Religion

2, April 2021

Christians, CRTV’S Charles Ebune mark Good Friday: Jerusalem is for everyone ⁰

Huddled in a corner of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Angele Percenita struggled to contain her tears, overwhelmed to be marking Good Friday in Jerusalem’s Old City after last year’s lockdown.

Percenita, a Filipina caregiver in Israel who said she has been fully inoculated against coronavirus, was one of hundreds of faithful who visited Christianity’s holiest site on the day.

“It’s so, so much better than last year,” she told AFP.

Usually thousands mark Good Friday with a procession tracing the 14 Stations of the Cross, the route Christians believe Jesus walked while carrying his cross before being crucified.

Last year, as the pandemic was intensifying and with Jerusalem in its first of three coronavirus lockdowns, only four faithful retraced Christ’s footsteps along the Old City’s narrow cobbled streets.

Last year was also the first time the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the site of Christ’s crucifixion and burial, according to tradition — had been closed for Easter in at least a century.

Israel — which annexed east Jerusalem including the Old City in 1967 — has vaccinated more than half of its 9.3 million residents, allowing the reopening of most major sites.

Lina Sleibi, a Palestinian Christian, recalled watching Easter mass online in 2020.

“Last year it was very hard. We felt like the city was dead,” said the 28-year-old who sings at church services in the West Bank holy city of Bethlehem nearby.

Now, “you feel alive again,” she said.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the final stop on the Stations of the Cross.

Hundreds of faithful, led by religious leaders bearing a cross, wound towards the church along the Via Dolorosa (Path of Sorrow) that snakes through the Old City.

While the modest crowd marked a step towards normalcy, the turnout was still minimal compared to the thousands that typically flock to Jerusalem during Easter.

– Small crowds –

In 2019, 25,000 people gathered in the city for Palm Sunday, according to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Angleena Keizer, a minister with the Church of Scotland, told AFP it felt “special” to be marking one of Christianity’s most important days at its holiest site without crowds of tourists.

“It’s nice to walk down the street when it’s not packed with tourists.

“But, on the other hand, we would prefer for them to be here because of the economy and for people to be able to experience Easter on the Holy Land from around the world.”

Despite Israel’s reopening, tourists are still broadly barred from entering the country.

Bader Rabadi, a Palestinian tour guide, said it was “painful (and) frustrating” to watch mass online last year, in contrast to this year’s feeling of “celebration”.

But something is still missing, he said, voicing hope that next year Christians from around the world will again be able to mark Easter in the Holy City.

“Jerusalem is not ours. It’s for everyone,” he said.

Source: AFP

15, March 2021

Vatican’s Doctrinal Office: Catholic Church Cannot Give Blessings to Same-Sex Unions ⁰

The Vatican’s doctrinal office on Monday clarified that the Catholic Church does not have the power to give liturgical blessings of homosexual unions.

Answering the question “does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded, “negative.”

In an accompanying note, the doctrine office explained that blessings are sacramentals, and “consequently, in order to conform with the nature of sacramentals, when a blessing is invoked on particular human relationships, in addition to the right intention of those who participate, it is necessary that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord.”

“Therefore, only those realities which are in themselves ordered to serve those ends are congruent with the essence of the blessing imparted by the Church,” the CDF said.

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage (i.e., outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open in itself to the transmission of life), as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”

The ruling and note were approved for publication by Pope Francis and signed by CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria and secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.

The CDF’s note did not state the origin of the dubium submitted to the doctrinal office, but noted that “in some ecclesial contexts, plans and proposals for blessings of unions of persons of the same sex are being advanced.”

In recent years, German bishops in particular have been increasingly outspoken in demanding “discussions about an opening” towards acceptance of practiced homosexuality and the blessing of homosexual unions in the Church.

Following consultations in Berlin in late 2019, the chairman of the marriage and family commission of the German bishops’ conference declared that the German bishops agreed that homosexuality was a “normal form” of human sexual identity.

The topic also plays a central role in one of four forums that constitute the controversial “Synodal Process” underway in Germany.

The CDF explained in 2003 that “the Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.”

German bishops who have publicly voiced support for the blessing of same-sex unions in the Catholic Church include Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück, and Bishop Heinrich Timmerervers of Dresden-Meißen.

Bishop Bätzing, the president of the German bishops’ conference, in December 2020 called for changes to the section on homosexuality in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Expressing openness to blessings of homosexual unions, he said, “we need solutions for this.”

On Feb. 23, Bishop Peter Kohlgraf of Mainz defended his support for a book of blessings and rites for homosexual unions. The book followed a May 2020 publication from Austria about how same-sex couples might receive a formal, liturgical blessing. Kohlgraf suggested that Catholics with homosexual inclinations cannot all be expected to live chastely.

The call for liturgical blessings of same-sex unions is part of a wider push by some German bishops to change the Church’s teaching on a number of issues, including on the sacraments of priestly ordination and marriage.

CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German partner agency, reported that Bishop Bätzing has suggested that the Vatican Synod of Bishops on synodality, scheduled for October 2022, could help implement German “Synodal Way” resolutions not only in Germany, but throughout the Catholic Church.

Source: National Catholic Register

12, March 2021

Cardinal Robert Sarah: “I have never opposed the pope.” ⁰

Cardinal Robert Sarah on Wednesday rejected claims that he and Pope Francis are enemies, in his first interview since stepping down from his Vatican post.

In an interview with an Italian newspaper published March 10, the Guinean cardinal said that he had “tried to be a loyal, obedient, and humble servant of the truth of the Gospel.”

“Even though some journalists continually repeat the same nonsense,” he told Il Foglio, “I have never opposed the pope.”

An English translation of the cardinal’s interview was published on Wednesday by the National Catholic Register.

On Feb. 20, Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Sarah’s resignation as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Sarah had submitted his resignation to the pope when he turned 75 in June 2020, as Church norms dictate.

Before his resignation, Sarah was the most senior African prelate at the Vatican, appointed head of the liturgy department by Pope Francis in November 2014.

Sarah said in his interview that when Pope Francis told him that he had decided to accept the resignation, “I immediately replied that I was happy and grateful for his decision.”

“I am happy and proud to have served three popes — St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis — in the Roman Curia for more than 20 years,” the cardinal continued.

“Some people insinuate without reason or even being able to provide concrete and credible proof that we were enemies, it’s not true! Pope Francis likes frankness. We have always worked together with simplicity, despite the fantasies of journalists,” he said.

Sarah criticized the idea that his former role leading the Congregation for Divine Worship was “an honorary position, but of little importance.”

“I believe that the responsibility for the liturgy puts us at the heart of the Church, of her raison d’être. The Church is neither an administration nor a human institution. The Church mysteriously prolongs Christ’s presence on earth,” he said.

Sarah quoted the Second Vatican Council document Sacrosanctum concilium, which says that the liturgy is “a sacred action surpassing all others” and “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.”

“The Church exists to give men to God and to give God to men,” Sarah explained. “This is precisely the role of the liturgy: to worship God and to communicate divine grace to souls. When the liturgy is sick, the whole Church is in danger because her relationship with God is not only weakened but deeply damaged.”

He recalled Benedict XVI’s comment that the crisis of the Church is “essentially a crisis of the liturgy because it is a crisis of the relationship with God.”

“If God is not at the center of the Church’s life, then she is in danger of death,” the cardinal said.

Sarah also emphasized that the liturgy is about God, not the community or individual. This reality, he said, is expressed well when the liturgy is said ad orientem, meaning with the priest facing the altar, or liturgical East, rather than the people.

The cardinal also explained why he thought that silence was important in the liturgy.

“When man remains silent, he leaves a place for God,” he said. “On the contrary, when the liturgy becomes chatty, it forgets that the cross is its center, it organizes itself around the microphone.”

He said these questions are crucial, “because they determine the place we give to God,” and lamented that they had become “ideological.”

Factional struggles within the Church are a source of suffering for him, he said. “Too often we act as if everything is a question of politics, power, influence and the unjustified imposition of a hermeneutic of Vatican II that totally breaks and is irreversibly at odds with Tradition.”

He declared it “false” that he was opposed to the Second Vatican Council because he spoke of a sense of the sacred in the liturgy.

“I don’t believe that the struggle between progressives and conservatives has any meaning in the Church. These categories are political and ideological,” he said, adding that “the Church is not a field of political struggle.”

“The only thing that counts is to seek God ever more deeply, to meet him there and humbly kneel down to adore him.”

It was unfortunate, Cardinal Sarah said, that there are “ideologues” who set the pre-Council Church against the post-Council Church.

According to the cardinal, these people “are dividers; they are doing the work of the devil.”

“The Church is one, without rupture, without changing course, because her Founder ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,’” he said. “She goes towards God, she directs us towards him. From the profession of faith of St. Peter to Pope Francis through Vatican II, the Church turns us towards Christ.”

Now that he is retired, Sarah said that he intended to continue working and was happy to have more time to pray and read.

“I will continue to write, to speak, to travel. Here in Rome, I continue to receive priests and faithful from all over the world,” he said.

Sarah will continue to serve as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, where he said he saw “with immense joy how the Church is bursting with holiness.”

“More than ever the Church needs bishops who speak clearly, free and faithful to Jesus Christ and to the doctrinal and moral teachings of his Gospel,” he said. “I intend to continue this mission and even amplify it.”

Source: Catholic News Agency

11, March 2021

Myanmar: Catholic nun begs police not to shoot protesters during unrest ⁰

A religious sister in northern Burma knelt before police on Monday, begging them not to use violent force against protestors.

In avideo, Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis Xavier, can be seen speaking March 8 to two kneeling police officers in the city of Myitkyina, the capital of Burma’s northern Kachin State.

Speaking to Reuters, Tawng said: “I begged them not to hurt the protesters, but to treat them kindly, like family members.”

She said that senior officers had told her they were just clearing the street. In the video, the sister and one policeman can be seen touching their foreheads to the ground.

“I begged them not to shoot the children,” she said.

But soon after, “we heard loud gunshots and saw that a young kid’s head had exploded, and there was a river of blood on the street,” she recounted.

Tawng and other witnesses said that at least two protestors were killed and several injured in clashes with police.

The religious sister tried to bring some of the victims to a clinic she runs in the town but was blinded by tear gas.

“Our clinic floor became a sea of blood,” she said. “We need to value life. It made me feel so sad.”

Catholic nuns from a variety of communities in Burma have marched the streets, praying for the protestors and offering them food, according to UCA News. Amid protests in Myitkyina, the sisters hung signs saying “No to dictatorship” and “Listen to the voices of people” outside of their convent.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of 54 million people. Both the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and president Win Myint were detained by members of the military in the early hours of Feb. 1, after the military disputed the results of the 2020 election. The army general Min Aung Hlaing now leads the country.

According to an advocacy group, more than 60 people have died and over 1,800 have been detained as police crack down on protests against the Feb. 1 military coup.

Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng was also photographed kneeling before a line of advancing police officers late last month.

L’Osservatore Romanosaidthat the she ran out into the street on Feb. 28 as police fired tear gas at protesters.

“On her knees, she raised her hands to God and begged: ‘Don’t shoot, don’t kill innocents. If you want, hit me,’” the newspaper reported, adding that the police halted their advance.

Source: Catholic News Agency

5, March 2021

The Holy Father begins historic visit to war-ravaged Iraq as ‘pilgrim of peace’ ⁰

Pope Francis landed in Iraq Friday to begin his historic trip to the war-battered country, defying security fears and the pandemic to comfort one of the world’s oldest and most persecuted Christian communities.

The pope, who wore a mask during the flight, kept it on as he descended the stairs to the tarmac and was greeted by two masked children in traditional dress.

A red carpet was rolled out on the tarmac at Baghdad’s international airport with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on hand to greet him.

The 84-year-old, who said he is making his first-ever papal visit to Iraq as a “pilgrim of peace,” will also reach out to Shiite Muslims when he meets Iraq’s top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

The four-day journey is the pope’s first abroad since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which left the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics saying he felt “caged” inside the Vatican.

While Francis has been vaccinated, Iraq has been gripped by a second wave with a record of over 5,000 new cases a day, prompting authorities to impose full lockdowns during the pontiff’s visit.

Security was tight in Iraq, a country that is still hunting for Islamic State (IS) group sleeper cells after years of war and insurgency. Only days ago, a barrage of rockets ploughed into a military base hosting US troops.

Hundreds of people had gathered along the airport road with hopes of catching a glimpse of the pope’s plane touching down.

Iraqis were keen to welcome him and the global attention his visit will bring, with banners and posters hanging high in central Baghdad, and billboards depicting Francis with the slogan “We are all Brothers” decorating the main thoroughfare.

Services in ravaged churches, refurbished stadiums

Francis will preside over a half-dozen services in ravaged churches, refurbished stadiums and remote desert locations, where attendance will be limited to allow for social distancing.

Inside the country, he will travel more than 1,400 kilometres (870 miles) by plane and helicopter, flying over areas where security forces are still battling IS remnants.

For shorter trips, Francis will take an armoured car on freshly paved roads that will be lined with flowers and posters welcoming the leader known here as “Baba Al-Vatican”.

The pope’s visit has deeply touched Iraq’s Christians, whose numbers have collapsed over years of persecution and sectarian violence, from 1.5 million in 2003 to fewer than 400,000 today.

“We’re hoping the pope will explain to the government that it needs to help its people,” a Christian from Iraq’s north, Saad al-Rassam, told AFP. “We have suffered so much, we need the support.”

‘Too many martyrs’

The first day of the pope’s ambitious itinerary will see him meet government officials and clerics in the capital Baghdad, including at the Our Lady of Salvation church, where a jihadist attack left dozens dead in 2010.

He will also visit the northern province of Nineveh, where in 2014 IS jihadists forced minorities to either flee, convert to Islam or be put to death.

“People had only a few minutes to decide if they wanted to leave or be decapitated,” recalled Karam Qacha, a Chaldean Catholic priest in Nineveh.

“We left everything — except our faith.”

Some 100,000 Christians — around half of those who lived in the province — fled, of whom just 36,000 have returned, according to Catholic charity “Aid to the Church in Need”.

Among the returnees, a third have said they want to leave again in coming years, dismayed by Iraq’s rampant corruption, persecution and poverty, which now affects 40 percent of the population.

The exodus is a loss for all of Iraq, said Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who heads the Vatican’s Congregation for the Oriental Churches and will accompany the pope to Iraq.

“A Middle East without Christians is like trying to make bread with flour, but no yeast or salt,” he said.

The visit aims not only to encourage Christians to stay in their homeland, but even prompt some emigres to return from nearby Lebanon and Jordan, or further afield like Canada and Australia.

In a video address ahead of the trip, Francis evoked “the wounds of loved ones left behind and homes abandoned,” saying there had been “too many martyrs” in Iraq.

“I come as a pilgrim, a penitent pilgrim to implore forgiveness and reconciliation from the Lord after years of war and terrorism.”

‘Minarets and church bells’

The pope has insisted on the visit despite resurging violence.

Rocket attacks across the country have left three people dead in recent weeks, including a US contractor who died Wednesday.

Francis’ determination to travel to areas long shunned by foreign dignitaries has impressed many in Iraq — as has his planned meeting with Sistani, 90, the top authority for Iraq’s Shiites.

A highly reclusive figure who rarely accepts visitors, Sistani will make an exception to host Francis at his humble home in the shrine city of Najaf on Saturday.

Banners all over Najaf have celebrated “the historic encounter, between the minarets and the church bells”.

Francis, a major supporter of inter-religious dialogue, will afterwards head to the desert site of Ur, where Abraham is thought to have been born.

There, he will host an interfaith service that will bring together not only the Abrahamic religions but also include followers of other beliefs, including Yazidis and Sabeans.

The Pope’s programme in Iraq includes visits to the cities of Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Mosul, Qaraqosh and Erbil. He will traverse some 1,445 km in a country where Iraqi-American tensions still linger and where more recently the scourge of Covid-19 has led to record numbers of infections.

Pope Francis will travel in an armoured car to avoid the customary crowds that flock to catch a glimpse of the leader of the Catholic Church. At times he will be required to travel either by helicopter or plane over areas where jihadists belonging to the Islamic State group are still present.

Proceedings kick off Friday with a speech to Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, addressing the security and economic difficulties confronting Iraq’s 40 million people. The pope is also expected to mention the persecution of the country’s Christian minority.

On Saturday he will visit the holy city of Najaf, where he will be hosted by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the highest authority for many Shiites in Iraq and the world.

The pope will make a trip to the ancient city of Ur, the birthplace, according to the Bible, of the prophet Abraham, a figure common to the three monotheistic religions. There he will pray with Muslims, Yazidis and Sanaeans (pre-Christian monotheisms).

Francis will continue his journey on Sunday in the province of Nineveh (northern Iraq), the cradle of Iraqi Christians. He will then head to Mosul and Qaraqoch, two cities marked by the destruction of the Islamic extremists.

The pontiff will conclude his tour by presiding over an open-air Mass on Sunday in the presence of thousands of Christians in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. This Kurdish Muslim stronghold has offered refuge to hundreds of thousands of Christians, Yazidis and Muslims who fled the atrocities of the Islamic State group.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

4, March 2021

Death is announced of the Vicar for Clergy Bamenda Archdiocese ⁰

The death has occurred, after a brief illness, of the Vicar for clergy in the Bamenda Archdiocese, Rev Fr. Patrick Nyuydini Lafon, who also moonlighted as lecturer at the Catholic University of Bamenda.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea expressed his sympathy to the family and friends of the Vicar and said priests of the metropolitan Archdiocese were saddened by the news of his passing as he held, over many years, several roles of leadership and responsibility in the Archdiocese of Bamenda and nationally.

Fr. Patrick Lafon was ordained a priest 43 yrs ago and was among the last outstanding academic batch of Cameroonian priests trained in Bigard seminary that celebrated their forty years in priesthood in 2017.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that his final alumni celebration included Fr John Bosco Ambe, Fr William Neba, Fr Polycarp Fonjock (RIP) and Fr Martin Kima.

Fr. Lafon was National Catholic Education Secretary, and Secretary General of the National Episcopal Conference.

He spent 15 years in the nation’s capital and facilitated the growth and solid establishment of the English speaking Catholic Communities in Yaoundé from Etougebe to Nsimeyong.

He mastered the modus operandi of the Cameroon Catholic Church hierarchy, and gained a reputation for speaking truth to power, in very difficult times such as the tragic death of Fr Patrick Adeso at the Catholic University, unexplained till date.

At the end of his tenure in French Cameroun, Fr. Lafon pursued a doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America, CUA (Washington DC) in Metaphysics under the direct supervision of renowned John Wippel, a leading scholar on Thomistic Metaphysics, and wrote a thesis on “Virtue in Politics” according to Yves Simon.

Upon return he was made principal of St Paul’s College, Nkwen, and lecturer in Metaphysics & Epistemology at STAMS Bambui. When the Catholic University in Bamenda opened the Department of Philosophy, he became a part of the CATUC family and rose to the rank of Dean of Faculty replacing Prof Paul Nkwi.

Fr. Lafon’s last public appearance was his coordination of the encounter between the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Palorin with the clergy of the Archdiocese of Bamenda. He was frank, candid and he provided a thoughtful key to understanding the Southern Cameroons Crisis.

He will be greatly missed by his students at St John Paul II Major Seminary, Bachuo Ntai in Manyu Division, where he lectured Metaphysics & Epistemology and also those of CATUC, where he recently launched the Doctoral Program in Philosophy.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

4, March 2021

Pope Francis appoints Cameroonian as new bishop of US Virgin Islands ⁰

Pope Francis appointed Mgsr. Jerome Feudjio on Tuesday to lead the Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Originally from Cameroon, Feudjio has served as a priest of the U.S. Virgin Islands’ diocese for more than 30 years.

Commenting on Feudjio’s March 2 appointment, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the apostolic administrator of St. Thomas diocese, said: “Bishop-Elect Jerome is no stranger to the people of the diocese. His long history of service and pastoral dedication to the people of this community of faith are well known and widely respected,”

Feudjio, 65, currently serves as the vicar general of the Diocese of St. Thomas and rector of its Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

The Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands was established in 1977 and is the sole suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Washington. The diocese is made up of 30,000 Catholics across the islands of St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island.

Feudjio first arrived in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1988 after Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who at the time was a coadjutor bishop of St. Thomas, invited him to work as a campus minister in the Saints Peter and Paul School.

Two years later, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of St. Thomas and appointed as parochial vicar of the cathedral. He taught French and religion at the Catholic school and went on to serve in multiple positions within the diocese, including as director of vocations, finance officer, administrator, and chancellor.

Born in Cameroon in 1955, Feudjio entered religious life at the age of 17 as a postulant for the Congregation of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart (SCJ). He attended their Saint Apostles Seminary in Otele, Cameroon, from 1972 to 1975, as well as the major seminary in the capital city of Yaoundé from 1975 to 1979.

While still in formation in 1980, Feudjio traveled to the United States, where he met the then Fr. Seán O’Malley, who invited him to stay and study in Washington, D.C.

Feudjio completed his studies in philosophy and theology in the Archdiocese of Washington at Oblate College, and in 1987 joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, making a temporary religious profession.

During his time in the U.S., Feudjio completed a graduate program at Southern Illinois University in the Administration of Justice Program, through which he interned at a local transitional house that helped former inmates readjust to society.

In 2004, Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., who served as bishop of St. Thomas from 1999 to 2007, asked Feudjio to return to Southern Illinois University to pursue further graduate studies in Rehabilitation Administration.

Feudjio has served as rector of the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in the U.S. Virgin Islands since 2008.

As bishop of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Feudjio will succeed Bishop Herbert Bevard, who retired in September after he was hospitalized and airlifted to the U.S. mainland for medical treatment.

“Regrettably, I have experienced some new and unanticipated medical conditions that unfortunately preclude my ability to continue to maintain my position in the Diocese of St. Thomas,” Bevard wrote in a letter to the diocese on Sept. 18.

“I have loved serving the People of God; the clergy, religious, laity, and the entire Virgin Islands community in the Diocese of St. Thomas and will treasure the fond memories that we share together. It is this same love and concern for them, recognizing my own limitations, that now compel me to make this request,” he said.

Bevard, 75, has remained in North Carolina for ongoing medical treatment. He led the Diocese of St. Thomas for 12 years.

Pope Francis appointed the then Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Washington to serve as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of St. Thomas until the new bishop is installed.

“I readily join the clergy, religious, and faithful of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands today in warmly welcoming Pope Francis’ appointment of Msgr. Jerome Feudjio as the sixth Bishop of this local Church,” Cardinal Gregory said.

“He now begins a new chapter in his own life and in all of your lives as well. Please keep him in your prayers as he transitions into his new office as I am certain he will hold all of you securely in his daily prayers from this day forward.”

Source: Angelusnews

1, February 2021

Bamenda: Cardinal Parolin brings Pope’s message of peace to Cameroon ⁰

Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin expresses Pope Francis’ closeness and concern for Cameroon and the African continent, in his homily during the imposition of the pallium on Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda.

“The Pope is well aware of the difficulties that you have experienced in recent years and which you are still experiencing. He implores the Lord’s consolation for you, especially for those who have been victims of violence or who, in this crisis, have lost friends and loved ones.”

Those were the words delivered by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in his homily at Mass in Bamenda for the imposition of the pallium on Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya.

He expressed Pope Francis’ closeness to the people of Cameroon, as well as to the entire African continent.

The Pope, added the Cardinal, “joins in the desire for peace and reconciliation that rises from this beloved and wonderful land toward God.”

Reconciliation, compassion, hospitality

Cardinal Parolin arrived in Cameroon last Thursday accompanied by Monsignor Ivan Santus, an official with the Section for Relations with States of the Secretariat of State.

His visit is meant to be a concrete sign of the Pope’s commitment and solidarity, and a call to promote compassion, reconciliation, and healing, especially in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 humanitarian emergency.

In communion with the Pope

“The Pallium,” explained Cardinal Parolin in Bamenda Cathedral, “is a symbol of a special bond of communion with the Pope. It is woven from the wool of lambs blessed by him on the feast of St. Agnes, and evokes the figure of the Good Shepherd, who goes in search of the lost sheep and places it on His shoulders. It represents the power that the Archbishop exercises in his Diocese, in communion with the Supreme Pontiff. It is a sign rich in meaning, which powerfully inaugurates the mandate of every new Archbishop: his new ministry is placed from the beginning under the sign of communion, in obedience and union with the Holy Father and in communion with his brother Bishops.”

With the Gospel in his pocket

“While many voices resound around us; while so many want to act as teachers in our lives,” the Cardinal stressed, we need to give “unique weight to the Word of Christ.”

“For this reason,” he added, “the Pope, on several occasions, has invited us to carry a small book of the Gospels with us. ‘The Gospel in your pocket’ is not a slogan but a spiritual program.”

The effectiveness of the Word

“Jesus desires good for humanity, and therefore frees us from Evil,” said Cardinal Parolin. “Jesus is able to completely free us precisely through His simple and powerful Word: Come out of him! There are no magic formulas; not even strange gestures: it is His Word that is exceedingly effective.”

The Secretary of State underlined that “Evil exists and Christ is able to defeat it. It is up to us to carry on this battle every day.”

Serenity and vigilance

Cardinal Parolin then evoked the teaching of the Apostle Paul, indicating two important themes that must mark each person’s spiritual journey: serenity and vigilance.

“Serenity: because with Christ we are victorious, in our adherence to Him through prayer and the Sacramental life. Vigilance: so that we can discern Evil where it lurks, beginning with our own hearts.”

Seed of hope

Cardinal Parolin then urged the faithful of Cameroon to combat the violence, divisions and fratricidal struggles that afflict the nation.

“He who fights against the evil that dwells in his heart becomes a bearer of good and peace in his family, among his friends, in his community. He thus becomes a seed of hope for all.”

Avoiding the risk of spiritual pride

The Vatican Secretary of State concluded his homily by recalling that after two thousand years, amazement before the Lord Jesus is a precious attitude to be guarded with care.

“We should never stop reflecting on this Mystery, so that we avoid the risk of spiritual pride, of those who are convinced that they already know everything about Jesus, without realizing that He is always greater than we can humanly comprehend. We should never cease to marvel before the fundamental Mystery of our Christian faith: that of the Son of God who became man to set us free.”

The Mass in the Cathedral of Bamenda was attended by a large number of the faithful, offering a sign of affection for Archbishop Fuanya and of joyful communion with the Pope who was represented by his Secretary of State.

Source: Vatican News

30, January 2021

Visiting Cardinal seeks to resolve Anglophone crisis ⁰

The Vatican’s Secretary of State kicked off a week-long trip to Cameroon on Thursday in which he will visit a region blighted by clashes between government forces and separatists.

During his visit from Jan. 28 to Feb. 3, Cardinal Pietro Parolin is scheduled to meet with the local authorities and Cameroon’s Catholic bishops in the country’s capital, Yaoundé, and visit the English-speaking Northwest Region.

Local media in Cameroon have reported that the cardinal will likely use his visit to work towards the resolution of the dispute known as the Anglophone crisis.

Both the Holy See and the local Church have appealed for dialogue to end the strife. One of the Catholic leaders who has played an active role in seeking a resolution is Cardinal Christian Tumi, who was kidnapped by gunmen in Cameroon’s Northwest Region on Nov. 5.

A video published on social media showed the 90-year-old cardinal calmly responding as one of his captors confronted him about his calls for separatist fighters in Cameroon to lay down their arms. To this, the cardinal responded: “I will preach what is the truth with pastoral conviction and biblical conviction.”

“Nobody has the right to tell me to preach the contrary because I was called by God,” Cardinal Tumi said. He was released by his kidnappers on Nov. 6.

The crisis in Cameroon is rooted in country’s colonial history. The area was a German colony in the late 19th century, but the territory was divided into British and French mandates after the German Empire’s defeat in World War I. The mandates were united in an independent Cameroon in 1961, but English-speakers have complained ever since of marginalization by the French-speaking majority.

There is now a separatist movement in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, which were formerly the British Cameroons. Violence escalated in October when gunmen attacked Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy, a school in Kumba in Cameroon’s Southwest region, on Oct. 24 and opened fire on students in a classroom. Seven students aged 12 to 14 were killed.

Pope Francis prayed on Oct. 28 that “the tormented regions of the northwest and southwest of [Cameroon] may finally find peace.”

In Cameroon’s Northwest Region, Parolin will offer Mass on Jan. 31 at the Catholic cathedral in Bamenda, where he will give the pallium to Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya.

Nkea, 55, was appointed archbishop of Bamenda in December 2019. He is known for his emphasis on family, community, and traditional values.

At the 2018 meeting of the Synod of Bishops on young people, faith, and vocational discernment, Nkea, who was the bishop of Mamfe at the time, said that the Church in Cameroon and many parts of Africa was growing — including among young people.

“My churches are all bursting, and I don’t have space to keep the young people,” Nkea said during a Vatican press conference in Oct. 2018. “And my shortest Mass would be about two and a half hours.”

A 2018 study by the Pew Research Center 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 prayed every day.

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

“People ask me, ‘Why are your churches full?’” Nkea 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.”

“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.”

Source: The Catholic News Agency

29, January 2021

Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Parolin meets the butcher of Yaoundé ⁰

Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met the Cameroonian dictator President Paul BIYA at the so-called Unity Palace today 29 January 2021.

Local media reported that the cardinal was bearer of a message of reconciliation and peace for the people of Cameroon from the Holy Father Pope Francis.

Cardinal Parolin told state radio and television that “I am here to manifest the attention and solidarity of Pope Francis towards Cameroon.”

The top official of the Holy See said they cordially discussed on a wide range of issues including the socio-political situation in Southern Cameroons.

The Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin is in Cameroon for a six-day working visit. He will celebrate the Eucharist in the Cathedral of Bamenda, during which he will impose the pallium on the Archbishop of the Diocese, Andrew Nkea Fuanya. He will equally visit the “Household of Hope” centre for street children and young prisoners in Yaounde.