Members of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) in Cameroon have, over the last six decades, manifested “great resilience” and hope, Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of the country’s Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda has said.

In his Wednesday, July 24 homily during the celebration of the 60th Anniversary since CWA was established in Cameroon, Archbishop Nkea also acknowledged with appreciation women’s life of prayer, their perseverance, as well as their determination.

“You have taken an active part in the spiritual growth of the lives of the women in our church. You have worked hard to improve the condition of women and the girl child everywhere. You have done all within your powers to make your parishes and Christian communities true families of God,” he said during the celebration at the Divine Mercy Co-Cathedral of Cameroon’s Catholic Diocese of Buea.

As CWA member, he said, “you have worked hard for the preservation of family values and you have defended the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage and the family. You have contributed greatly to the formation of Priests in our local churches, either through financial contributions or by bringing materials, food, and other necessary items to our seminaries.”

“Women are creatures of great resilience and if women give up on something, it means there is no way for redemption. We see that no matter how bad a child is, the women never lose hope,” the Local Ordinary of Bamenda, who doubles as the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) emphasized. 

He continued, “Sometimes when men torment the women, they never lose hope. When society becomes hostile and even violent, women never lose hope.”

“This is a great virtue that we have seen in the women, especially during this time that we are going through a lot of difficulties in our regions of the Northwest, the Southwest, the Far North, and the east of Cameroon,” he said referring to the Anglophone crisis.

Archbishop Nkea continued, “In the current socio-political crisis that we are going through in the Northwest and the Southwest regions of Cameroon, the women remain the hope of this nation. It is the women who would save us through their prayers, perseverance, and determination to build fraternity again.”

“Women bring hope to the future. Women always give hope to the desperate and the hopeless. Women give hope when hope is lost,” he further said.

Archbishop Nkea went on to lament the situation in the Central African nation, saying, “Many things are happening in our country today which are not good. But it is you who will save this country.”

“There’s a lot of tension mounting in our country, around various regions for various reasons,” he said, and added, “Thanks be to God the Catholic Women Association exists in all the 10 regions of this country and practically all the 26 dioceses of this country.”

“Women, you are the ones to save this country,” he emphasized during the Eucharistic celebration that was presided over by the Apostolic Nuncio in Cameroon, Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt.

The 58-year-old Catholic Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 2013 as the Coadjutor Bishop of Cameroon’s Mamfe Diocese encouraged CWA members in Cameroon to be “prophets, the ones to lead us from hopelessness to hope through your prayers and your witnessing.”

“Dear mothers of the church, you are ambassadors of hope to our society, and you have become ambassadors of hope through the painful experiences and the sufferings that many of you have gone through,” the Archbishop of Bamenda said.

He added, “You have been prominent in all occasions of the Church from Episcopal or Priestly ordinations to final professions of Religious men and women, and any other occasions that are organized by the church at any level. You have promoted the Marian spirituality and you have done your best to imitate the virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is your mother and your model.”

“May God bless you abundantly, forever and ever,” Archbishop Nkea implored.

CWA Cameroon was founded in 1964 under the initiative of Mrs. Anna Foncha with the ecclesiastical approval of the then Local Ordinary of Buea, Bishop Jules Peeters.

Starting off as a small group of women, CWA in Cameroon has grown to about 20,000 registered women all over Cameroon. The association exists in many other parts of the globe.

In his remarks during the event, the Apostolic Nuncio in Cameroon recognized the vital role of CWA in the Church.

“You are important; you are the heart of the Church; you are the arms of the Church,” Archbishop Bettencourt told CWA members in Cameroon on July 24.

Source: aciafrica

In a strongly-worded letter addressed to the Bishop of Kumbo in Cameroon’s North West region, the Nso Cultural and Development Association, NSODA, have warned the Catholic Church against adulterating their culture “in the guise of inculturation.”

Social media has in recent days been inundated with videos of some of the most dreaded and sacred masquerades of the Nso people displaying in churches and church premises in Kumbo Diocese, all in the name of inculturation.

The displays have angered the people of Nso – one of the largest clans in Cameroon’s North West region.

NSODA – an association dedicated to the socio-cultural development of the Nso people – has expressed dismay at what they consider is an erosion of their culture.

“We have not been oblivious to the efforts your Diocese has been making to the development of the Nso Kingdom, and the evangelization works that have been shaping our society,” writes NSODA President, Tadze Adamu Mbiydzela, in a June 4 letter addressed to the Bishop George Nkuo of the Kumbo Diocese.

“We remain indebted and sincerely grateful to your Lordship,” the letter states, before expressing anger at the displays of their sacred masquerades in Church premises.

Mbiydzela complained that the very idea of inculturation has been “wantonly and severely abused” by Catholics.

“The avalanche of those abuses inundated social media with shocking desecration of our culture and tradition,” he writes.

“A few instances which have caught our attention are moot shows in the Church or Catholic premises of our highly cherished sacred masquerades,” the letter states.

“We are totally dismayed that if care is not taken to protect our cultural heritage, which is our identity, then, with the passage of time, our culture will be completely eroded in the guise of inculturation,” he complains.

He explained that the Nso body polity “is built from her cultural heritage which, if not seriously protected, shall be lost, and Nso as a kingdom be eroded into an irretrievable abyss.”

“It therefore behooves us to strongly denounce to your Lordship these provocative moot displays of our culture on Catholic premises and elsewhere under the guise of inculturation,” the statement continues.

NSODA thus urged the bishop to “caution and counsel Catholic Christians or whoever is under your diocese to consequently refrain from those moot displays of our cultures in the name of inculturation.”

They threatened court action should those moot displays continue.

The Bishop of Kumbo did not reply to Crux’s request for comment, but Father Humphrey Tatah Mbuy, the spokesperson for the Cameroon Bishops’ Conference told Crux that Cameroon “has not even started inculturation.”

“We are at the stage of accommodation and adaptation,” he said.

He said adaptation means adapting to what exists, and noted that bringing masquerades to Church should have been predicated on a number of critical questions: What do those masquerades mean in the Nso culture and how would they help Christians become better Christians.

He said inculturation doesn’t mean bringing anything to Church, or singing any songs. Yet, some of the songs which unfortunately are being sung in Church have nothing to do with praising God. He said successful inculturation will require the expertise of anthropologists to ensure that whatever cultural approaches are used align to the fundamental principles of the Gospel.

Nathan Chase, an assistant professor of theology at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri, explains that inculturation, and liturgical inculturation, was a key part of the early Church but one that always provoked disagreements.

“Paul, for instance, argued about whether the Gentiles could be Christians. Justin Martyr argued that Greek philosophy could be used to describe the Christian faith. In every case, those in favor of inculturation, rather than those against it, won the argument,” he told Crux in an earlier interview.

“The Gentiles became Christians; Greek philosophy not only was used to describe the Christian faith, but would become central to the formation of the creeds in the fourth century. The early Church always accommodated itself to the cultures in which it was celebrated. Particular liturgies were developed in North African, where there was a strong Berber presence, Egypt, Nubia, and Ethiopia. Many of these were Hellenized African cultures, but still ones that were native to Africa. I would say the early Church actually was very responsive to other cultures. This broke down in the medieval period,” Chase said.

He said religion and culture are inherently connected, noting that Jesus was a Jew, while many of the early Christians were Greek.

“The fingerprints of Jewish and Greek culture are all over the Church. The issue is not whether they are connected, but how they should relate to one another. They must always be mutually informing one another, learning from one another, and at times critiquing one another. This is what is key: that they be in critical dialogue with one another,” he said.

Source: Crux

Amidst killings and kidnappings, Catholics in the Archdiocese of Bamenda find peace, healing and strength in newly built perpetual adoration chapels throughout a war-weary city.

When Catholics across the world go to Eucharistic adoration, they typically pray for the health and well-being of their friends and families, an increase in virtue, and to know God’s will for their life.

The faithful in Bamenda, Cameroon, bring those same intentions to the Lord, too. But they also offer up another one: that the bloodshed around them might end.

The city of 600,000 is in the epicenter of the Central African nation’s ongoing civil war, a conflict that pits English-speaking separatists against the military of the Francophone-dominated government. Since the war started in 2017, it has ravaged Cameroon’s North West and South West regions, killing more than 6,000 people, mostly civilians, and displacing more than a million more.

Today in Bamenda, the northwest region’s capital, the “Anglophone crisis” is marked by the hallmarks of guerilla warfare. Uniformed military are spread throughout the city, while armed “Amba Boys,” the nickname for the separatists trying to establish the sovereign nation of Ambazonia, blend in with ordinary civilians. Hit-and-run killings conducted via motorcycle are common, as are kidnappings of civilians for ransom, indiscriminate and disproportionate military retaliations, and “ghost town” Mondays, when separatists enforce a lockdown that shutters schools and businesses — and leaving your house could get you beaten, abducted, or worse.

But the threat of violence hasn’t stopped Bamenda’s Catholics from coming to pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament — even on “ghost town” days. In fact, multiple parishes tell the Register that with work and other activities restricted on Mondays, even more worshippers come to the adoration chapels than normal — despite facing harassment from the Amba Boys.

“They bother people, but the people still come,” Father Valentine Ndong, pastor of All Saints parish, told the Register. “You cannot stop them.”

Why do Bamenda’s Catholics endure potential violence to come to adoration? Because, as Paul Knimih, a catechist at All Saints who comes to the chapel in the evenings for his “alone time with Jesus,” puts it, “I know that it’s Jesus that can solve my problems, Jesus that can give me the courage to face my challenges.”

The fervor of Bamenda Catholics like Knimih shows how, if anything, Eucharistic adoration in the war-weary city has surged during the crisis, in large part due to the local archdiocese’s bold endeavor to make the devotion as widely available as possible.

Pastors report that their chapels have worshippers at every hour of the day and are often full in the hours before and after work. Not only Catholics, but Presbyterians, Baptists and even Pentecostals come, drawn by the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. And local Catholics tell the Register that while adoration is important no matter the circumstances, it’s needed even more right now in Bamenda.

“Especially in this time because there are so many corpses that they see, there is so much hatred thrown around, and they ask, ‘God, where are you?’” explained Father Lambert Etim, the parochial vicar of Immaculate Conception parish. “And in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Bamenda man can actually find God in a certain still, calm way.”

Caroline Ngum, the chair of All Saints parish council, agreed, noting that “so many people are traumatized” by the crisis, “but when they come before Jesus, God shows them the way.” Andrew Mbuh has experienced this kind of rejuvenation in St. John the Baptist parish’s adoration chapel, spending quiet moments with the Blessed Sacrament.

“Sometimes you come here and you are so totally depressed,” he told the Register. “But when you leave, you are totally converted.”

Adoration Amid Unrest

Bamenda’s surge in adoration took off in November 2022, when Archbishop Andrew Nkea called upon each of the archdiocese’s 68 parishes to provide their faithful with a perpetual adoration chapel. The initiative was part of the archdiocese’s “Year of the Eucharist,” which also included Eucharistic processions and intense catechesis on the Blessed Sacrament.

The goal of the adoration chapel initiative, Archbishop Nkea wrote at the time, was “so that Christ’s Lay Faithful can have the opportunity to refresh themselves in the presence of their Lord and Master at any time of their convenience.”

Unwritten was the fact that by having adoration chapels in more of Bamenda’s neighborhoods, the faithful could pray before the Eucharist without having to travel across town to established chapels like the one at St. Joseph Cathedral — a welcome possibility in a city where driving after 6 p.m. can have deadly consequences. Additionally, Archbishop Nkea told the Register that the project was in part a response to some turning to “other powers” amid the conflict, such as soothsayers and witch doctors.

“It was an opportunity for us to refocus on Christ and the fact that the powers of this world are nothing compared to the power of Christ in the Eucharist when he is present among us,” said the Bamenda archbishop.

The parishes of Bamenda responded eagerly to their archbishop’s directive. In total, 11 new adoration chapels have already been constructed, while some of the archdiocese’s existing seven chapels have been renovated or expanded. Fifteen more perpetual adoration chapels are currently “in the pipeline,” said Msgr. Michael Kintang, a senior archdiocesan cleric who recently guided the Register around Bamenda.

“It takes time,” said the monsignor regarding the chapels’ construction, noting that the chapels are entirely funded by parishioners, who give generously despite the civil war’s financial impact, which includes limited economic activity, extortion and hefty ransoms.

Archbishop Nkea said that the cost to build a new chapel ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 — roughly three to five times greater than the average annual salary in Cameroon. But the archbishop says that when the idea was initially presented to parish councils around the archdiocese, they embraced it, “a very big sign of faith.”

Bamenda’s Catholics take pride in their adoration chapels, and no two are quite the same. Some are decorated with brightly colored flashing lights, others with gold leafing and elegant columns, while still others are stark and simple in appearance. Most new chapels were built from scratch, while some, like the garage-turned-chapel at St. Theresa “Little Way” parish, were converted from preexisting structures.

For locals, who try to live life normally but acknowledge being constantly “on edge” given the potential for sudden violence, Bamenda’s adoration chapels are a source of peace and refreshment. Their exteriors are often adorned with scriptural messages of stillness and refreshment — “Be still and know that I am God” or “Come to me, and I will give you rest” — and inside, paintings of idyllic nature scenes contribute to a restful environment for the weary.

Christ’s Healing Presence

But while Bamenda’s adoration chapels are a peaceful refuge, they’re also places of Christ’s presence amidst the suffering of his people — quite literally, given the chapels’ proximity to recent atrocities committed in the Cameroonian civil war.

Just three weeks ago, a Catholic high school across the street from the cathedral compound and its adoration chapel was shot up by separatists at the start of exams, injuring a student and a police officer; on April 4, Amba Boys left a severed head on the street a couple kilometers from St. Theresa “Little Way” parish and its garage-turned-chapel; and just down the road from the adoration chapel at the archdiocese’s under-construction Marian shrine, at a place called Nacho Junction, 10 civilians were killed in July 2023 by separatists who claimed their victims weren’t paying the “liberation tax” collected to fuel the fight for Ambazonia.

Clerics and religious workers in the war zone have also not gone unscathed. Priests have been routinely assaulted, abducted and tortured by both sides in the conflict, and in 2018 a seminarian was killed by the Cameroonian military in the Diocese of Mamfe, where Archbishop Nkea was then the ordinary.

The archbishop shared that he himself has been “detained” two times by the Amba Boys, most recently in 2023 on a pastoral visit to the remote town of Fanatui. His three-vehicle convoy was surrounded en route by 10 armed separatists, who led him into the bush at gun point and questioned him about recent statements he had made on the conflict. Two hours later, they released him, and he proceeded to the parish and celebrated a confirmation Mass. With so many wounds inflicted by the crisis, clergy and laity alike come to Bamenda’s adoration chapels seeking healing.

“Sometimes tears are just running, and you can’t control it; you just sit there in adoration,” shared Rose Barah of St. John the Baptist, who said she “runs” to adoration to be with God, who alone can console her.

Nian Nicolile experienced the loving presence of Christ in the Eucharist in the midst of unthinkable tragedy.

The young mother came to Bamenda in 2020 as an IDP, an internally displaced person, escaping even worse violence further west. The plan was for her younger brother to eventually join her. But just six months ago, Nicolile received devastating news: Her brother had been beaten to death — by the separatists or the army, she doesn’t know.

When she heard the news, she was overcome by desperation. But then she came to adoration at All Saints and says her heart was “touched by Christ.” “When I came and told Jesus what happened, I did not feel that pain,” she shared with the Register, outside the All Saints chapel that she voluntarily cleans. “When I came and stood in front of him, I talked to him, and everything passed. I just felt peace.”

‘Only Jesus Christ Will Help Us’

Bamenda’s Catholics don’t just receive personal consolation in adoration. They also receive the strength they need to share Christ’s love with others. And there are plenty of opportunities, from providing material aid to IDPs, to assisting fellow parishioners whose livelihoods were destroyed when the Amba Boys recently burned down a market, to comforting a mother whose son was beaten by the military in an indiscriminate response to a recent shooting.

Clergy like Father Etim spoke of their personal need to spend time in adoration “with the Priest himself par excellence, so that each day he gives me strength and even what to say” to his suffering parishioners. The adoration chapels are also places to pray for peace — which “Mama” Irene Kinyuy of St. John the Baptist believes has already made a difference.

“But for things like this,” she said, referring to the adoration chapel behind her where a Divine Mercy group prays every First Friday, “maybe this would have escalated into something worse.”

Archbishop Nkea has recently said that he believes calm is gradually returning to the Anglophone regions devastated by the conflict, which he has described as a crisis not over language, but culture and belonging. The president of the Cameroonian bishops’ conference has consistently said that peace must be established before justice can be given to Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, who have long complained of being treated as second-class citizens in their own country, which was formed in 1960 from two English- and French-ruled colonial territories.

Others are more skeptical that the conflict is calming and note that Cameroon’s civil war has become a cash cow for both the military and the separatists, some of whom are based in the United States and profit off of ransoms.

Whether the war ends or endures, Bamenda’s Catholics know that Eucharistic adoration will be at the heart of the Church’s response — and bristle at the suggestion that prayer is a distraction from practical solutions to the war. “We cannot in anyway relegate God into the background because of the crisis,” said Father Cyprien Diang, pastor of St. John the Baptist. “I can ensure you that when you see a bit of life here, it is because of the Church. It is because of the prayers we are making.”

Archbishop Nkea continues to be actively involved in efforts of national religious leaders to mediate the conflict, which he said he could not discuss publicly for the sake of ensuring their efficiency. Regarding the dialogue, which is reaching out to both separatists and the government, he said that “by the grace of God, we are getting somewhere.” But Bamenda’s archbishop underscored that no one should “underestimate the power of Christ to bring a solution to this conflict.”

“At the place where we are now, human intelligence has failed us,” he told the Register. “Both parties involved in the conflict are in a deadlock in this situation. Only prayer, only Jesus Christ will help us.” Nicolile, the woman whose brother was killed in the conflict, hopes those still engaged in violence in Bamenda have a chance to experience the peace of praying before the Blessed Sacrament for themselves.

“They would be touched by Christ. The more they pray, the better.”

Culled from the National Catholic Register

Thorough discernment is needed in the alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the residence of a faithful in the Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda, the Archbishop of the Metropolitan See has said.

On June 6, thousands of Christians and non-Christians flooded the residence of Madam Dorothy Enow Manyor, a member of the All Angels Small Christian Community, in the Immaculate Conception Ngomgham Parish, following an alleged apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the home.

In a statement issued on June 8,  Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea recalled the recent guidelines on apparitions which the Vatican issued on May 17, saying, “God is present and active in our history…This action of the Holy Spirit can also reach our hearts through certain supernatural occurrences, such as apparitions or visions of Christ or the Blessed Virgin, and other phenomena.”

“No one can, or is allowed to pronounce with certitude at this time, that the Blessed Virgin Mary is appearing in the said house in Ngomgham,” Archbishop Nkea clarified.

He emphasized that “whatever is happening in Ngomgham, needs thorough discernment and due process by the competent Ecclesiastical Authorities, as stipulated in the Norms from the Holy See of 17th of May, 2024, to be sure of this phenomenon.”

“Until this is done and established by the Church, this private house cannot be considered as a public place of prayer, and all Catholic Christians are therefore encouraged to frequent their parish churches and Diocesan/Parish Shrines for public prayer and veneration of the saints, especially the Blessed Virgin Mary,” the Local Ordinary of Bamenda Archdiocese who also serves as President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) said.

He appealed to those frequenting Ms Dorothy’s home to allow her privacy, saying, “This family where this phenomenon is taking place, has a right to their privacy and quiet family life. Therefore, people should kindly respect their rights and allow them the peace they deserve.”

The Cameroonian Catholic Archbishop further said he will set up a commission of Theologians to study the phenomenon for the people to see and understand what is really happening concerning the alleged apparition.

Archbishop Nkea recalled that two years ago, the Archdiocese of Bamenda celebrated the Marian Year where Christians “had an in-depth study of the Blessed Virgin Mary and her role in the economy of salvation.”

“The year ended with a Marian Congress and many Christians have the Acta of this congress. We were encouraged to pray the Rosary and to remain close to the Blessed Virgin Mary who is Comforter of the Afflicted, Help of Christians, Mother of the Church, and Queen of Peace,” the Archbishop added.

He urged the faithful to continue to pray as the Archdiocese embarks on discerning the alleged apparition at Dorothy’s home.

“May the same Blessed Virgin Mary, whose Feast we celebrate today under the patronage of her Immaculate Heart, intercede for us, now and at the hour of our death. Amen,” Archbishop Nkea implored.

Source: aciAfrica

Homily, Thanksgiving Mass of Rev. Fr. John Tanyi at Ste Anne Church,

Salem MA, Sunday, May 26, 2024

Dear Fr. John Tanyi,

Dear Brothers in the Priesthood, the Diaconate, Religious Women here present,

Dear Holy People of God,

Whenever I have taught the course on Fundamental Theology be at Boston College or at St John’s Seminary, I have always asked the students at the introductory lecture: What are the basic Christian dogmas? The responses have been mixed overtime. Today’s solemnity ranks first on the list of three: The Dogma of Three Persons in One God, namely, the Trinity; the Dogma of the Incarnation of the Son of God; and finally, the Spirit and Grace. If I were to proceed further along the lines of a Thomistic or Rahnerian explanation, then I would be compelled to charge each of you a tuition of $3200 as per Boston College rate for graduate courses in theology. I have no such intentions. Don’t be scared. But what sets us apart as Christians from all other religious expressions, is that only Christians understand God as a community of three persons, of one substance. And because we Christians understand God as a community of persons, Christianity is essentially a communitarian faith, with Baptism as the door that opens us all into this community in which we are all brothers and sisters.

As we thank God for revealing that to us that when we say God, we always mean Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all the implications of that for our spiritual lives, today’s celebration of the Solemnity of the Trinity at this Church of Ste Anne, Salem, is uniquely marked by another aspect that must be greatly pleasing to our Triune God. Today, we are gathered here as well, to give thanks to God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the grace of the priesthood that God has bestowed on our brother, John. It is by the power of the Trinity that Fr John will exercise the sacramental ministry as a priest.

“When a man says YES to the Lord, his YES is forever.” In these words of St. John Paul II drawn from the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, 1:19, in which Paul declares that “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but has proved to be “Yes” in Him,” one finds what can best be described as the Christological aspiration of the inner spiritual disposition of our new priest, Fr. John Tanyi. Today, we thank God for calling one so dear to us, into the company of the YES to the Lord Forever, which is essentially what the Catholic priesthood is, as captured in this declaration by St. John Paul II the Great.

Dear Fr John, God’s grace in your life, has been guided and has unfolded in a loving relationship between you and St. John Paul II. Even the fact that your ordination is marked by you releasing a book, The Cross and the Flag, Papal Diplomacy and John Paul II’s Struggle Against the Tyranny of the Possible, is a testimony to your generous response to the grace that God poured into your heart, through the life and intellectual legacy of St. John Paul II. It is not always the case that a newly ordained priest releases a work of such intellectual, spiritual and cultural magnitude on the day of his ordination! For this, we thank you, for placing your superior intellect at the service of the great legacy of the greatest figure of the twentieth century. 

Dear Fr. John, you are certainly more competent on the life and thought of St. John Paul II the Great than I am, and perhaps, than anyone present here today. But given the celebrated friendship between John Paul II and Benedict XVI, marked by a profound mutual respect and cousinship of minds, perhaps you would permit me, from the limits of my intellectual German-Bavarian world, to offer FIVE reminders or lessons from the life of St. John Paul II, that, I believe, might be useful to a new priest who says YES to the Lord forever, today.

First, To Say Yes to the Lord Forever is to Trust in Divine Providence

Dear Fr. John, to St. John Paul II – and he repeatedly articulated this – in the design of Providence, in the design of God, there are no accidents. Everything is a part of the Divine Plan. When we look back with a retrospective glance, we suddenly see all the parts of life that appeared at first glance to be incomprehensible, falling in place, coming together. Decisions, actions, that might not have made sense to us, suddenly appear comprehensible. We see the wider picture, guided, in the words of the great Cardinal Arinze, the Lion of the African Church, by God’s Invisible Hand. Anyone with an intimate knowledge of your journey to the priesthood would clearly see, in hindsight, God’s providential hand at work.

It all began in Tiko, Cameroon, in the home of Mama Angela Bikelle Tanyi whose energy, steadfastness, and faith, I have personally grown to profoundly admire overtime, and Pa Tanyi Francis, of Blessed Memory. There, you were nurtured in the Christian faith, in ways that have never left you. Your love for Christ, the Church, and your family, took root these years and these have remained constant features of your life.

While a student at the legendary St. Joseph College, Sasse, you already showed the gift of an unmatchable intellect, nurtured by the Catholic educational ethos. Your desire for missionary life began developing at this time, with the legendary example of father Fr. Tony Murphy, MHM, whose example of priestly generosity has never left you. Clearly, God had, from very early on, planted the seed of missionary life in you. We just had to find out with time, where God wanted to send you to, as a missionary.

As a young student of philosophy at the Ugandan Martyrs University, Nkonzi, between 2003 – 2006, you were captivated by the thought of the Lithuanian-French phenomenologist, Emmanuel Levinas. Following his lifetime disappointment with Heidegger with his embrace of National Socialism, and under the cloud of the Holocaust, Levinas grounded the possibility of ethics on the reality of face-to-face. To Levinas, the other is not a phenomenon but an enigma, in the sense that the relation to the other cannot be reduced to comprehension. There is the primacy of the other, for whom we have an infinite responsibility.

Fr. John, if you meeting Levinas, who can rightly be considered as the philosopher of pastoral charity was not a part of God’s providential plan, then I am at a difficulty to know how else to characterize it! And the significance is not lost to me, that in the same month of May1980, forty-four years ago, precisely in Paris, Emmanuel Levinas and John Paul II met in person for the first time. A friendship ensued that saw Levinas not only write an article on “The Philosophical Thought of Cardinal Wojtyla,” but even more, Levinas participated at conferences at Castel Gandolfo in 1983 and 1985, under the direction of John Paul II.  I pray that your formation in Levinas helps you in your pastoral ministry, to see as Levinas saw, the uniqueness of every person, especially those you might not readily comprehend, for the other is not the crowd, as Levinas maintains.

While in Kenya, Divine Providence, God’s Invisible Hand, continued to be at work in forming you for this hour. You became a Professor of Politics and International Relations. You were fascinated by the world of politics and saw a career path for yourself, at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), and Mount Kenya University, Nairobi, Kenya, from 2012 – 2018. I believe that you might thought that you had it all worked out. It is difficult to imagine that some young ladies might have seen in you – and here, I am following a prescription expressed to me by a young niece of mine –  tall, dark and handsome young professor, the man of their dreams.

But God had other plans, which led you from Nairobi to Boston College. And even while at Boston College, the picture was not immediately clear! I remember during my pastoral time here at Ste Anne, a Cameroonian lady came to the office to see me, and proposed a list with three names she was recommending that we propose to you for future consideration! The list was impressive. No doubt about that. The girls were all African beauty queens of the Cameroon Catholic Community of Boston. I wouldn’t have hesitated to recommend any of them to you, Fr John. But again, God clearly had other plans!

And today, we have finally seen where all of these bits and pieces were leading to, the altar of the Lord: “And I will go up to the altar of the Lord, the Lord, my joy, my delight” (Ps 43:4). Fr John, thank you for being attentive and open to the mysterious designs of God in your life, which remains an example for us, and a lesson worth keeping in mind, as priests today. There are no accidents in our lives as priests. Everything is a part of Divine Providence. It might not be clear to us now. But retrospectively, God’s invisible hand would become visible. 

Second, To Say Yes to the Lord Forever is to live the Priestly Life of Victim and Eucharistic Transubstantiation

In the clandestine, underground seminary in which the young Karol Wojtyla was formed under the legendary and unforgettable Adam Stephen Cardinal Sapieha, Metropolitan Archbishop of Krakow, it was customary to recite daily, especially on the eve of priestly ordination, the Litany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim –, a prayer based on the Letter to the Hebrews. This Krakòw Litany, includes eight invocations of Jesus Christ as the victim of redeeming sacrifice, formed in the young Karol Wojtyla the conviction that dying-to-self, self-gift, or self-immolation, central to the being of the priest (Gift and Mystery, pp. 78 – 82).

Upon completion of his studies at Boston College in the month of May 2020, Fr. John informed me of his intention to discern for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston. Of course, living with him here in Boston, I had grown in my admiration of John’s spirit of sacrifice and generosity. Fr John, your mentor St. John Paul II, taught that central to this victimhood of priestly identity – Iesu, Sacerdos et Victima, is the Eucharist, that you will celebrate daily: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (Jn 12:24). Christ himself is the grain of wheat that must die in order to ripen and bear fruit. In a few moments from now, Fr John will hold God’s grain of wheat in his own hands, the bread that is Christ the Lord himself, that has grown a hundredfold from the death of the grain of wheat and has become the bread of the entire world.

For you, Fr John, this bread, this grain of wheat, has a double meaning. The first meaning captures the reality of the cross in priestly life. Every day, as you celebrate the Eucharist, you too must be God’s grain of wheat. Your fate is tied to Christ’s victimhood as well. Transubstantiation is both of species and of life. And both can only come about, like and with Christ, through death and daily dying to the self. But there is always another side to the priest as victim. Benedict XVI refers to this as God’s joy. Priestly cross and priestly joy are intertwined(Ratzinger, Ministers of Your Joy, Scriptural Meditations on Priestly Spirituality, Ann Arbor: Michigan, Servant Publications, 1989: 22). As priests today, it is worth remembering, in the words of the Psalmist, weeping might endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning (Ps 30:5). We must not abandon our priestly calling because of challenges. Even in the midst of our challenges, the Lord still gives us joy. With the Lord, as St. Ignatius of Loyola teaches us, it is never completely desolation. There is always consolation as well.

Third, to say Yes to the Lord Forever in the Priesthood is to Understand the Priesthood as What One Is

On November 1, 1946, in the Chapel of the Archbishop’s Residence in Krakow, the memorable Adam Stefan Cardinal Sapieha ordained John Paul II a priest. In his retrospective recollections of his ordination, John Paul II thought and reminded priests that the priesthood is not simply a matter of what one does. It is more of what one is. As the saintly Pope understood and emphasized in his Holy Thursday Letters to Priests starting April 8, 1979, theontosof the priest, the so-called ontological change, after all said and done, is precisely a question of particular intensity in terms of an existential relationality to and with Christ, that marks priestly life. For the priest, therefore, and for our brother Fr John going forward, Christ becomes the defining metaphysical principle that will give his being is decisive direction, amidst the different tasks that would be assigned to him by his legitimate ecclesial superiors. In effect, priestly ontological change, however one wants to capture that in terms of the sacramental sense, is at best, a metaphysical Christic-existentiality borne from intimate relationality between priest and Christ, outside of which is left a clerical magicism that is lifelessly presumptuous and devoid of any life-affirming realism. Priestly life becomes boring and repetitive, opening the door to pseudo replacements of various modes and tenses.

Fourth, to say Yes to the Lord Forever is to grow in one’s Consciousness of the Hiddenness of Priestly Power

A few days after his priestly ordination, the young Fr Karol Wojtyla, John Paul II, could not make it for the anniversary gathering of his old troupe. The hectic nature of the days following ordination would not allow him to be present. John Paul II wrote a brief letter in which he apologized for his inability to attend the gathering with his peers. I believe that letter contains a germ of wisdom that could be helpful to you, our esteemed Fr John. This is what the saintly Pope wrote:

“Maybe it’s God design that I can’t come to this anniversary meeting. That’s how I understand it – I should be present in your activity, just as a priest should be present in life in general, should be a hidden driving force. Yes, despite all appearances that is the main duty of the priesthood. Hidden forces usually produce the strongest actions” (Witness to Hope, p. 82). 

Dear Fr John, hidden forces usually produce the strongest actions! It takes saints to articulate such wisdom. As you begin your priestly ministry with Fr Bob Poitras at St. Mary’s, Franklin, MA, I encourage you to remember this wisdom from John Paul II: Many times, our invisible actions of pastoral charity, produce the strongest and bear the most enduring fruit for Christ and for Christ’s Holy Church.

Finally, to say Yes to the Lord Forever in the Priesthood is to enter into the Eternal Today of Christ

In his reflections marking the Fiftieth Anniversary of his Priestly Ordination titled Gift and Mystery, St. John Paul II wrote:

I am convinced that a priest should have no fear of being “behind the times,” because the human “today” of every priest is included in the “today” of Christ the Redeemer. For every priest, in every age, the greatest task is each day to discover his own priestly ‘today’ in the “today” of Christto which the Letter to the Hebrews refers (Gift and Mystery, p. 84).

Fr. John, in the today of your life, the Lord calls you to holiness. True religion leads to daily conversion, the saintly Bishop Francis Lysinge often reminded me. A remarkable aspect of your life is your translucent simplicity. It has often struck me how synthetic you are. The John one encounters externally is the John who is internally. I sometimes think that if Immanuel Kant had encountered you, he might not have made the distinction between the noumena, the thing in itself, and the phenomena, the thing as it appears to us, so sharp. Build on your natural identity your supernatural priestly calling; in the today of St. Mary’s Franklin, MA, and where ever else God through the Church would mission you to.

Conclusion

Towards the end of his life at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI would always end his homily with a prayer. Recently, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J. Benedict’s longtime Press Secretary, declared that he has begun following that pattern. Permit me do the same here, adapting the Prayer for the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Canonization of St. John Paul II – April 27th, for our beloved and esteemed Fr John Tanyi:

O Saint John Paul, from Heaven’s window give us your blessing! Bless the Church, which you loved so much and courageously served along the pathways of the world, to bring Jesus to everyone and everyone to Jesus. Let us hear again your powerful cry, “Open, open wide the doors to Christ!” Help us open the doors of our hearts to Jesus, so that we may be tireless missionaries of the Gospel today.

From the window of the Father’s House in heaven, we ask for your blessing upon Fr. John Tanyi. Watch over the gift of the priesthood that the Lord has bestowed on him. May Fr John Tanyi’s priestly ministry help to open wide the doors to Christ for us, Christ, who cannot be excluded from any latitude or longitude, for to exclude Christ is to do violence against the human being, for it is Christ who fully reveals us to ourselves. St. John Paul II, pray for Fr John and pray for us. Amen.

May our Mother Mary, whose YES to God at the Annunciation – Ecce Ancilla Domini – always intercede for you, Fr John, so that your YES to God will continue to be creative, dynamic and fruitful, for the greater glory of God, now and always, Amen.

Rev. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai (AMDG)

Boston MA

In the Archdiocese of Boston, of the Pope St. John Paul XXIII seminary, Archbishop, Sean Cardinal O’Malley ordained Rev John Tanyi Nquah Lebui, the first Cameroonian Priest in the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. The historical monument with an imposing presence of 364 feet long, ninety feet high, with a seating capacity of 1,700, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross was full of friends and families from Europe, The Scandinavia, Africa including states in America, all witnessed the dream of a seven year old boy, now 39, ordained into priesthood.

In the Rite of Ordination to the Order of the Presbyter, His Eminence Sean Patrick Cardinal O’Malley, the Principal Celebrant and Homilist, presents the candidates for priesthood. With the authority given to him by Jesus, the priest is called by the Church to serve God’s people. And the candidates publicly respond and announce their readiness and willingness to enter their priestly calling. The Bishop then speaks to the candidates and the congregation the duties of the priest. In return the priest affirms his intention to serve with clear conscience and prayerful spirit after the example of Jesus.

It should be noted that the spiritual rules and the authorities of the Popes has a time span of over 2000 years from the arrival of Peter in Rome to the present day. Therefore, when Cardinal Sean sits in the throne of the Bishop, which is the Cathedral, it is the symbol of authority and power. As successor of the Apostles, wearing his Miter and holding his Pastoral staff, guiding the faithful in faith, hope and charity, the priest then takes the Oath of Promise of Obedience to serve under the authority of the Bishop, and pledges total allegiance and respect to the Bishop and his successor, followed by the singing of the Litany of the Saints.

Born on July 3, 1984, in Tiko, a coastal city of the Southwest region of Cameroon, father Tanyi is one of the eight children of Angela Tanyi and late Francis Tanyi. Rev John Tanyi started his educational background at the Elementary School, St. Mary, Tiko. He further moved to St. Joseph’s college Sasse in Buea, and continued with his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Uganda Martyrs University, Nkonzi, Uganda and also a master’s degree in international relations from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, Nairobi Kenya. He was also granted and awarded a Master of Arts in Theology from Boston College.

Rev. John Tanyi Lebui Nquah was ordained with 10 other priests by the Cardinal at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston Massachusetts. Before his priestly ordination, Rev John was ordained to the transitional diaconate in 2023, and assigned to the St. Anne and Thomas Apostle Parish Salem. On May 26th, 2024.Rev John Tanyi will celebrate his first Holy and Thanksgiving Mass at St. Anne Church Salem.

By Agbaw-Ebai Etukeni, Cameroon Concord US Bureau Chief

On the occasion of the annual celebration of the International Labor Day commemorated May 1, Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi of Cameroon’s Buea Diocese has recognized with “gratitude and appreciation” the sacrificial efforts pastoral workers make in serving the people of God in his Episcopal See.

In a statement issued Wednesday, May 1, Bishop Bibi recalls that Labour Day “honors the contributions and achievements of workers worldwide and recognizes their importance in building societies and economies.”

“It’s a time to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of workers across various sectors and industries,” the Cameroonian Catholic Bishop says.

He thanks pastoral agents in Buea Diocese, saying, “As you celebrate Labour Day with your loved ones, I express gratitude and appreciation for your hard work and sacrifices to the Diocese.”

“Thank you for your endless support and commitment to your duties,” he said, and added, “I equally recognize your contributions to the growth of the different institutions in our Diocese.”

The Cameroonian Catholic Bishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in March 2017 as Auxiliary Bishop of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese recognizes the May 1 Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.

“St. Joseph the worker whose memorial we celebrate today was loyal, hardworking and committed,” Bishop Bibi says, and implores, “May he intercede for us all to work devotedly with Joy.”

“May God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in Communion with the Holy Spirit give you grace and peace,” he further implores in his May 1 message.

Celebrated every year on May 1 since 1890 in over 80 countries, Labor Day recalls the “contributions of workers”, seeking to promote “their rights, and commemorate the labor movement.”

This year, the focus is on ensuring safety and health at work in a changing climate, a theme that underscores the critical importance of addressing the impacts of climate change on workplace safety and occupational health.

Source: aciafrica