20, October 2022
Priests abducted in Southern Cameroons last month plead for release in new video 0
A video has emerged on social media that shows five Catholic priests, a nun, and three others who were kidnapped last month in Cameroon’s Mamfe Diocese pleading with their local ordinary to secure their release.
On Sept. 16, unidentified gunmen attacked St. Mary’s Catholic Nchang Parish of Mamfe Diocese in Cameroon. Nine people were abducted and buildings on the parish premises, including the church, were burned down.
The attackers kidnapped Father Elias Okorie, Father Barnabas Ashu, Father Cornelius Jingwa, Father Job Francis Nwobegu, Father Emmanuel Asaba, Sister Jacinta C. Udeagha, Nkem Patrick Osang (an assistant catechist), Blanche Bright, and Mme. Kelechukwu.
In the 45-second video circulated Oct. 19, Father Jingwa, one of the abductees, provides updates about their welfare and pleads with Bishop Aloysius Fondong Abangalo to do “everything possible” to secure their release.
“So far it has not been easy. If you look at us, you will see our faces are very dismal, very unhappy,” Jingwa says in the video.
He adds: “It is quite difficult and we are only begging My Lord that you do everything possible to get us out of here.”
“It is a matter of do or die,” the priest laments.
“You see for example, I have been very sick, my brothers too are not feeling fine at all,” he continues.
“Please kindly, My Lord, help get us out of here. Do whatever it takes to listen to this voice and do what they ask of you. Thank you.”
In a Sept. 21 interview with ACI Africa, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese said the abductors “are only asking for money.”
“Those who abducted these people and set the church ablaze are only asking for ransom,” Nkea said.
“They are demanding $100,000 and they have been arguing and coming down. They are somewhere around $50,000 but we don’t have even a dollar to pay for this kind of thing,” he added.
According to Nkea, the abductors, who claim to be separatist fighters, “see the Church as a soft target to be able to make money.”
“But the Church has no money to pay ransom,” Nkea told ACI Africa.
The archbishop further said that the abductors “are claiming that the Church has not been supporting the struggle for independence by separatist fighters and so they want money.”
“We have tried to explain to all those who have … tried to abduct ministers of the Church that the Church cannot be paying ransom to separatist fighters or to criminals,” said Nkea, who has been head of the Bamenda Archdiocese since February 2020.
The arson attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Nchang Parish is one of the latest incidents in the conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest and the southwest regions. The conflict was sparked by a protest involving lawyers and teachers in 2016.
An armed separatists’ movement claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on the protests.
English is spoken by about 20% of Cameroon’s population, who have long complained about being marginalized by the French-speaking ruling class.
On Sept. 17, members of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference called on those behind the abduction “to release them without further delay.”
In a statement issued Sept. 21, Bishop Abangalo appealed for prayers for the safe release of the nine abductees.
Source: ACI Africa
20, October 2022
Priest from Mamfe Diocese meets Pope Benedict XVI 0
Pope Benedict welcomed Revered Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai in the Vatican on Thursday making him feel at home and showed great concern for the Catholic community in English speaking Cameroon that is facing difficulties.
It was a wonderful feeling meeting Pope Benedict, Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai told Cameroon Concord News.
Pope Benedict was keen to know about the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa. He was pleased the Cameroonian priest was teaching his theology in the USA.
Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai told Pope Benedict that his theology is loved and cherished all over the world. Dr Agbaw-Ebai also said Benedict’s teachings is contributing much to society and to the development of humanity, especially through a course called Joseph Ratzinger and the Enlightenment education.
Below is Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai’s address delivered during his meeting with Pope Benedict XVI
Holy Father, first of all, I wish to thank you immensely for accepting to meet me. This is a day that I never hoped for, though I have prayed for it for over 21 years. It is truly a miracle. Thank you for your generosity in receiving me. You have been the decisive spiritual and academic director of my life. I wrote my doctoral dissertation in theology on your theology of the Logos, starting with your inaugural lecture, God of Faith, God of the Philosophers. Vielen Dank.
Secondly, thank you very much for your great theological writings. When I was going for graduate studies, my Bishop then, Bishop Francis Teke Lysinge, said to me: You are going to study the theology of Pope Benedict XVI. Remember, his Theology is very spiritual. You must grow in holiness as you study him.
Holy Father, your theology has shaped and is shaping and forming a generation of young priests from Africa.
Your theology has shown us that it is beautiful to become a priest of Jesus, a friend of the Bridegroom, to use an image from your dear Augustine of Hippo.
Your theology is loved by so many young African priests and seminarians, and for that, we say, thank you.
Holy Father, presently, I teach theology and philosophy at St. John’s Seminary in Boston, MA. There, also, your theology is loved and cherished.
In fact, I teach a course called Joseph Ratzinger and the Enlightenment. Many seminarians take this course. They sent a photo of the class for me to give you, which I will give you soon. The seminarians of St. John’s Seminary and the Faculty asked me to convey their love to you.
Holy Father, with the Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda, Most Rev. Adrew F. Nkea, we are setting up the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa, to make your theological corpus known in the continent of Africa.
We organized a Conference at the Catholic University in Yaoundé, Cameroon, to mark the 10th anniversary of your visit to Cameroon and Angola.
We also organized a Conference at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Africae Munus. We have also organized two conferences at the University of St, Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Chicago, bringing together African scholars who work in the US, to discuss and engage your theology, and form networks of support for each other along the pathway of Jesus Christ, which your theology clearly shows out to us.
Next month, to mark your 95th Birthday, we will be having another conference at the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda, bringing together theologians from Africa to engage your beautiful classic, Introduction to Christianity. Please pray for this Conference.
And Holy Father, finally, and most important of all, the Archbishop of Bamenda and President of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Most Rev. Andrew Nkea, will be inaugurating the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa as a Constituent College of the Catholic University of Cameroon, Bamenda. I hereby present to you the program, and I ask for your blessing as we begin this Theology Institute for the Continent of Africa dedicated to the study of your great life and great theological legacy, for the good of the Church in Africa and beyond, just like the Ancient Catechetical School of Alexandria.
I beg for your prayers for all these intentions, Holy Father, and also, your prayers for 5 priests, a nun, and a catechist, kidnapped in the Diocese of Mamfe in Cameroon, my home diocese, who are currently in a terrible situation in the forest. Please pray for their release and for the comfort of the peoples so affected by this conflict in Cameroon. I will also leave a list of prayer intentions with Archbishop George.
Vergelt’s Gott, Geliebter, Heiliger Vater, und Danke schön.
Rev. Maurice A. Agbaw-Ebai
St. John’s Seminary, Boston MA/Boston College, Boston MA/Merrimack College, North Andover, MA
127 Lake St Brighton MA 02135 USA
Reported by Chi Prudence Asong