Religion

20, July 2017

Bishop Bala Affair: Biya makes financial donations to angry groups, traditional rulers ⁰

President Paul Biya has given financial compensation to the disgruntled fishermen and traditional rulers who contributed in the search and retrieval of the body of the Late Bishop of Bafia, Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala.

The financial package was handed over to the population by the Governor of the Centre Region, Naseri Paul Bea at the Ebebda Council hall. The Governor said the Head of State appreciated the contributions from notables and fishermen and his gesture was to encourage them.

The population of Ebebda worked with military personnel of the Navy and the Fire Fighting corp. for three days and nights in search of the body of the prelate who had gone missing.

The body was eventually found several kilometers from the bridge and pulled off to the shore where it was identified by authorities of the Catholic Church.

Source: CRTV

18, July 2017

Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala: Going home to rest ⁰

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, NCPC confirmed in a press release made public on Monday the 17th of July 2017 that it has received the remains of the late Bishop of Bafia brutally murdered recently by forces closed to the Yaoundé regime.

His Lordship Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala, Bishop of Bafia was found dead on the 2nd of June, off the Sanaga River, precisely at Tsang, a village in the Monatelé constituency in the Center region. Cameroon Concord News can now reveal that the Bishop’s body has been handed over to the church after identification.

The process reportedly took place under the watchful eyes of Archbishop Jean Mbarga, Bishop of Yaoundé, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the NCPC, and Abraham Kome, Bishop of Bafang who is the interim apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Bafia.

We understand the Roman Catholic Bishops are planning a funeral on the 2nd and 3rd of August 2017. The NCPC has also indicated that it intends to file a complaint against X, for assassination of Bishop Jean Benoit Bala.

Public opinion is completely divided in a crisis where the judge and jury are the same and at a time when Roman Catholic loyalty is no more on the teachings of Christ but on the doctrines of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

16, July 2017

Biya regime warns Bafia Diocese of severe options over remains of late Bishop Balla ⁰

The Biya regime has threatened the pastoral leadership of the Diocese of Bafia over the remains of the late Bishop Balla brutally murdered recently. The administrator of the Diocese of Bafia, Vicar General Abraham Kome has been told that he will be held accountable if the late Bishop’s body is not collected from a mortuary in Yaoundé.

The letter from the judicial police comes after an earlier declaration from the attorney general of the Center region that the remains had long been handed over to the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

Ever since the Bishop was assassinated, Catholics in Cameroon have been tirelessly trying to save their Church from the effects of a regime whose intimidation, killings of numerous clergies and bullying have harmed many.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

10, July 2017

Australia: Cardinal Pell returns home to face sexual abuse charges ⁰

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell arrived back in Australia on Monday ahead of a court appearance later this month over historical sex abuse charges. The 76-year-old, a top advisor to Pope Francis, touched down in Sydney and was met by security before being whisked away in a waiting car.

He has been ordered to face a Melbourne court on July 26 for a preliminary hearing on multiple sexual assault charges related to offences allegedly committed decades ago, when he was a senior cleric in Australia. The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has always maintained his innocence and strenuously denies the allegations. Details of the charges have not been made public although police said they involved “multiple complainants.”

A spokesperson for Pell said in a statement he would be making no comment, but was grateful for “the numerous messages of support he continues to receive.” “When he was told of the charges by Victoria Police Cardinal Pell said in Rome he totally rejected the allegations, was completely innocent of the charges and would return to Australia to vigorously defend himself and clear his name,” said the statement.

Pell, unofficially considered the number three in the Vatican hierarchy, said from Rome after being charged late last month that he was “looking forward finally to having my day in court.” Pell has been granted a leave of absence by the Pope, who made clear the cardinal would not be forced to resign his post as head of the Vatican’s powerful economic ministry.

The charges coincided with the final stages of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse, ordered in 2012 after a decade of pressure to investigate widespread allegations of institutional paedophilia.

The commission has spoken to thousands of survivors and heard claims of child abuse involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools. Pell appeared before the commission three times, once in person and twice via video-link from Rome. In one hearing, he admitted that he “mucked up” in dealing with paedophile priests in Victoria State in the 1970s.

(Source: AFP)

2, July 2017

The Holy Father Pope Francis replaces top conservative cardinal ⁰

Pope Francis has refused to extend the mandate of the head of the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, replacing the conservative cardinal who is said to have been “at odds” with the pontiff’s attempts to create a more inclusive Church. In a brief Vatican statement on Saturday, Pope Francis appointed the deputy of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, as the new head of the office, declining to renew the five-year mandate of Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, its former head.

The 69-year-old Mueller allegedly had frequent clashes with the Pope over key reform issues, criticizing the pontiff’s openness to allowing civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion. The German cardinal had also censured parts of a 2016 papal treatise called “Amoris Laetitia” (The Joy of Love), a cornerstone document of Francis’ attempts to make the 1.2 billion-member Church more inclusive and less condemning, according to Reuters.
Mueller’s successor, the 73-year-old Ladaria from Spain had been appointed to the CDF by former Pope Benedict in 2008 and is said to be a soft-spoken person. “They (Ladaria and the Pope) speak the same language, and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him,” said a priest who works in the Vatican and knows both Mueller and Ladaria, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Clearly, the Pope and Cardinal Mueller have not been on the same page for five years.”

The head of the CDF enjoys the most important position in the Vatican hierarchy after the Secretary of State, and most incumbents keep the post until they retire at the traditional age of 75. Mueller had been appointed to the powerful department by former Pope Benedict in 2012. In another major shakeup of the Vatican’s administration, the Pope granted a Vatican finance chief, Cardinal George Pell, a leave of absence from his position to return to his native Australia to face trial on sexual assault charges.

The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the past few years, involving allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect pedophiles and the reputation of the Church. The issue of abuses being concealed by the Church has left many child rights defenders, including Christians, disgruntled by the Church and has put Church authorities on the defensive.

Pope Francis, who was appointed in 2013 with a plan to overhaul the Vatican, has warned that there will be “no privileges” for bishops when it comes to child sex offenses. The pontiff also promised more action in response to accusations of cover-up and excessive leniency by the Vatican.

Source: Presstv

18, June 2017

Archbishop of Yaounde says dark forces behind anti-Roman Catholic persecutions in Cameroon ⁰

The Archbishop of Yaounde Jean Mbarga has told Radio Vatican that the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon is being persecuted by evil forces. The Archbishop was speaking of the death of the late Bishop of Bafia, Jean-Marie Benoit Balla.

The prelate believes that the Catholic Church in Cameroon is martyred. “We are in a story, I was about to say, of martyrs in our Church. It has been going on since, and it has been going on for quite some time. When we read this whole story and for the most part things have not been elucidated we deduce that we are persecuted and victims of violence that come from dark forces that affect the Church in its heart, in its blood and in his life, “declared the prelate.

Archbishop Jean Mbarga wondered aloud why Roman Catholic clergies were being targeted. He also pointed out in the interview that “each time there were assassinations; the Christian family never gets an explanations. We do not know who is really behind the killings.”

Jean Mbarga maintained that the brutal death of Jean-Marie Benoït Balla will leave “indelible traces” in the community he was in charge of evangelizing. He spoke of “dismayed, shocked” faithful and recalled that the bishops “have asked the authorities to shed full light on this crime.”

The disappearance of Bishop Balla surprised him all the more because the context did not allow such a tragedy. “What has just happened to us surprises us all! We do not understand! Because, until that fateful date, everything was fine! In my ecclesiastical province there were no shadows!

By Sama Ernest

Cameroon Concord News

3, June 2017

Attending religious services boosts health, prolongs life ⁰

A new study shows that attending religious services like those at mosques, churches or synagogues may help you live longer. “We found in our study that actually attending church is actually good for your health, particularly for those who are between the ages of 40 and 65,” said Marino Bruce, the associate director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Research on Men’s Health, in a video posted on Vanderbilt University’s website on Friday.

The study showed reduced mortality risk by 55% for those middle-aged adults who go to churches, synagogues, mosques or other houses of worship. The study on “Church Attendance, Allostatic Load and Mortality in Middle Aged Adults” was published in the Plos One journal in May. “For those who did not attend church at all, they were twice as likely to die prematurely than those who did who attended church at some point over the last year,” Bruce said.

For the study a total of 5,449 participants of both sexes and races were recorded. The researchers used publicly available data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

“I’m ordained clergy so I’m always about what do we mean by our spiritual health. Does spiritual health matter with respect to biological outcomes?” Bruce added. The study focused on the participants’ survey results, analyzing their worship attendance, mortality and allostatic load, which is a physiological measurement, and social support.

Bruce further emphasized, “While churches are places where people can get social support, we actually found that and began to think about whether compassion is particularly important — feeling that you’re doing good or having empathy for others.”

Culled from Presstv

31, May 2017

Bishop of Bafia commits suicide: We need to talk about Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishops and priests ⁰

Bishop Jean-Marie Balla, has reportedly killed himself under a bridge at Ebebda some 78Km from the nation’s capital Yaoundé. The prelate’s car and a statement left by him saying “I am in the water” suggest that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bafia would have committed suicide. Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala was appointed Bishop of the Bafia diocese with a Christian population of over two hundred thousand in 2003.

Jean Marie Benoît Bala was born May 1959 in Oweng Mbalmayo. He is originally from Mbankomo in the Mefou-Akono Division (Central Province). In addition to studies in philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary at Nkolbisson, he holds a diploma in Social Sciences and Management from the Catholic Institute of Yaoundé. He was ordained priest in 1987 by the late Arch Bishop Jean Zoa.

The vehicle of the Bishop of Bafia was found on the 31st of May 2017 beside a bridge at Ebebda, a small locality in the department of Lekié, Central region. According to the Senior Divisional Officer for Mban and Inoubou, Maurice Tchoffo, it is difficult at the moment to know what really happened to the Man of God. Indeed, the prelate’s personal documents were found in his vehicle, as well as a piece of paper containing the inscription “I am in the water” suggesting that he had indeed committed suicide. Bishop Benoît Balla, 58, to many around the world has committed sacrilege that will hunt the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon forever.

The recovery of our nation from the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, if it is to happen, will require confident and reasonably clean religious leaders not priests who can’t keep their hands off teenage girls or other men’s wives, or whose bishops are unable or unwilling to deal with them. The sudden disappearance of Bishop Balla is an indication that our secular leaders have abandoned the outer defenses of our nation and civilization. Bishop Benoit Balla is among those Cameroonian priests who likely failed in the last stand at the inner defenses and was tolerated by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy for too long.

It is hard to say at this point but the death by suicide of His Lordship Bishop Balla has stunned many people around the world. He is the first Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishop to take his own life. Cameroonians are understandably shocked by the particular circumstances of the tragedy. But when the dust settles around the death of Bishop Balla, and his brother- Francophone Cameroun bishops and parishioners begin to pick up the pieces, it’s vital that some good can be brought out of this tragedy. We of Cameroon Intelligence Report believe and fervently too that there is a danger that when the shock dies down, we all get back to business as usual and there is no discussion about the wider questions.

We need to talk about the Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishops and priests be they Anglophones or Francophones. This is not the suicide of one Christian whose wife dumped him for a pastor which would be statistically irrelevant. It is not even the suicide of two or three Anglophone priests which may find more correlation with the seven months old Southern Cameroon crisis. We are talking here about the suicide of a Roman Catholic Bishop in Cameroon in very shameful and disgusting circumstances.

A core Roman Catholic teaching which often emphasizes the rewards that come with good works or the punishment that comes with sin has been rubbished by Bishop Balla of the Bafia Diocese. So, God’s grace cannot be earned through good deeds if a Bishop who understands the Roman Catholic strictness of the teachings on suicide and how those teachings become internalized among Catholics could afford to end this way.

The end of Bishop Balla has also called into question the act of regularly confessing sins to a Catholic priest. It was generally thought that since suicide is the only sin that could never be confessed to a priest, a Catholic who finds confession important to avoiding Hell may be less inclined to commit suicide. (We will come back to this aspect later).

Roman Catholic teaching on suicide is clear. As set out in Blessed John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae (#66): Suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice. Even though a certain psychological, cultural and social conditioning may induce a person to carry out an action which so radically contradicts the innate inclination to life, thus lessening or removing subjective responsibility, suicide, when viewed objectively, is a gravely immoral act. In fact, it involves the rejection of love of self and the renunciation of the obligation of justice and charity towards one’s neighbour, towards the communities to which one belongs, and towards society as a whole. In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death, as proclaimed in the prayer of the ancient sage of Israel: “You have power over life and death; you lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again” (Wis 16:13; cf. Tob 13:2).

Suicide is indeed a mortal sin. If it be not only ‘as morally objectionable as murder’, but ‘always’ so, it is difficult to understand how it might be forgiven before the Throne of Judgment. It is right to say that Bishop Balla of the Bafia Diocese who committed suicide may not possess an informed intellect (ie know that suicide is wrong); and he may not have given full consent of the will (ie intended to commit the action). If he killed himself out of fear or psychological imbalance or emotional stress, there cannot be full consent since these impede the exercise of the will and mitigate responsibility. The Catechism states: ‘Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide’ (#2282).

But in this Bishop Balla suicide there is something which ought to alarm the Roman Catholic Church at the very highest level-the strong ties between the Francophone Roman Catholic Bishops and the barons of the ruling CPDM government.

All suicide is tragedy. So, yes, we need to talk about Bishop Balla. But let us not do so apart from institutional systems, outdated dogma and overbearing hierarchy. The suicide may as well be an act staged by hired security agents from the state or from abroad.

By Besong Esther Agbor

28, May 2017

French Cameroun: CPDM Muslims belief in the Quran is very superficial ⁰

It can truly be said that incompetent Muslims political elites from the Far North and North regions believe in the Quran only in appearance but act in contravention of its teachings. The situation is the same unfortunately today with many secular Islamic societies including Christian communities all over the world.

Part of the numerous problems faced by Cameroonians under the Biya regime is that a large segment of the population in the Far North and North regions rely on incompetent individuals like [those] in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government.

These highly placed government officials such as the Vice Prime Minister, Amadou Ali, House Speaker, Cavaye Djibril, Ayang Luc, Issa Tchiroma, Amadou Mustapha and the Hayatou family in Garoua believe in the Quran in appearance and even distribute thousands of copies of the Quran to their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters but they are in practice intimate with infidels like Paul Biya and Martin Belinga Eboutou contrary to Quran’s stipulations.

Amadou Ali is directly responsible for the ongoing anti-religious acts in Southern Cameroons and it is important to state here that those Muslim soldiers serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR who are carrying out such measures against Southern Cameroon Muslims and non Muslims communities will certainly face failure and doom.

One of the main recommendations of the Quran that these CPDM Muslims follow strictly is that of having many wives. Some of them even fly first class to Mecca with their mistresses pretending to be going for pilgrimage. The time of their collapse depends on the actions of genuine Muslims throughout La Republique du Cameroun. If the Muslims in the Far North and in the North act correctly, the collapse of these CPDM infidels would be accelerated.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

28, May 2017

Ramadan 2017: Cameroonian Muslims begin 30 days of fasting ⁰

Muslims in Cameroon have started the 30 day period of fasting Cameroon state radio and television reported that the 30 days fast observed each year in accordance with the Islam calendar in preparation for the spiritual journey has been very visible.

At the Briqueterie neighborhood which is predominantly Muslim, provision stores have been stocked with food items consumed during the period of fasting such as rice, sugar flour, milk, date fruits, Corn and Groundnut.

Also, items to facilitate the retreat such as prayer beats, copies of the Koran, kettles and mats have also been displayed. Ramadan is one of the holiest periods in the Islam calendar- a period when Muslims are expected to humble themselves in prayer to Alah. It is a period of spiritual cleansing, abstinence and solidarity.

Camcordnews Desk