europe. Four out of five Christians in Cameroon said that they pray every day.

Bishop Fuanya was born in 1965 and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Buéa, Cameroon, in 1992, at the age of 26. In 2013, he was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Mamfe, becoming the diocesan bishop the following year.

Bishop Fuanya’s new see, Bamenda, was erected as a diocese in 1970 and elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese by St. John Paul II in 1982. In recent years, the archdiocese has shown clear signs of growth and evalgelization. While the population of the archdiocese remained stable at 1.4 million people between 2015 and 2018, the percentage of Catholics rose from 29% to 42% during the same period.

During the Synod on young people, Fuanya credited the Church’s growth in Cameroon to the alignment between Church teaching and the values of wider society, and the strength of the family as a cultural institution.

“People ask me, ‘Why are your churches full?’” Fuanya said in 2018. “Coming from Africa, the family is a very, very strong institution.”

“We come from a culture in which tradition normally is handed from one generation to the other.”

Bishop Fuanya has also spoken about the need for the Church to teach unambiguously on issues of morals and sexuality, remarking during the 2018 synod that he would not accept any usage of so-called LGBT terminology in Church documents because “99.9 percent” of the young people in his diocese would “stand at my door and say, ‘What’s this?’”

“Our traditional values still equate to the values of the Church, and so we hand over the tradition to our young people undiluted and uncontaminated,” he continued, noting that a strong sense of community in the Church is something “very important that Europe can learn from Africa.”

In Africa, the newly-named Archbishop said, “there’s still a lot of things we do as community. That is the difference..”

“What we are trying to do in these small Christian communities is to fight the in-creeping of individualism,” he said.

Source: National Catholic Register

30, December 2019

Resignations and Appointments: Bishop Andrew Nkea is metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda ⁰

The Archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Bamenda, His Grace Cornelius Fontem Esua tendered his resignation letter to His Holiness Pope Francis. The Prelate handed over his resignation letter to Pope Francis in prelude to his 75th anniversary

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Bamenda, Cameroon, presented by Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua.

The Pope has appointed Bishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Mamfe as metropolitan archbishop of Bamenda.

30, December 2019

Bishop Andrew Nkea to be announced as the new Archbishop of Bamenda ⁰

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Andrew Nkea of the Mamfe Diocese as Archbishop of Bamenda. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands an announcement will be made soon inside the Bamenda Cathedral.

The Bishop of Mamfe will take over the role from Retired Archbishop Cornelius Esua.

29, December 2019

The Holy Father appoints Bishop Michael Bibi as Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese ⁰

Msgr. Michael Bibi, Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda has been appointed by the Holy Father Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese. The appointment was made today 28/12/2019 at 12noon Vatican time. By this appointment also, the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Mgr. Immanuel Bushu as Bishop of Buea.

Rt. Rev. Michael Miabesue Bibi 48 year old hails from Bamessing, Ngoketunjia Division. Until his new appointment, he has been the Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, right from the day of his nomination as Bishop on 24th January 2017. According to the new appointment he still maintains this function.

He is also Titular Bishop of Amudarsa. The Rt. Rev. Michael Bibi will be administering the Diocese of Buea, with the right to residence until a new bishop is appointed for the diocese. It is worth reiterating again that during his new task, he would still remain the Auxiliary of Bamenda.

Source: Kumbo Diocese

28, December 2019

Cameroon bishops visit prisons on Christmas, as Church prays for peace ⁰

Cameroon’s Catholic clergy made a special effort to visit the country’s prisons on Christmas Day. “Christ came to free us from all our prisons,” said Archbishop Samuel Kleda as he addressed inmates in the overcrowded New Bell prison in Douala.

The prelate said he wasn’t only referring to the physical prisons where people are clamped into enclosures like the New Bell Prison; rather, Christ liberates “us from the prisons of our hearts.”

He said people can only regain their freedom if they open their hearts to Christ. “Once you recognize your sin and admit that you were wrong, you are free, you are converted, and you get to know how to proceed,” he said.

In Garoua, in the country’s north, Archbishop Faustin Ambassa Njodo said, “Christ goes to his children wherever they are.”

Addressing inmates at the Garoua prison, the archbishop said: “Whatever you did, God will come to you. If we go back to the Scriptures, the Son of God is saying that a medical doctor goes to those who are sick. That means Jesus is coming not for those who believe in Him, but for the sinner.”

Ambassa Njodo exhorted the inmates to open their hearts to receive Christ and they will have eternal life.

Cameroon’s bishops have expressed their concern about detention conditions where poor infrastructure and overcrowding mean the rights of prisoners are violated on a daily basis. Figures from the Ministry of Justice indicate that the overall occupancy rate in 2016 was 164.7 percent, even as that figure varies from prison to prison.

The New Bell Prison in Douala houses some 5,000 inmates, although it was initially constructed to hold just 800 people, giving the facility an occupancy rate of 625 percent. The notorious Kondengui prison in Yaoundé had an occupancy rate of 400 percent in 2016, and the central prison at Maroua generally holds more than 200 percent of its capacity. These figures have not changed much.

And while the country’s clergy sought to uplift the spirits of the inmates, the issue of justice for prisoners also came to the fore, with Kleda noting that good judges are also involved in works of charity.

“A judge who does his work rightly… pays attention to every person, and those who remain in jail are rightly condemned. That is charity,” the archbishop said.

The archbishop expressed disgust at the long pre-trial detention periods: Official statistics indicate that about 55.5 percent of inmates in the country are still awaiting trial.

Calls for peace dominate Christmas messages

In a country battered by a separatist war to the west and Boko Haram terrorism to the north, the message of the peace of Christ has a particularly strong appeal this year.

Ambassa Njodo painted a bleak picture of how far Cameroon had degenerated in recent times.

“We have brothers and sisters from the same families who fight each other, they don’t eat together, and this is not normal,” the archbishop said.

In the troubled North West region where a separatist uprising known as the Anglophone Crisis has been going on for the past three years, Father Gilbert Aurore noted that “we need peace, we need love and we need forgiveness.”

“Jesus Christ being the Prince of Peace has come with that peace so that we may experience life in abundance,” the priest said.

Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions – the North West and the South West – make up about 20 percent of Cameroon’s population, which is majority French-speaking. Anglophones have long complained about marginalization by the predominantly francophone government.

In 2016, peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in the two regions over the use of French in schools and courts spiraled out of control after a government crackdown. An extremist separatist movement calling for the secession of the Anglophone regions was the result. In three years of fighting, over 3,000 people have been killed, and about 700,000 others forced from their homes.

“The bloodshed really has to stop. We are tired of this fighting,” said Bishop Andrew Nkea of Mamfe, in Cameroon’s South West region.

At St. Joseph Parish, in Tkomberé in the country’s far North region, Father Denis Daba said he had brought a “message of peace and living together, because Christ has come for the unity of God’s children, to draw them closer, especially those who do not know him.”

A similar message was echoed by Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaoundé. During a homily in the city’s Our Lady of Victories Cathedral, the archbishop noted that Christmas was a time for “renewal” for families who have worked all year round. He said while people were engaged in such renewal, it was also the time to open their hearts to Christ.

“People have to open their hearts to allow God to return to them. There is need for God to return to public spaces. God must be the foundation of everything we do.”

Mbarga said only when “God takes possession of our lives” can there be a return to peace in Cameroon.

Source: Crux