Religion

30, January 2023

Douala: Archbishop Kleda links journalist Zogo’s death to 2017 slaying of the Bishop of Bafia ⁰

Catholic leaders in Cameroon have condemned the Jan. 22 murder of a local journalist, comparing the slaying to the 2017 assassination of Bishop Jean-Marie Benoît Balla of Bafia.

The lifeless body of Martinez Zogo, 51, was found along the road to Soa, nine miles from the capital city. His remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, but preliminary investigations reportedly showed signs the journalist, who was also the director general of the urban radio station Amplitude FM, had been tortured, sodomized, and mutilated.

Zogo went missing on January 17. Reports say that he was running toward a local police station to evade a threat when he was grabbed by unidentified men and carted off in a black, unmarked car.

His death has generated national and global condemnation.

“The assassination of this journalist has shocked everyone,” said the Archbishop of Douala, Samuel Kleda, in a Jan. 26 statement.

“A journalist isn’t a thief,” Kleda said. “A journalist who is only doing his job is kidnapped. He is tortured, and he is killed and then dumped in the bush near a village, as if he were a highway robber.”

“It shouldn’t be so in a country worth its salt, in a country of laws where human rights are respected,” he said. “We strongly condemn the assassination of this journalist.”

Kleda then drew parallels between the assassination of Martinez Zogo and that Balla six years ago.

“It’s almost the same scenario. When I look at the way this journalist was killed, I think about the disappearance and the assassination of the Bishop of Bafia, Jean-Marie Benoit Balla.”

“He too, like Martinez Zogo went missing [and] was tortured before being killed,” Kleda said.

Balla disappeared on the night of May 30-31, 2017, and his corpse was discovered floating on the Nyong River on June 2. The country’s bishops indicated that he had undergone significant torture before being murdered.

“Who is killing Cameroonians?”, Kleda asked.

“They tell us that investigations will be conducted, but the results of such investigations are never made public,” he said.

Kleda said he was at a loss to understand why a journalist who ran for safety to a police station could be taken away and the security personnel wouldn’t pursue the kidnappers.

“It’s horrible! It’s inadmissible! There is a serious problem if a citizen can’t be protected by Gendarmes,” he said.

“Why did the police not seek to find the journalist after learning about his disappearance? The police and the gendarmerie could have done everything possible to find the journalist alive. They didn’t do that,” Kleda charged.

He said it was incomprehensible that nobody has been suspected or arrested in connection with the murder.

“It’s curious,” Kleda said. “There is a need to find the killers of this journalist. Those who committed this odious act must be found and punished in accordance with the law.”

He said he couldn’t understand why the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, won’t make at least a statement concerning the assassination the of the journalist, and wondered if the lives of Cameroonians really matter to him.

“When Bishop Balla was brutally assassinated, I said it was one more death too many. I have to make the same statement today after the brutal assassination of the journalist. Cameroonians aren’t protected. Cameroonians don’t feel secure. We can’t understand why the President of the Republic has remained silent in the face of such a grave issue,” Kleda said.

The National Union of Journalists of Cameroon said they were dismayed by the “heinous assassination” of their colleague.

The International Press Institute, a Vienna-based press freedom organization, has urged Cameroonian authorities to “promptly investigate the horrific murder of journalist Martinez Zogo and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”

Jean-Michel Nintcheu, a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Front, said in a press statement that it was “a crime’ that should never go unpunished.

The Director-General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay ,has also condemned the killing and called on the government “ not to let this crime go unpunished. Journalists play an essential part in nurturing and upholding democratic governance. They deserve every necessary protection.”

The head of Reporters Without Borders’ Sub Saharan Africa Desk, Sadibou Marong, said there are “many gray areas regarding the circumstances of his brutal abduction.”

“The authorities must launch a rigorous, thorough and independent investigation to establish the full chain of responsibility and the circumstances that led to this sad event,” he said.

Cameroonian novelist Calixthe Beyala said she was “dejected, saddened. I knew he was dead as soon as it was announced he had been kidnapped. One can ask the question: Whose turn it is? Each of us can find ourselves in this situation for something that we might have said.”

Zogo’s brutal murder casts a long shadow on freedom of the press in Cameroon, and adds to the growing number of attacks on journalists in Cameroon.

In August 2019, journalist Samuel Wazizi was arrested by security forces in Buea in Cameroon’s South West region. After ten months without access to his lawyers or family, authorities finally announced he had died in detention. An investigation carried out by the military police has never been made public.

According to statistics from the Committee to Protect Journalists,17 journalists have either been killed or imprisoned in Cameroon over the last ten years. The largest number of journalists being jailed took place in 2020 when 9 journalists were imprisoned.

Some local observers believe Zogo might have been murdered for investigating and reporting on corruption scandals, some involving senior figures in the country’s political life.

Culled from Crux

19, January 2023

For Nigerian priest burned to death, it wasn’t his first brush with terror ⁰

For a Nigerian priest who was shot and burned to death Jan. 15 by Islamic terrorists inside his own rectory, it was hardly his first brush with violent anti-Christian persecution in Africa’s most populous nation.

Father Isaac Achi, who was murdered at 3:00 a.m. at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Niger State, had previously been the pastor at another parish outside the capital city of Abuja which was the site of a Christmas Day bombing in 2011, which left 44 people dead and at least 60 injured.

Responsibility for that attack was claimed by Boko Haram, Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic insurgency which is believed to be responsible for 35,000 deaths since it began its violent campaign aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in the country.

In response to the threats, Achi continuously preached a non-violent message.

In a homily delivered during a memorial service for victims of the attack at St. Teresa’s Church in Madalla, an Abuja suburb, Achi urged Christians “to learn to forgive those who deliberately hurt them.”

“Those who perpetrate evil against the state and innocent citizens require prayers from Christian faithful,” he said that day.

Two years later, Achi was kidnapped by a militant group operating in the Madalla area, but released later the same day.

In that context, Achi’s violent death a decade later seems a tragically predictable end to a life spent on the front lines of Nigeria’s increasingly perilous environment for Christians and their clergy.

Achi was one of two priests inside Ss. Peter and Paul Church when a band of roughly 15 armed men arrived Sunday. The other, Father Collins Omeh, sustained gunshot wounds while making his escape, and later recounted what happened.

According to Omeh, the gunmen arrived shouting “Allahu Akbar” and confronted him in his living quarters, demanding that he lead them through a hole in roof to Achi. Eventually, he said, they gained access to Achi’s quarters and held both priests at gunpoint.

During that time, Omeh said, the two priests prayed together and heard one another’s confessions. Afterwards Achi urged Omeh to try to escape, taking a gunshot wound to his chest while Omeh was shot in the shoulder while successfully getting away. This angered gunmen then set the rectory on fire, leaving Achi to die from his wounds, the flames, or both.

Omeh said it took local police hours to arrive on the scene, despite being called several times. Christian leaders in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria say such delays are routine in responding to their reports of violent attacks.

Achi’s death comes amid a spate of violence in Nigeria, in which hundreds of Christians have been killed or kidnapped by Boko Haram and other Islamist sects. For many Nigerian Christians, the incident once again raises the question of why are the country’s security agencies are seemingly unable to successful combat the terrorists.

Some claim that security agencies are actually complicit in the violence, because they are profiting from it and that the “Islamization agenda” suits them because the agencies are dominated and run by the same Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups which dominate Boko Haram and other Islamist movements.

Just before Achi’s murder, representatives of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria visited President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

During the meeting, the bishops told Buhari, a Muslim and former army colonel who ran on anti-corruption platform and pledges of law and order, that “our church personnel have been frequent victims in terms of kidnapping or outright murder.”

“The Owo – Ondo State Catholic Church massacre on Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, [which claimed 40 lives], is still very fresh in our hearts,” the bishops said.

Nigeria is scheduled to hold elections for the national Presidency, Vice Presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives on Feb. 23, with state-level voting to follow on March 11. Security is expected to be a major issue in all these races.

Source: Crux

19, January 2023

Archbishop Nkea says Anglophones are weary of war ⁰

After more than six years of war pitting his country’s English-speaking minority against its French-speaking majority, Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda in Cameroon says the Anglophones are weary of the conflict.

“Our people are tired of the war, and our people need peace,” Nkea said January 14.

“In the northwest and southwest regions of our country, we have seen Cameroonians exhibit wickedness against fellow Cameroonians: Homes burned, schools shut down, the destruction of goods and obstruction of the circulation of people and goods…we have seen Cameroonians torture other Cameroonians,” he said.

Nkea was speaking in the St. Anne and Joachim Cathedral in Abang, Ebolowa, in Cameroon’s southern region, during a closing Mass of the 46th annual seminar of Cameroon Catholic Bishops.

In the presence of some thirty bishops from all five ecclesiastical provinces in Cameroon, as well as representatives of bishops from neighboring Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with several government Ministers, Nkea spoke at length about the conflict that has so far left at least 6,000 people dead.

Over a million others have been forced to flee from their homes, and more than 70,000 others have sought refuge in Nigeria, according to the International Crisis Group.

Conflict erupted in 2016 when English-speaking teachers and lawyers took to the streets to protest, amid perceptions that the educational and legal systems in the two Anglophone regions were being overwhelmed by French-speakers with scant knowledge of local realities.

The government took a hard line, and what was initially a peaceful protest mutated into a political crisis. A separatist movement developed and took up arms demanding independence for Cameroon’s English speakers, and the formation of a new state to be called “Ambazonia.”

According to many analysts, the current conflict is a consequence of Cameroon’s colonial legacy. Initially colonized by Germany following the Berlin Conference of 1884, the country would be divided between Britain and France following World War 1.

France claimed four-fifths of the country in the post-war settlement, while Britain was given one-fifth which it administered as part of Nigeria. The two colonial powers would administer the two parts of the country, first as a League of Nations Mandate and then as an United Nations Trust Territory.

In 1960, the French part of Cameroon got its independence to become “La Republique du Cameroun.” The English-speaking part of Cameroon, otherwise known as the British Cameroons, got theirs in 1961, but both sides decided to reunite following a February 11, 1961, plebiscite.

The political elites of the two territories agreed on the formation of a federal State, with considerable autonomy for the English-speaking regions.

In 1972, however, then-President Ahmadou Ahidjo organized a controversial referendum, dissolving the federal structure of the state and replacing it with a united republic. In 1984, President Paul Biya removed the word “united” from the name of the state and Cameroon became known simply as “The Republic of Cameroon,” the name the French-speaking part of the country had adopted at independence.

Cameroon’s English-speakers saw this as an act of assimilation, and the 2016 uprising was therefore the culmination of decades of pent-up frustrations.

While the country’s Catholic bishops, especially from Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, have long called for a revision of what they see as these historical injustices, Nkea believes that everything should be done for peace to return.

“We are inspired by what we have seen in the last six years in some regions of our country,” Nkea said.

“One of the greatest negative effects of war among us is that we lose the fear of the Lord and respect for authority,” the cleric said. He said once people don’t have the fear of the Most High in them, “it is difficult to live in peace.”

The archbishop said the country’s bishops will never rest until hostilities are brought to an end.

“As we leave Ebolowa, we are determined, as individuals and as a conference, to continue working for peace, reconciliation and justice, convinced that these will bring sustainable harmony to our country.”

He then warned against efforts at political manipulation of the church.

“The Catholic Church isn’t a political party where anyone can militate according to its political manifesto,” the cleric said.

“The Catholic Church is the mystical body of Christ,” he noted and explained that both clergy and laity “must make Christ present in our world and in different societies.”

It is only when Christ is present in the different communities and in each individual, the archbishop argued, that there can be peace in the world.

“We have prayed for peace in our entire country, hoping that all the problems we are having will be resolved, and our people will once again live in peace.”

Source: Crux

11, January 2023

Roman Catholic Bishops meet in Ebolowa ⁰

Members of the Cameroon Catholic Bishops’ Conference known also as the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) are gathering in-person in Ebolowa for their 2023 General Meeting.

Topics being discussed by the Bishops’ Conference include the difficulties of sharing the Gospel in the modern world within the framework of the apostolic constitution; the work of the Bishops’, praying for peace and making sure that the cry of the poor is heard.

The 2023 National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) an annual seminar of the Bishops of Cameroon started on Saturday 7, 2023 and will end on Saturday 14, 2023.

By Rita Akana

5, January 2023

Pope Francis presides over funeral of predecessor Benedict XVI ⁰

Pope Francis led the funeral of his predecessor Benedict XVI on Thursday in front of tens of thousands of mourners in St Peter’s Square, an event unprecedented in modern times.

Red-clad cardinals, dignitaries and thousands of priests and nuns from around the world gathered to say goodbye to the German theologian, who stunned the Catholic Church in 2013 by becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to resign.

For the first time in modern history, the proceedings were led by a sitting pope, Francis, who delivered the homily in Italian as part of a multi-lingual service with a Latin mass.

“Benedict… may your joy be complete as you hear his (God’s) voice, now and forever!” the pontiff said in tribute to his predecessor, who died last Saturday aged 95.

At the end of the service, Francis made the sign of the cross over Benedict’s simple cypress wood coffin and bowed his head, before 12 besuited pallbearers carried it into St Peter’s Basilica.

Benedict will be interred in a tomb in the crypt beneath the basilica, where John Paul II’s body lay in state before it was moved for his beatification in 2011. He was made a saint in 2014.

Born Joseph Ratzinger, the ex-pope had not been a head of state for a decade, but world leaders including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were among those in attendance.

An estimated 50,000 people were in the square for the funeral, according to police, many of them having queued up since dawn to bid farewell.

“Benedict is a bit like my father, so I had to pay homage to him,” said Cristina Grisanti, a 59-year-old from Milan, who hailed the former pope’s “purity, his candour, his mildness”.

An estimated 195,000 people had already paid their respects earlier when the body lay in state.

Benedict was the first German pope in 1,000 years and church bells rang out across Germany as the funeral finished on Thursday, while many Germans were also at the Vatican.

“We owe him so much. We want to show that we stand behind him,” said Benedikt Rothweiler, 34, who came from Aachen with his family.

“We actually know too little about Benedict. He always accepted everything the way God wants it. This is a good example for us humans.”

Two popes

Benedict was a brilliant theologian but a divisive figure who alienated many Catholics with his staunch defence of conservative doctrine on issues such as abortion.

His eight years as head of the worldwide Catholic Church was also marked by crises, from in-fighting within the Vatican to the global scandal of clerical sex abuse and its cover-up.

When he quit, Benedict said he no longer had the “strength of mind and body” necessary for the task, retiring to a quiet life in a monastery in the Vatican gardens.

His death brought an end to an unprecedented situation of having two “men in white” — he and Francis — living in the tiny city state.

He and Francis, an Argentine Jesuit, were said to get on well, but Benedict’s later interventions meant he stayed a standard-bearer for conservative Catholics who did not like his successor’s more liberal stance.

The last time a pope presided over the funeral of his predecessor was in 1802, when Pius VII led the ceremony for Pius VI — but the circumstances were very different.

Pius VI died in 1799 in exile, a prisoner of France, and was buried in Valence. His successor had his remains exhumed and brought back to Italy, before he was treated to a papal funeral at St Peter’s.

European royals

Beyond St Peter’s, many of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics had been expected to follow the funeral proceedings on television and the radio.

In the majority Catholic Philippines, churches held requiem masses for the former pontiff, including at Malolos Cathedral near the capital Manila.

“This is an unexplainable feeling to witness this,” said Cherry Castro, 67, who was among around 500 gathered for the special ceremony.

Portugal declared a national day of mourning on Thursday, while in Italy, flags were flown at half-mast on public buildings.

The only official delegations were from Germany and Italy.

But other dignitaries, including Belgian and Spanish royals, the presidents of Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Slovenia and Togo, and the premiers of the Czech Republic, Gabon and Slovakia among others attended in a personal capacity.

The service followed traditional papal funerals, with a few changes to prayers and readings to reflect Benedict’s status as emeritus pope.

Before being laid in the crypt, his cypress coffin was due to be placed first inside a zinc coffin, then a wooden case.

As is traditional, coins and medals minted during his papacy and a written text describing his pontificate, sealed in a metal cylinder, will be placed alongside his body.

Source: AFP

2, January 2023

Thousands pay respects as Pope Benedict XVI lies in state at Vatican ⁰

Thousands of Catholics began paying their respects Monday to former pope Benedict XVI at St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, at the start of three days of lying-in-state before his funeral.

The queue began to form before dawn in the square in front of the basilica, where Benedict’s body was transferred earlier from the monastery in the Vatican grounds where he died Saturday aged 95.

“I arrived at 6:00 am, it seemed normal to come and pay homage to him after all he did for the church,” said an Italian nun, sister Anna-Maria, who was in the early morning queue.

Benedict led the Catholic Church for eight years before becoming the first pope in six centuries to step down in 2013, citing his declining and physical health.

His successor Pope Francis will lead the funeral on Thursday in St Peter’s Square before his remains are laid to rest in the tombs beneath the Basilica. Benedict, a German theologian, died at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, which had been his home for the past decade.

The Vatican on Sunday released photos of his corpse, dressed in red papal mourning robes and wearing a gold-edged mitre on his head, on a catafalque in the monastery chapel.

Members of the public will be able to pay their respects at St Peter’s Basilica from 9:00 am (0800 GMT) on Monday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday. Benedict’s shock resignation created the extraordinary situation of having two “men in white” — him and Francis — at the Vatican. His funeral will also break new ground.

Papal deaths usually trigger the calling of a conclave of cardinals to elect a successor, but this time Francis remains in post, and will lead proceedings. Benedict’s funeral will be “solemn but simple”, the Vatican has said, after which he will be buried in the papal tombs under St Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican has yet to release details of the guest list, beyond saying that it will include delegations from Italy and Benedict’s native Germany.

‘Faithful servant’

The last papal funeral, of John Paul II in 2005, drew a million faithful and heads of state from around the world, although Benedict was a more divisive figure.

A brilliant theologian, he alienated many Catholics with his staunch defence of traditional values and as pope struggled to impose his authority on the church as it battled a string of crises, including over clerical sex abuse.

His successor cuts a very different figure, an Argentine Jesuit who is most at home among his flock and has sought to forge a more compassionate church.

Pope Francis paid tribute to Benedict in three New Year’s events at the Vatican over the weekend, “thanking God for the gift of this faithful servant of the Gospel and of the Church”.

Francis, 86, has raised the prospect that he might follow Benedict’s example and step down if he became unable to carry out his duties.

In July, suffering knee problems that have forced him to rely on a wheelchair, he admitted he needed to slow down or think about stepping aside.

Last month, Francis revealed he had signed a resignation letter when he took office should poor health prevent him from carrying out his duties.

Source: AFP

31, December 2022

Pope Benedict XVI dies at 95 ⁰

Former pope Benedict XVI has died at the age of 95, the Vatican announced Saturday, almost a decade after he became the first pontiff to resign in six centuries.

“With sorrow I inform you that the Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, passed away today at 9:34 in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

The German pope emeritus, whose birth name was Joseph Ratzinger, had been living a quiet life in a former convent inside the Vatican grounds since his shock decision to step down in February 2013.

His health had been declining for a long time, but the Vatican revealed on Wednesday that his situation had worsened, while his successor Pope Francis called for Catholics worldwide to pray for him.

His death brings to an end an unprecedented situation in which two “men in white” –Benedict and Francis – had co-existed within the walls of the tiny city state.

Benedict’s funeral will be held in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, January 5 and will be presided over by Pope Francis, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said on Saturday.

In 2005 the body of John Paul II, the last pope to die, lay in state before a funeral mass in St Peter’s Square attended by one million people, including heads of state.

Scandal and in-fighting

Benedict had almost entirely withdrawn from public view, his health reported to be shaky and the few photographs that emerged of him exposing his frailty.

Back in 2013, he had cited his declining physical and mental health in his decision to become the first pope since 1415 to give up the job as head of the worldwide Catholic church.

Benedict was a brilliant theologian but his papacy was beset by Vatican in-fighting and a scandal over clerical sexual abuse of children that rocked the Catholic Church the world over, in which he was criticised for a lack of leadership.

The abuse scandal overshadowed his final months after a damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally failing to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s while archbishop of Munich.

He denied wrongdoing and the Vatican strongly defended his record in being the first pope to apologise for the scandals, who expressed his own “deep remorse” and met with victims.

Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, Benedict was 78 when he succeeded the long-reigning and popular John Paul II in April 2005, the first German pope of the modern era.

He later said his election felt “like the guillotine”.

Unlike his successor Pope Francis, a Jesuit who delights in being among his flock, Benedict was a conservative intellectual dubbed “God’s Rottweiler” in a previous post as chief doctrinal enforcer.

His papacy was dogged by controversy, from comments that angered the Muslim world to a money-laundering scandal at the Vatican bank and a personal humiliation when, in 2012, his butler leaked secret papers to the media.

Despite saying he would live “hidden from the world” after his resignation, he repeatedly intervened on key issues facing the Church through books, interviews and articles.

In January 2020, he expressed his opposition to allowing priests to marry. A year earlier, he blamed clerical abuse scandals on the 1960s sexual revolution and a collapse in faith in the West.

In an interview in March 2021, he said “there is only one pope”, but acknowledged “fanatical” supporters who refused to accept his resignation.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

28, December 2022

Benedict XVI’s health worsening, Pope Francis asks for prayers ⁰

The Vatican on Wednesday confirmed that the health of ex-pontiff Benedict XVI, 95, has worsened in the last few hours and he had been visited by Pope Francis, hours after the current pontiff said his predecessor is “very sick” and asked for prayers.

“I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a deterioration due to advancing age. The situation at the moment remains under control, monitored continually by doctors,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement.

This came after Pope Francis said in a surprise announcement in Italian at the end of his weekly general audience: “I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church.”

“Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end,” Francis said.

Until a few weeks ago, those who had seen Benedict said his body was very frail but his mind was still sharp.

One of the latest known photographs of Benedict was taken on Dec. 1, when he met the winners of a prize for theologians named after him. He was seated and looked exceptionally weak.

Since his resignation Benedict has been living in a former convent inside the Vatican gardens, with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and a few other aides and medical staff.

Benedict announced his intention to resign on February 11, 2013, shocking a meeting of cardinals. He said he no longer had the physical and mental strength to run the Church.

He formally stepped down on February 28 that year, moving temporarily to the papal summer residence south of Rome while cardinals from around the world came to Rome to choose his successor.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America, was elected to succeed him on March 13, 2013.

While Francis has often praised the former pope, saying it was like having a grandfather in a home, the presence of two men dressed in white in the Vatican was at times troublesome.

Conservatives looked to the former pope as their standard bearer and some ultra-traditionalists even refused to acknowledge Francis as a legitimate pontiff.

Benedict, the first German pope in 1,000 years, was elected on April 19, 2005 to succeed the widely popular Pope John Paul II, who reigned for 27 years.

Cardinals chose him from among their number seeking continuity and what one called “a safe pair of hands”.

For nearly 25 years, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, he was the powerful head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

Source: AFP and Reuters

25, December 2022

The Holy Father Pope Francis pleads for end to ‘senseless’ Ukraine war in Christmas message ⁰

Pope Francis on Sunday appealed for an end to the “senseless” war in Ukraine, in his traditional Christmas message from St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.

The 86-year-old also warned the 10-month-old conflict was aggravating food shortages around the world, urging an end to the use of “food as a weapon”.

The head of the Catholic Church addressed thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square, some of them holding Ukrainian flags, before delivering the “Urbi et Orbi” blessing (“to the city and the world”).

He has repeatedly called for peace ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, condemning the war but seeking to maintain a delicate dialogue with Moscow.

In his address from the central balcony of St Peter’s, he recalled “our Ukrainian brothers and sisters who are experiencing this Christmas in the dark and cold, far from their homes”.

“May the Lord inspire us to offer concrete gestures of solidarity to assist all those who are suffering, and may he enlighten the minds of those who have the power to silence the thunder of weapons and put an immediate end to this senseless war!”

“Tragically, we prefer to heed other counsels, dictated by worldly ways of thinking”, he added, recalling “with sorrow” that “the icy winds of war continue to buffet humanity”.

“Our time is experiencing a grave famine of peace also in other regions and other theatres of this third world war,” he said.

He referenced numerous countries in difficulty this Christmas, whether due to conflict or another crisis, from Afghanistan to Yemen, Syria, Myanmar, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon and Haiti.

For the first time, he also called for “reconciliation” in Iran, rocked by women-led protests for the past three months.

The pope also urged those celebrating Christmas to remember all those “who go hungry while huge amounts of food daily go to waste and resources are being spent on weapons”.

“The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa,” he said.

“We know that every war causes hunger and exploits food as a weapon, hindering its distribution to people already suffering,” the pope added.

“On this day, let us learn from the Prince of Peace (Jesus Christ) and, starting with those who hold political responsibilities, commit ourselves to making food solely an instrument of peace.”

Source: AFP

21, December 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Pope Francis man in Yaoundé leaves behind a divided country ⁰

As the pope’s ambassador to Cameroon moves on, leaving behind a country still torn apart by ethnic and linguistic divides despite his best efforts at peace, his final plea to the country was to embrace a spirit of “dialogue without prejudice.”

Archbishop Julio Murat, a Turkish prelate who’s served in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea since 2018, was named the new Apostolic Nuncio, or ambassador, to Sweden and Iceland Nov. 9.

During a Mass to bid him farewell organized by the Cameroon Episcopal Conference on December 12, 2022, Murat asked God and the Christians to forgive him “for his sins of omission.”

“If I hurt anyone unknowingly, please, forgive me,” he said.

“There are things you can’t forget in life, even if you have so much to do,” the nuncio said, and acknowledged the “tremendous” support he received from the Cameroon Bishops’ Conference, the Christians and the country’s authorities.

He expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for trusting him with the position and called for dialogue whenever there are differences.

“The Church wasn’t meant to separate people, but to unite those who are separated. And if there are differences as a result of different sensibilities, we should always be open to listen, to dialogue, without prejudice.”

Murat didn’t mention the one issue that has divided Cameroon and threatens to bring down the country’s very foundations: A separatist war in the country’s English-speaking regions, which has been raging since 2016.

The President of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Andrew Nkea lost no time in thanking the Apostolic Nuncio for his efforts at finding solutions to the crisis.

“You worked so hard to make sure that the poor and the vulnerable of our country are not forgotten,” Nkea said.

“Your love for peace, unity and reconciliation amongst Cameroonians characterized your stay in Cameroon. We will miss your spiritual diplomacy for the common good, especially for the people of the northwest and southwest regions.”

In those two territories, separatists have been fighting to create a new nation to be called “Ambazonia.” Fighting broke out in 2016 when the French-speaking central government took a hard stand against English-speaking teachers and lawyers who took to the streets to protest the over-bearing influence of French in Anglo-Saxon schools and Common Law Courts, which are signposts of the British colonial legacy to the two regions.

Nkea recalled that Murat was a key figure in the organization of a National Pilgrimage for Peace that took place at the Marian Shrine in Marienberg Edea from April 23-24, during which Cameroon was re-consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Noting that there was a time for everything, Nkea said that what’s important is “what happens between the time one is born and the moment one dies. It’s the same thing: when you arrive and when you leave is not important. What’s important is what happens between when you arrive and when you leave.”

Besides the search for peace in a divided nation, Nkea lauded the nuncio’s effort in creating a more harmonious atmosphere between the Church and the state.

“Your work in Cameroon filled a great void between the church and the state, and our church-state relations are now better understood,” he said.

In an apparent swipe at top government and religious officials present at the farewell mass, Nkea spoke at length about the notion of authority, and what it should mean in the exercise of their daily duties.

“A person in authority is not just anyone who wields coercive power over others,” the cleric said.

“The exercise of genuine authority is not to control, to keep in line, to command. On the contrary, it is to be an agent in releasing the potential that is in people: to be an empowering agent. Jesus didn’t wield coercive authority. He came not to be served but to serve. He came to lead people into the full development of what they could be, and what they were meant to be,” Nkea said.

The cleric explained that when Jesus went down on His knees to wash the feet of his disciples, it wasn’t a sign of weakness, “it was an act of authority, the authority of outreaching love.”

Noting that virtually everyone yielded some kind of authority, Nkea urged everyone to understand that all authority comes from God,” and we shall all one day answer to God how we used the authority that he gave us.”

“God gives us authority not to misuse, not to abuse, and not to impose our authority on others. All authority must be used in the fear of the Lord who is the source of all authority,” he explained.

With Christmas just days away, Nkea warned against “worldly, circular celebrations of Christmas,” and exhorted Christians to prepare to celebrate the coming Lord “with true joy and understanding…we cannot be distracted by all those excesses… and end up forgetting why we celebrate Christmas in the first place-our joy in the Lord’s coming and His salvation.”

Source: Crux