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Moderator Fonki Samuel is sleeping with so many women in the PCC

Moderator Fonki Samuel is sleeping with so many women in the PCC

While her husband (the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon) never takes her for his trips abroad or away from Buea, there are now allegations that Pastor Fonki Samuel continues to have sexual encounters with several ladies in the church.

Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from very reliable sources deep within the PCC hierarchy that Rev Dr Perpetual Fonki is aware of the social crimes of her moderator husband and how the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon uses the Church house as a sexual cave and painting his behaviour as a divine command.

Moderator Samuel Fonki is a known pastor who is not really a believer in Jesus Christ. He reportedly bribed to be elected to the position of Moderator and many Protestants were deceived into believing in him and believing in his work.

His counseling sessions mostly in expensive hotels in Douala are administered in privacy with women and in the absence of Dr Perpetual Fonki, the so-called Communications Secretary of the PCC in Cameroon.

“Apparently, there are many women who have complete access to the Moderator’s libido with the most prominent being Rev Mary Wose of the PCC Kumba” a member of the Presbyterian Church who asked not to be named told Cameroon Intelligence Report.

“The Moderator has been having sexual intercourse with many women in the PCC! Having sex in his office and the women are more than we can count. He has slept with almost all the women in the PCC” a retired Pastor tearfully hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Our London Bureau Chief Isong Asu is currently investigating claims that Moderator Fonki Samuel may have slept with even minors.

A chartered member of PCC Mulheim in Germany was heard murmuring privately that “Moderator Fonki makes these desperate women think it’s all a spiritual direction from God. He appoints them to top positions in the PCC and employs some of them to teach in Presbyterian primary and secondary schools. He never attends any official function with his wife and even travels abroad with his mistresses and in some cases he has women kept for him by his acolytes upon arrival.”

His corrupt Synod feels boldly strong about his atrocious activities. No one in the current PCC hierarchy sees anything wrong with Moderator Fonki. It is like Presbyterians are giving what belongs to Caesar to Caesar.

Moderator Samuel Forba Fonki is having his fair share of free sex and there is never a day without a mention about the PCC Moderator’s keeping of multiple sexual partners and using his corrupt influence to elevate them into influential positions such as female Pastors, Chairperson of congregations, CWF leaders, Accountants or members of the Synod.

Today, women constitute 90% of the members of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon- majority of who are likely his sex slaves.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands, Moderator Fonki uses church money for the upkeep of his ladies. Mr. Fonki has friends in Europe and USA who make sure that during his fake Pastoral visits the PCC Moderator has multiple women during his stay in expensive hotels paid with funds from the congregations. During his foreign trips, these women take turns in cooking and serving him at his hotel.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group have never ever seen the Moderator and with his wife in public.  There is no photo in our archives where you will see the Moderator in any public event with his wife and children.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai  

Why God Must Not Be Set Aside

Why God Must Not Be Set Aside

“There is no saint without a past; there is no sinner without a future” Meditations on the Life of Augustine of Hippo (AD 354 – 430)

I love the month of August, for particular reasons: It is the month of my birth, but more importantly, August is the month of my favorite saint, Augustine of Hippo (August 28). His feast day is preceded by that of his mother, Monica (August 27). And this particular August, I had the great joy of baptizing my niece, Mariette, a very promising young girl. I have repeatedly said to a few close friends that during the liturgy of my Christian burial, I would love two texts to be placed on my casket: the Bible and my Loeb’s Classical Library version of Augustine’s The Confessions. I stopped keeping count on the number of times that I have read Augustine’s Confessions. It is the one text that have accompanied much of my intellectual maturation and career. Why I am here? What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of suffering? What is the source of everything? What does it mean to love and be loved? Can the bliss in sexual expression bring about complete human fulfillment? (Plato’s Symposium and Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est). Is there a relationship and if there is, what is it, between love, sex and friendship? Why is love and its expression the defining quality of human life – amor meus, pondus meum, wrote Augustine. What does it mean for the human being to be free? And above all, Who is God? Does God know me? Is God interested in me? Am I seeking God or is God the first to go in search of me? These, and more, are some of the questions that characterize Augustine’s Confessions.

Greek philosophy grappled with the question of the meaning of life from the perspective of understanding the source of everything. The Pre-Socratics, heavily cosmological, gave different answers: water, air, fire, boundless or the unlimited, animated by two forces, love and hate; and change or no change: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides. I have often marveled at how close the Pre-Socratics came in getting the correct sacramental symbols that would thousands of years later, mark Christian initiation: Thales’ water (Baptism); Anaximander’s “boundless or unlimited” and Anaximenes’s “air” (could very well correspond with the Holy Spirit’s presence at Confirmation); and the same could be said about the Heraclitean fire. But that might be stretching the significance of ancient Greek philosophy a little bit too much! 

What is of consequence is that humans have always sought to resolve the question of their purpose in this world, and religion has played a crucial role in this dilemma. One can only think of Kenjo Jumbam’s The White Man of God or Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Both portray the dramatic tension that characterizes this question in the light of a clash of religions and civilizations. When we understand the meaning of our existence, even if not fully, such a consciousness has a profound implication on how we continue to live, as Viktor E. Frankl demonstrates in his Holocaust-survivor retrospections, Man’s Search for Meaning. In summation, and here Frankl cites my German friend Nietzsche, “he who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” (p. 104). Let us return, once again, to Augustine.

As my great teacher of Augustine at Boston College, Peter Kreeft, himself, a little Augustine, a little Aquinas and a little Lewis, often repeated, Augustine is the first modern and contemporary philosopher, for when Augustine uses “I,” it is in the sense in which contemporaries use “I,” – but only without the egoism of contemporary culture. Augustine remains a figure too interesting to be ignored. You can either admire him and esteem and appreciate his life and work, or you can hold him in scorn and disregard. But it is difficult to completely ignore him all together. On almost all the major themes that have come to define Christianity, the fingerprints of this great bishop of Hippo are noticeable, for good or for ill. He shaped the way Latin Christianity came to see God, politics, war, sin, grace, freewill, psychology and the practice of religion. At his death, he left behind over 5 million words of writings. 

Amongst his writings, Augustine wrote three histories that will never go out of relevance: the history of God (De Trinitate); the history of the world (De Civitate Dei); and the history of man and woman (De Confessiones). Only an Augustine could have thought of writing a history or a somewhat biography of God! But such was Augustine, whom I have come to love profoundly thanks to the path established by Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, a contemporary and living Doctor of the Church from Bavaria. I will focus on Augustine’s history of man and woman, as captured in his Confessions, noticeably different from the two other Confessions that have marked the literary world, namely, The Confessions of Jeremiah as contained in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah; and The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. For now, let us focus on two key passages in Augustine’s Confessions that I believe, fittingly capture his dramatic life and can speak to us today: 

Passage One: “You inspire us to take delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” (Confessions, I, I, (1)).This is the most quotable phrase in all of literature outside the Bible. To understand why this is so, we must look at, even briefly, Augustine’s existential itinerary. This phrase of the restless heart speaks to many of us because, in the final analysis, we see ourselves in Augustine. In my opinion and that of many persons more intelligent, that explains why Augustine commands so much attraction. He is like us. He is like me. His story is my story: of sin, brokenness, estrangement, and yet, of forgiveness and return. He grew up a young man in Thagaste (present day Algeria), under a pagan father and a very pious mother. Augustine, like many a contemporary young person, was attracted to the delights of sensual pleasure and fame. His various trappings reveal a youth bent on exploring all that life has to offer. And yet, as Augustine would notice, in the delights that enslaved him, what he was really seeking was love, who’s most fulfilling form is God. 

Fame, power, money, knowledge, sexual gratifications did not satisfy Augustine’s soul. There was always what Blondel later characterized as the wedge between the willing will and the willed will. The more indulgent Augustine became, the more he realized that he was chasing shadows. Augustine had his back against the wall. He could either ignore the emptiness or void within him and go on living as if that void was not there; or, he could face the music and say, I have tried all else, I need help! 

If there is one thing that Augustine was incapable of, it was self-deceit. Augustine could not lie. And so, at this point, seeing the futility in everything, Augustine cries out from the depth of his soul: “I have made myself into a barren land” (Confessions, II, 10, (18). Long story short, Augustine, following a religious experience reminiscent of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, allows himself to be taken over by God. He had spent a greater part of his previous years searching for meaning. And now, he finally comes to the realization that rhetoric, fame, money, power and sex cannot make him happy, if these are severed from God. It is only in God that these human desires and manifestations attain their true meaning and deepest potentials. In effect, Augustine arrives at the realization that no created reality can fulfill the deepest yearnings of his soul. Without God, even the best of pleasurable encounters left him feeling empty. Why? Because God made us for God’s self, and nothing less than the very Divine life can satisfy the human soul. This is an a posteriori realization that is both penitential and yet, liberating: only in and with God do I find the true meaning of my existence. Every other choice continues to leave my heart restless. 

Passage Two: Hence, it is precisely the realization of the barren land that becomes a fertile ground for the new Augustine. As Ratzinger points out while reflecting on Augustine, every conversion is a new beginning for the Bishop of Hippo. Augustine, under the light of truth, arrives at the retrospective consciousness that every saint has a past, and every sinner, a

future: “Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you. And see, You were within, and I was in the external world and sought You there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely, created things that you made. You were with me, and I was not with You. (Confessions, X, 27, (38)). Augustine is now at a point in which he allows himself to be found by God. While initially Augustine might have thought that his restless heart was he seeking God, at this second layer of consciousness, Augustine arrives at another new discovery: It was not Augustine that was seeking God. It was God seeking Augustine, unbeknownst to him. God’s love for Augustine predated Augustine’s waywardness and estrangement from God – Seroteamavi. God’s love for Augustine never withered, even when Augustine was consumed by sin. While Augustine was carried away by external delights, God was busy working within in Augustine’s soul, pulling Augustine towards Himself. As Ratzinger poetically pointed out in the homily inaugurating his pontificate in 2005, we suffer on account of God’s love, for the world is saved by the patience of God and destroyed by the impatience of men and women. 

What do these two texts, restless hearts and the realization that God was within and Augustine, without, teach us? Firstly, they tell us that to find God is to find myself. That was Augustine’s great discovery. God does not deprive me of what makes my life beautiful, true and good. If anything, finding God brings me to the fullest realization of who I am, of my purpose and the meaning of my life. If this Augustinian conviction is true, namely, that by finding God I end up finding myself, then it follows that to set God aside is an injustice against man and woman. It deprives us of a depth and breadth that encountering God opens us to. To find God is to allow my small agendas to be broken into by the ocean of God’s power, which is love. Finally, we can resolve the Socratic puzzle: Man, know thyself! I know myself when I know God, and I know God when I know myself, for God has created me for God, and only in God can I find the meaning of my life. Secondly, with Augustine, I make another great discovery: I was not the one seeking God, after all. It was God seeking me. I have personally found that so consoling, so empowering, and so encouraging: Maurice, you have not been the architect. God has been, all along, even when you were not conscious of it. God has been the one seeking you, from birth in Mamfe till the present in Boston. God has been there all along, even when you made choices against God, embracing a life of sin. God has been searching for you, offering you a future, for, to cite Augustine again, there is no saint without a past, and there is no sinner without a future. 

As we celebrate the feast day of St Augustine today, August 28th 2022, may his example serve as an inspiration to us, that only God can satisfy the longings of the human heart, and that God’s love is so much that every sinner has a future, myself inclusive, if only I but turn to God for mercy, for, as Augustine again wrote, do not despair, one of the thieves was saved; do not presume, one of the thieves was condemned. St. Augustine of Hippo, pray for each one of us, for our world, and for our Holy Mother the Church, she, the Daughter of Zion. Pray for us not to set God aside for what appears to be other pressing concerns, for, as your life teaches us, to set God aside eventually ends with us setting ourselves aside. But with God, we have a future. For the sake of human beings, therefore, we must not set God aside, for to do away with God, to postpone entering into a living relationship with God, to delay allowing God to find us, to exclude God because we have more pressing concerns, eventually ends up excluding us and leading us up a Sisyphean hill!

By Fr Maurice A. Agbaw-Ebai  

Of Moderator Fonki Samuel and the numerous PCC scandals: The 19 Questions to the Synod

Of Moderator Fonki Samuel and the numerous PCC scandals: The 19 Questions to the Synod

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report investigation into Moderator Samuel Fonki is an ongoing investigation by the editorial board of the Concord Group into Mr. Fonki’s handling of the financial and moral scandals that have rocked the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News Group now understand from Moderator Fonki’s reactions through Ndi Richard  that it is exactly 22 years today since  PCC Synod Executives and Synod vowed to fight against the reformation of  the PCC  which was embraced by thousands of Christians. After 22 years, we of the Concord Group can testify, that these conmen have waged a war for 22 years against God.

Our cream of investigative journalists have framed 19 questions on behalf of Presbyterians and the general public for Mr. Moderator to answer them accordingly. The office of the Moderator is sacred and public. So, based on your actions since you became Moderator, this research questionnaire will help us understand the way the PCC operates.

If Moderator Fonki Samuel fails to answer these questions within the next two weeks, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report shall be compelled to put up an obituary announcement on him!

Question One

How much money has the Cameroon Government given to the PCC as subsidies to the PCC schools since you became Moderator in 2015? Can you account for how you , the Education Secretary and Education committee used it  because teachers are angry  about being mistreated , poor pay ,poor working conditions and going for months without pay . Where did the Education Secretary of the PCC get the money to build such a big mansion, which is not even finished? Where is he going to take money to complete and maintain such a big mansion? 

Question Two

How much money do you folks collect from all Presbyterian Schools as school fees from students? How much money does the Health Department of the PCC generate from Health /hospital bills? These include Pressbook, Prescraft, Printing Press and RTC Nfonta and RTC Kumba? PCC is a non -profit organization registered under the Ministry of Territorial Administration. This denomination is not a political party, a social club nor a cultural Association!  Under the non-profit status, the church does not pay taxes to the government. However, the workers are expected to pay their taxes to the government as employees (workers) of the PCC.  

Question three

How much money have you collected from overseas and what have you done with the money? Which are the PCC overseas partners that donated money to the PCC? Please, kindly provide the names of the overseas friends and partners as well as how much money they have donated till date. Also, provide a statement of expenditure of these finances. You claim that you are building infrastructures but were those infrastructures a priority and how did you raise money for those projects and did not use the same method to raise money to solve the problems of teachers? Please, we need to see the letters of correspondences in order to evaluate the content of your requests because from what we in Cameroon Concord News know, you folks use women, children, teachers, the poor and youths to raise money from foreign partners but once the money is sent, you never use it for the purpose for ,which you requested the funds. So, Presbyterians are entitled to know everything about the PCC finances from all angles with respect to what comes as income (budget) and what goes out in terms of expenditure and what is leftover as balance. This is more than auditing. It is about transparency and accountability because PCC is a non-profit organization whereby Presbyterians are stakeholders.   

Question Four

Why do you tax the PCC Congregations? Who are you to tax Christians and congregations? Are you the government? How many types of taxes do you collect from these congregations, Christians and workers? Quite apart from tithing, do you have any scriptures or law that backs your illegal actions? Are you the one who built these congregations? Do you own these congregations and Christians? The PCC was not your vision. It was not your idea and it was not founded by you or your parents. You are controlling Pastors and collecting illegal dues and levies from congregations under what biblical justification?

Commentary

We need to know about the cash flow, budget, expenditures and balances of every department including the various Ministries like CMF, CWF and CYF. You are running the PCC like an animal farm and at the same time you claim the CPDM government is corrupt. If every department of the PCC reports to you, then the question is, what is the function of the Synod as the highest ruling body of the church?

Question Five

You arbitrarily decided to buy a car for about 60 million FCFA because you are the Moderator! Who gave you such powers to abuse church finances? Please, provide the receipts of the price you paid for the Cars you drive, taxes, insurance, maintenances like fuel etc. Please, also provide the receipts of all the cars driven by the Secretaries  of various Departments of the PCC like Education, Health Care, Communication Secretary, Committee of the Ministry , Synod Clerk , Presbook, Prescraft etc How did you come up with the budget to buy such expensive cars for yourself and who approved the budget? Did the General Assembly (Synod of the PCC) approve the budget for your cars? Do you have the minutes? Is there a written policy on operating motor vehicles in the PCC?

The Moderator is “First among Equals” and not a King. So, how come you look down on other Pastors and living above your means while your colleagues are barely surviving? Your greed is alarming because people who live above their means are thieves. They have to steal and maintain the statusquo in order to keep up, which is exactly what you have been doing with your club of illegal shareholders. Do you understand the meaning of “first among equals”?

Question Six

 You do not own the PCC.  You never founded the PCC.

Who are you to claim that you are the Proprietor of Schools and CEO of the PCC? You are a Pastor and was offered the position of Moderator and how come you now claim CEO, which is the basis on which you are paying yourself 1.5 million francs Cfa? In what committee was this decision reached? Do you have the minutes so we can review? Who are the various committee members of the all the businesses of PCC. Please, provide all the names of those who make up the Education Committee, Health Committee, Pressbook Committee, Presscraft and their salaries and benefits.

Question Seven

You are just a Pastor called to special function to lead the rest of the Pastors. Who are you to be appointing Pastors and Presbyterial Secretaries to Congregations? Are you the one who pay these Pastors?

Question Eight

Who are you to close down Presbyterian Primary Schools and dismiss teachers? Who are you to go to such length inside a non- profit organization? Are you the one who created the schools? Did the General Assembly of the PCC (SYNOD) discuss and voted to close down schools?  

Question Nine

Why are you sowing seeds of confusion in the PCC congregations by imposing Pastors of your special club on Christians when they do not want them? Who are you to decide for the congregations? Do you have the right under the Presbyterian system to decide for the congregations?

Commentary

The congregations are the ones who select their Pastors in consultation and collaboration with the Committee of the Ministry where you are a member and perhaps chair. That does not mean you own these pastors and Christians. The church and Christians are owned by Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. You do not pay the Pastors. The congregations pay their Pastors. These Pastors are accountable to the congregations and not to you and your selfish Synod Office. In the event of a crisis, there is due process in conflict resolution that ensures accountability and transparency in leadership and management.

The congregations have the right to keep their Pastor as long as they want if they love him or her. They have the right to expand their congregations, plant and develop more congregations and hire more Pastors. The congregations have the right to terminate the services of a Pastor if they no longer want his or her services and to look for a replacement. The pastors report to the congregations and not to the Moderator or Synod Clerk. The Moderator and Synod Clerk do not pay the Pastors. 

Question Ten

Why are you tossing Pastors left and right in the name of transfers? You use transfer as a punitive weapon to retaliate against your critics including Pastors who do not collect enough taxes as well as give you special envelops. Do you transfer every Pastor? How much money do you request from Pastors as a special envelop? How much have you collected since you became Moderator? You want every congregation to give a special envelop whereas you already have a salary. You are dictating on these congregations through the clique you set up in every session of the congregation how much they should pay to you. In the PCC USA is the same thing you are doing and everywhere you stress up the people while you and your crime syndicate embezzle money in the name of Moderator’s visit. Your pastoral visits end up with more problems.

Commentary 

Pastors are frustrated about how you treat most of them with unnecessary stressful transfers and financial demands. Yet you have your club of friends whom are untouchable and planted in wealthy oriented congregations forever because of favoritism and tribalism. Presbyterianism is based on self – governance starting at the level of congregations to the Presbyteries and Synod. Do you really understand the pastoral functions of a Moderator because you never cite scriptures in any of your letters to Pastors? Presbyterians train their Pastors. They donate money to train their Pastors including you and if any funds are donated from overseas it must be reported and accounted for. The schools are managed and run by Presbyterian congregations, Presbyteries and Synod as part of the social justice ministry. So too are other departments like Health, Agriculture Pressbook , Prescraft, Printing Press etc 

Question 11

Teachers have been calling out on you about their pay and working conditions!  There are documents, which show that these problems where created by you. Did you ask the synod when you were closing down PCC schools? Do you think the parents and children of those schools you closed are happy? If Basel Missionaries did not come to Cameroon, would you be driving in an expensive car and living in big mansions? Where have you kept your sense of empathy and gratitude as a Pastor? Why is it that you don’t pay the salaries of teachers and yet you have money all over the PCC?  The way you mistreat your colleagues in the ministry is horrifying. You have forgotten that some of these Pastors, teachers and Christians nurtured and fed you in your village in Akwaya. You close down schools for children in a period in history when education is seen as the cornerstone of self-development and pursuit of “life, liberty and happiness”?

Question Twelve

Rev Fonki Samuel what effort have you ever made as a Pastor to solve any of the problems plaguing the PCC? Instead you hypocritically created your deceitful “Peace & Justice Center” when you are one of the most unjust and corrupt men now living! Do you think the Cameroon government can even listen to you about dialogue and peace when they know you are a corrupt dictator within the PCC? 

Commentary

Your case is sad because you are the Moderator. You glitter in your own lies because you have your propaganda machine to help spread your lies about who you are not. You have transformed the PCC into a dungeon of despair when it was really supposed to be a community loving people flourishing. When people are very serious about finding solutions to real life threatening problems you quickly resort to elections and dismissal. Instead of stepping forward to address these problems responsibly you throw mud at those you accuse of throwing mud at you.

Question Thirteen

Have you ever reflected over the fact that your colleagues in the PCC ministry are scared of you?  Has anyone ever told you that you are seen as a monster tyrant who is out to axe anyone who challenges you? As a Pastor do you really go to bed each time and feel good about yourself? Do you really have a conversation with your wife and can boast that you are a servant of God when people are afraid of you especially your “colleagues” in ministry?

Question fourteen

You Rev Samuel Fonki  is the man with the fattest and largest cross ✝️ across your neck and chest when you have no mercy, grace, empathy, compassion and love for God’s people? Why could you not copy the examples of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dietrich Bonheoffer, Cardinal Tumi and Martin Luther King Jr who stood on the side of the oppressed, downtrodden, poor and the afflicted?  They could never allow the regime to invade and destroy our communities, displaced thousands of women and children under their watch. What happened to you that you presided over the regime cracking down on innocent civilians? 

Question Fifteen

Do you really understand the context in which Presbyterianism was founded? Did you study the church history of the Presbyterian Church with respect to theology; doctrine and polity (Presbyterian belief system) while a student at PTS?   

Question Sixteen

Do you have any charitable and humanitarian programs in the PCC that provide charitable and humanitarian services to Presbyterians, Cameroonian citizens, strangers, foreigners afflicted and living in poverty? What programs in the PCC provide assistance to Presbyterians, who are sick and cannot afford medical care, medical bills, cannot send their children to PCC schools etc? Do the Pastors of the PCC have the same benefits you have and if not, why? What about widows, how do you treat widows in the PCC? What did you do when Rev Akih Mathias whom you appointed as the Coordinator of the CARE TAKER COMMITTEE OF PCC USA suspended one Elder of the PC Beltsville, Maryland in the USA for raising $4000.00 with the CWF EXCO for humanitarian assistance to women and children suffering in Cameroon? This is the case where Pastoral care was required. Instead you suspended her and then dissolved the EXCO. The elder you suspended is a widow and in spite of that she comes up with an initiative to help others. Now you suspend her and the Exco in order to steal the $ 4000.00. Did you look after the widow and her humanitarian project to help orphans?

Question Seventeen

Rev Fonki Samuel you asserted through your spokesperson Ndi Richard that Rev Jonathan Awasom was dismissed from the PCC as a foster son of his uncle late Moderator Rev H.A Awasom. Do you folks have any birth document that proves that he is a foster child of Moderator Rev H A Awasom?  We will appreciate if such a document or detail information about this be made public to all Presbyterians because it sounds like blackmail and defamation.

You also asserted that he was dismissed. Please, do you have any document that shows that the Synod of the PCC which is the highest ruling body of the PCC voted in majority to dismiss him for publishing 100 theses to reform the PCC? Do you have any evidence that shows the Synod Executive Committee of the PCC in 1999 invited him to defend his actions before them? Do you have any evidence that he was summoned by the Synod Body to defend himself?

Question eighteen 

How will you feel if the President of Cameroon or any other country appoints his unqualified and inexperienced wife the Minister of Communication? What criteria did you use to appoint your wife, PCC Communication Secretary? So what happened to the family that you sacked as Communication Secretary and replaced them with your family? You have a budget and your wife has a budget.  Is this based on qualification and competence?

Question Nineteen

In terms of conflicts at the level of the congregations, you instructed the Secretary of the Committee of the Ministry of the PCC not to intervene in the conflict in the PCC USA! Why did you prohibit another Pastor from performing his pastoral duties? So, what happens if there is no Fonki? How is it possible that one man could be all over the place? How is it possible that you could solve all the problems of the PCC without collaboration and support from your colleagues?

Over to you Moderator Fonki Samuel

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, Isong Asu and Rita Akana

If Jesus Christ were among us today, he wouldn’t miss a moment to fight Moderator Fonki Samuel

If Jesus Christ were among us today, he wouldn’t miss a moment to fight Moderator Fonki Samuel

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon the so-called Right Rev Fonki Samuel is no longer a popular Man of God, and probably the single-biggest drag on his recent showing-in is the brand new 4×4 jeep that he acquired for himself and his wife!  Social media releases last week, shows pressure is mounting for Mr. Samuel Fonki to step down soonest. It’s unlikely. Perhaps, therefore, it’s good timing for Mr Fonki to travel out of the country in the coming days.

Moderator Fonki intends to jet to the USA first. But there, he’ll meet a sea of disgruntled PCC diaspora members who will of course push him to discuss prospects for a new and decent Moderator!  We suspect the US embassy will be wary of granting him a visa as corruption allegations against him from prominent pastors in the PCC are emerging at catastrophic rapidity.  

If Jesus Christ (Peace upon Him) were among us today, he wouldn’t miss a moment to fight this outrageous Moderator of the PCC! The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is a group of persons who are believing Christians!  Presbyterians are the type of Christians who take action while praying and thinking. And Christ came into this world to fight evil. He came to confront evil. He risked his life. He sacrificed his life to fight evil men like Moderator Fonki.

If there’s one good thing that history teaches us about Presbyterians, it is their anti-dictatorship nature and seeking of truth and justice against the oppressors. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group have no doubt that if Christ were among us today; he would have been at the forefront of the battle against Moderator Fonki, his corrupt and evil tendencies and all forms of oppression deep within the Fonki-led synod.

Meanwhile Cameroon Concord News Group will be considering the aftermath of a pro Fonki blog reaction to our investigative stories that developed late last week.

Our other concern now with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is who gets to fill the disgraced Moderator Fonki’s shoes, and when. In the days ahead, we’ll hear how it is a US-based Pastor who is behind Cameroon Concord News investigation on the Fonki leadership of the PCC.

We shall be publishing in the weeks ahead how pro Moderator Fonki’s men in the synod are crafting their words and arguing why the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon should not be seen as a criminal enterprise even though they all agree that Mr. Fonki Samuel has been such a toxic failure that every Christian wants him gone as soon as possible.

We’ll also be publishing some simple but tough questions we have addressed to the demon in cassock in our modest effort to help him make sure that the grim state of the PCC does not stir even more protests.

Again, thank you all Cameroon Concord People for your own messages and comments on the goings-on in the PCC!  Moderator Fonki Samuel himself is overwhelmingly at fault, and he will be gone soon and very soon as many now fear the  PCC would be lost if he stayed around.   

Please continue to write to Cameroon Concord News at cameroonconcordnews@gmail.com and you’re most welcome to follow us on Face Book.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Notice to Rev Fonki Samuel Forba to resign as Moderator of the PCC

Notice to Rev Fonki Samuel Forba to resign as Moderator of the PCC

It is with profound humility and privilege for me to reassure all Presbyterians that the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is not owned by any group and no department is independent under appropriate laws that govern non-profit organizations in Cameroon and abroad. All departments are interdependent on each other as the body of Jesus Christ, to which Christ is the Head. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and I Corinthians 3:5-9 and John 15. This is scriptures that captures and explains the whole theology of social justice, under which PCC was founded for all of to live in dignity spiritually and physically.

Therefore, the PCC is our church founded by Basel Missionaries for all of us and we are all stakeholders. Those who now own private shares in the PCC are scammers and the response from Pastors, workers and devoted Christians have demonstrated that the PCC is going to rise and shine again as a true church under the light of Jesus Christ moving forward.

First of all, congratulations to all the students in Cameroon who have passed the GCE /AL public examinations. To all those who did not make it, please, do not give up. Our heartfelt condolences to families who have lost loved ones during these tough times in Cameroon. Many people would be alive today where it not of the violent conflict that has resulted to innocent people killed and millions internally displaced and facing severe humanitarian crisis. We pray for strength, peace and forgiveness as well as continue to advocate for all Presbyterians and co to be proactive prophetically and conscientiously. All Presbyterians students/ children who are suffering because their schools have been closed and cancelled by the PCC authorities should not give up.

The background and contextual analyses for the resignation of Rev Samuel Forba

Whereas in the recent days, the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) has witnessed the ever growing spirit of “righteous anger “against the satanic theology and activities of Rev. Fonki Samuel, which are not befitting of the office of a Church leader (Moderator) in a politically troubled society.

It is bizarre for Christians to decry corruption by the political regime whereas they, too have to deal with corruption in the church. Did the corrupt Moderator of the PCC institute corruption in the PCC to glitter and litter while the Presbyterian belief system inspired by Jesus Christ will fade and faint into oblivion? The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon was not founded to glitter. It was founded to shine the light of Jesus Christ upon the darkness of sins,injustice,oppression,greed , condemnation and corruption as reflected in John 1:1-5

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.”

On July 22, the Cameroon Intelligence Report published this article captioned“PCC Cameroon under Rev. Fonki: Corruption runs rampant. Who should we hold responsible?” In spite of an intelligence report like this, it is obvious that Rev Fonki Samuel thought it was just another ferocious attack on his person without any proof!Did Rev Fonki Samuel and his cohorts think about their ferocious attacks on Presbyterians they have persecuted, teachers they have dismissed for asking for better pay and better working conditions, pastors they have retaliated against for speaking?

Yes, the PCC is glittering with wickedness, corruption, greed, exploitation, bullying and dictatorship. These vices were brought into the PCC by Rev Fonki Samuel, who has deformed the gospel to establish his heretical doctrine of “Transformed transformers” with no scriptural backing to his outlandish theology because these are Pastors who have transformed themselves into tyrants, plunderers, thieves and liars.

Therefore, as we are alarmed by the threats posed to our faith and belief system as Presbyterian believers, being shaken by the fear of being stuck into the hell Fonki Samuel has forced us into on earth, it is no surprise that desperate situations call for desperate measures.

It is unconceivable for a group of young people to turn the church of Christians, elders, laity and ordained ministers into a club of “The winning team.” Rev.  Fonki Samuel Forba established a club of friends to ensure that PCC is operated and run as a private profit corporation. Contrary to his hanky- panky games, all Presbyterians are one people living under the grace of God through Jesus Christ by striving to imitate him everyday. Philippians 2: 1- 11. Nobody is better than the other as we are all sustained by his grace and justified by our faith. Ephesians 2:8.

By their devotion and discipleship, Presbyterians have earned the right to become stakeholders of the PCC with a sense of belonging, collective conscience, collaboration and ownership guided by their faith, hope and love in God’s community of Presbyterian believers. I Corinthians 13: 1-13 and 1 John 4:1-21. By virtue of our membership, we are more than conquerors in the Lord Jesus Christ with a winning spirit that galvanizes all Presbyterians to keep running towards the race to win the price of salvation, which Jesus Christ won for us all.  Philippians 3: 14- 15.

Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba who is notorious for boasting that he and his friends in control of the PCC are the “winning team” has violated the Presbyterian belief, polity and pastoral calling. According to his satanic notions, all persons he has appointed to key positions in the PCC are untouchable, unaccountable and incapable of mistake and discipline.

This doctrine perpetrated by him is a carnal secular humanism whereby Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba now sees himself as the “sovereign god” of the PCC with absolute power to himself that has legalized their racketeering, corruption, embezzlement and theft of PCC funds to enrich themselves. These wolves in sheep clothing are no longer worthy of their calling. They may glitter but Jesus Christ came to shine his light for everyone and not only for a select few who glitter while others fade and languish in abject misery and poverty.

The corrupt activities of Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba span a period of 7 years during, which time he and his club of greedy friends transformed themselves into monsters. Their ungodly and unbiblical activities have played out with the current instability reigning in some PCC congregations where their autocratic and “unpresbyterian” ways have clashed with genuine Presbyterians fighting to uphold the Presbyterian belief system and practices through transparency and accountability. Anything that has to do with Christian stewardship, transparency and accountability is shunned by him.

Many Pastors of the PCC are terrified by the tyrannical conduct of Rev.Fonki Samuel Forba. That is just a clear evidence that he had a hidden agenda campaigning to be Moderator of the PCC. Their bloated ego doesn’t align with the calling of Pastors. We are called into the ministry to serve God through Jesus Christ out of grace, humility, mercy, compassion, equity and fairness as well as extend these Godly virtues to everyone in the secular world. Unfortunately, the Presbyterian Church has a system of grace, justification, sanctification and social justice that must be upheld, thanks to the reformed theology of John Calvin.

 A. Cross-examination of the dubious schemes Rev Fonki Samuel against the PCC 

1. In order to create the environment to foster his dubious plans, the first thing he did was to change the Constitution to suit him. That is to concentrate all powers to himself and suppress free speech amongst Pastors, elders and workers.

2. Buy the conscience of all heads of PCC departments, intentionally allowed all of them to join him to plunder, privatize, embezzle, steal and exploit the PCC without limit so long as Rev. Fonki Samuel picks his wife to succeed him with their backing to maintain their culture of greed, racketeering and exploitation. Rev Fonki Samuel and his paid agent talk about merits and not tribalism! When a corrupt Moderator (Church Leader) appoints his corrupt wife to serve as Communication Secretary of the PCC, whereas she is not qualified for that position what do you call that? What criteria did he use to appoint his wife Communication Secretary of the PCC?  When you set up a constitution that selects the Moderator and Synod Clerk based on tribal origin and not on competence and the word of God, is that merits?

4. When the former Synod Clerk, Rev Babila George Foncham refused to participate in the Moderator’s Racketeering schemes, he was replaced. That shows the PCC is not a representative system of church government because as much as the Synod Clerk and Moderator must work collaboratively, in this case of interpersonal conflict between them, the Moderator was the one abusing power and perpetrating criminal practices. To think that Rev Babila George Foncham would be removed as Synod Clerk while Rev Fonki Samuel was retained as Moderator highlights the degree of dictatorship corruption and tribalism in the PCC. It is obvious that the Moderator of the PCc appoints his successors and that elections are just mere lies.

Consequently,

Mindful of the fact that Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba conspired with his uncle whom he appointed Chairman of the Finance Committee of the PCC against which background his uncle increased his salary, which now stands at 1.5 million Frs CFA a month,

Mindful of the fact that Rev Fonki Samuel Forba orchestrated this scheme of increasing salaries only for himself and his club of friends claiming to be the Proprietor of schools and CEO of the PCC, clearly motivated by greed,

Mindful of the fact that Rev. Moderator Fonki Samuel and his gang threatened and intimidated Pastors with retaliation to change the Constitution of the PCC so that he would make his wife the Moderator under the false pretext of promoting gender equality in the Church, a case that is far from it because both of them are corrupt, now convinced that he was attempting to institute a system of hereditary rule in the PCC against the democratic process of the Presbyterian system,

Mindful of the treacherous attempt of Rev Fonki Samuel Forba to hijack the PCC when he appointed his wife Communication Secretary of the PCC to pave the way for his wife to succeed him is his glittering achievement. It is obvious that the PCC first couple have only one ultimate goal from day one to hold unto the position of Moderator for life. In order to do so , he spent his entire reign focusing on pleasing his gang of friends and did not  care about the spiritual welfare of  the Christians. The testimony of these PCC Pastors is one of the rare rebukes of Rev Fonki Samuel, yet. Does the spiritual and physical welfare of Presbyterians evolves around elections of the Moderator of the PCC?

Whereas these statements from Presbyterians express the deep frustration and “righteous indignation” among Presbyterians about the level of corruption in the PCC, these are statements from some of the ordained Pastors of the PCC describing the “unpastoral “and hostile atmosphere in the PCC led by Rev.  Fonki Samuel Forba and his club of friends,

“The person who sent this to me also said she is convinced an insider wrote this. My opinion is not far from this. They have their clique that are always ready to defend them in the face of the public. I did not understand why they brought in elections into this. We are still in 2022, elections are in 2024. Besides, according to the constitution, he (Moderator of PCC) is not eligible to stand for elections again. They are just trying to cover up and get innocent victims to torment. They feel people are blind to see what they are doing.It’s so terribly that a church is ruled by a group of friends.Do you know that the lay members of the synod exco are all women?I was shocked. I can’t remember. I followed their dedication at the induction of the synod clerk and it did not speak well to me at all.The machine is perfectly in place. Everything about them is limited to elections. All they think of is how to secure their positions in church.The truth is pastors feel oppressed and are scared to talk.Tyrants in the name of leaders. You will not imagine that at a presbytery meeting where pastors had to vote for the constitution change their tyrant Presbyterial secretaries asked pastors to vote by show of hand instead of doing a secret ballot? In other places, where it was secret ballot pastors were reminded that their handwritings are known? So you can imagine. That was induction service of the synod clerk and dedication of synod exco. As you will notice, the only male lay person is the financial secretary of the church. All the non-clergy are women while the clergy in this group are a clique of friends. These are sadly the people administering the PCC”

B. The political activities of Rev Fonki Samuel against the PCC

With respect to the Constitution of the PCC when it comes to induction and ordination ceremonies, the Governor and politicians have no business at the sacred ceremony of inducting a church official. Consequently, for Rev Samuel Fonki to knowingly bring the Governor to the platform reserved only for elders and ordained officials whereas he knew it was against the Constitution of the PCC shows he has no reverence to the sacredness of the Church. This action alone is enough to dismiss all of them for the following reasons,

1. We know that Rev Fonki Samuel Fonki was politicizing the PCC and displaying political power by directly telling all his critics in the church that he had the backing of the Governor and the office of Prime Minister of Cameroon. We know it is terrible because PCC is apolitical for a reason. In order to fulfill her prophetic role , the leaders cannot belong to any political party but Rev Fonki Samuel and his gang all joined the  CPDM in  order to cover up their corrupt practices as well as abuse power the way they want.  It must be clear PCC Christians have the right to belong to any political party of their choice but even so must be salt and light as demanded by the Holy Scriptures, Matthew 5: 13-16. A CPDM or SDF Presbyterian must be set apart unfailingly in the light of the Holy Scriptures. For instance, James 3: 13- 18 calls for the Presbyterian believer to choose one of the two kinds of wisdom. We have a serious problem in Cameroon now because Presbyterian Christians in most parts have failed to choose the right kind of wisdom because the leadership is corrupt and could not lead them to choose wisely.

2. Rev Fonki Samuel Forba has violated the Constitution of the PCC by undermining the liturgical sanctity of the PCC when he invited a non- Presbyterian who is not in any ordained ministry to indulge into the sacred practice of the church reserved only for elders and Pastors. There is a reason why people are selected as elders and ordained ministers, and to undermine that has led to the chaos reigning in the PCC. Public officials are welcome as guests along with every other person but to politicize the PCC in a way that threatens her, spiritual and moral authority is unacceptable.

3. It is no longer a secret that the Moderator of the PCC and his club of friends joined the CPDM Party with ulterior motives to manipulate and exploit politicians in the country to cover up their racketeering in the church. The office of the Moderator is reserved for a pastor who must perform his or her spiritual duties with a moral compass to interpret the Holy Scriptures prophetically and apply moral clarity where there is moral crisis. In this case Rev Fonki Samuel Forba compromised his prophetic voice because of his active political affiliation with the CPDM ruling party. He cannot serve both Masters at the sametime. He now has a choice .

His claims of writing letters to the state is pure propaganda and hypocritical. The officials of the ruling CPDM and Cameroon authorities cannot take any advice from the corrupt Moderator of the PCC seriously because they know he is worse than them. In fact, deep down in them, they are shocked at the corrupt nature of the PCC authorities but it works to their advantage since to them PCC is powerless as a church to hold the state accountable unlike in the past.

For the sake of the spiritual and prophetic role of the Church in every society and granted the fact that the PCC is apolitical, he is free to carry on his political ambitions outside of the office of the Moderator. Every Cameroonian has the right to belong to the political party of their choice, which is the experience of all Presbyterians. If the leadership are members of a political group directly or indirectly, they cannot minister effectively in the Congregations and elsewhere. That is why we have these endless conflicts in the PCC congregations since all the Pastors loyal to Rev Fonki Samuel are affiliated to the political party of his choice or the wrong reasons. In a pluralistic society where there is multiparty politics and diverse political opinions by Christians including the right to belong to any political party of their choice, we need church leaders who can minister and pastor everyone without fear or prejudice. In this respect, the Rev Fonki Samuel Forba is hereby notified to resign from his position as Moderator of the PCC pending investigation into his corruption in the church.

C. The Voices of Presbyterians in response to Rev Fonki Samuel’s damage control propaganda

The privatization and plundering of the PCC by Rev Fonki Samuel and his club of Friends is fading and will be dismantled not long from now. Since publishing their”Is the PCC glittering or Fading” ?, the Rev Fonki Samuel has provoked endless stream of questions ,which further shed light on the fact that they thought they could take Presbyterian Christians for granted. These statements after the fact speak for themselves as I have quoted. The identity of the persons including Pastors, workersand Christians are withheld.

1 “No one is questioning why Church departments should be independent. Would the health department for example, not subsidize the nursery and primary schools? The reason is to allow the heads to have a freehand and close their mouths. I am equally investigating his relationship with Zenith Insurance and the late Parliamentarian for Akwaya Chief Igelle Elias who was his maternal uncle in Ballin Village…”

2. “We also should investigate who are Shareholders in the Presmicro Finance, and what has happened to PESH,that cannot pay back people ‘s savings,but rather asking people to borrow at very high percentages.The brother who was Finance officer for Pss Mankon embezzled close to 35 million frs,yet is parading the streets of Bamenda free…The system has been so entrenched in corruption in competition to amass wealth (material and financial)by Pastors and others with offices at the Synod office. “

3. “The hired Ndi Richard has many other areas to investigate and bring us the facts.I remember at the peak of the problems between PEATTU and church hierarchy,Many Pastors,like the Rev Forbang,Rev Numfor etc did all to ” fabricate” stories in defense of their own(lies) even as Pastors to defend a system. Let Ndi Richard tell us;

i.The situation surrounding PESH with people ‘s savings.

ii.Shareholders of the Pre Microfinance

iii.The embezzled money at Pss Mankon by the Moderator’s brother who was working there as Finance officer

iv.The money recovered from Parents as fees during the so-called inactivity years, that schools managed through with classes, evaluation and end of course examinations, that they are refusing to pay the 7 months owed Teachers prior to the establishment of the Protocol Agreement.

v.The fate of Primary School Teachers abandoned (some to Congregations) and others in the blues. It is really aching when some Pastors mount pulpits and announce that money owed Teachers have been paid to the last franc. What of parting gifts/social insurance?Church, church church.

vi. “I can remember knowing you in PC CCAST COMPLEX in 1996 and I have read the articles you wrote in the 100 theses. I quoted some of the articles in a teachers’ meeting asking why there’s curtailment of Trade Union Dues yet PCC teachers are not allowed to belong to trade unions. Today many teachers are redundant due to anglophone crises but some who may not be effective but are related to. . .are maintained…At times when I read comments… I JUST ASK WHY JESUS WILL LEAVE 99SHEEP IN SEARCH OF ONE, whereas today “we” call the missing one a drop in the sea?”

vii. “Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord. I’ve listened to the video messages and audios.  Truly the budget of the church is not made known to the mass of christians who raise the budget. Church contributions and other special collections are specific to the purpose that made the budget head SPECIAL. Harvest Thanksgiving is not interpreted and it’s purpose not made known to christians. The church if it only ran congregations, schools and health care services, maybe would have been having 100% subvention from the government. We do pay taxes monthly, social insurance dues etc. Government subvention is not regular in sectors destined to. Other sectors of the PCC pay the normal tax as any individual or group of people. If you could lay hands on your pay voucher while serving you see that CRTV tax, Land Bank tax etc were curtailed before church contribution and others at the level of the PCC. All departments of the church are under the moderator that’s why the office is termed that of the PROPRIETOR. The worry here is WHO DETERMINES HOW MUCH IS TO BE USED BY EACH OFFICER OF THE SYNOD AND PRESBYTERIES? Why can’t the powers that be investigate and impeach the moderator but rather too much power is given him? Example he appoints Presbyterial Secretaries whom are answerable to him, and because they want to maintain their offices, they bully at the level of presbyteries all who question or request to know how certain offices function or are run.”

Viii “I can remember …because I asked why must I be forced to join Presmicro finance when my money is blocked in PESH.”

 D. The resignation of Rev Fonki Samuel

The Rev Fonki Samuel Forba is expected to address his letter of resignation to all Presbyterians as soon as possible from now and up to September 15 to step down. He will have two more weeks till the end of September to leave the Synod Office in order to pave the way for the interim Governing Council to assume duties around October 1st, 2022 .  He shall surrender the property of PCC  in his keeping to the appropriate body under due process and to ensure a smooth transition.

The Rev Fonki Samuel Forba is expected to park and leave the Synod Office into one of his hotels or to his home Presbytery and congregation where he started his journey pending further instructions from the interim Governing Council about disciplinary measures and counseling when the investigation is complete

The Rev Samuel Fonki Forba is expected to humble himself and cherish this moment in the history of the PCC and to take responsibility for his actions to cooperate with Presbyterians to ensure that the problems and issues at stake are resolved justly and peacefully.

The Rev Fonki Samuel is no longer allowed to carry out pastoral functions in the PCC effective immediately as the allegations, charges, accusations and problems he has created are seriously overwhelming and demanding of the actions hereby undertaken in good faith to save the PCC under the power of the Holy Spirit and reasonable human action from being destroyed by him

E.  The implications of the resignation of Rev Fonki Samuel Forba

a) An interim governing Council of the PCC will be established under the Presbyterian System of Church government to handle the period of transition for the PCC . An interim Moderator will be chosen after due consultation to assume duties as soon as Rev Fonki Samuel resigns and leaves. As of now the PCC does not have any functional Constitution that is fair, transparent, objective and reflects the Presbyterian System of Government in the light of the Holy Scriptures. For that reason, the Constitutional Council created by Rev Fonki Samuel, which has given him absolute powers to commit all the atrocities in the PCC are asked to excuse themselves .

b)    The commission to investigate the corruption of Rev Fonki Samuel and his club of Friends will be established by the Interim Governing Council

c) The Reformation and Reconciliation Committee(RRC) of the PCC will be established by the Interim Governing Council of the PCC with proper guidelines to look into the problems of the PCC through the lens of the Presbyterian Belief System, the Reformed Theology of John Calvin, Holy Scriptures and International Labor Organization with respect to the rights of PCC workers,https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/mission-and-objectives/lang–en/index.htm ,the persecution of Pastors and Christians, etc

d} All PCC congregations, and Presbyteries, departments, schools, Health Care Centers and Hospitals, Pressbook, Prescraft, RTCs, PTS and others will continue to function with a high degree of transparency and accountability in full cooperation with the Interim Governing Council. By the same token all Presbyterians are called upon to cooperate fully to ensure that the voices of all Presbyterians will be heard.  A follow –up document to underscore the nature and scope of the reformation of the PCC will be released sooner than later in the next publication with just and equitable recommendations to God’s people

Humbly Submitted,

Brother Jonathan F Awasom

Reformed Presbyterian Pastor /Christian

Advocate for Reforms in the PCC  since 1999 in Cameroon & USA

Contact :  Jonathan_light2000@yahoo.com

Cellular : 2018785829

cc

The Synod Clerk of the PCC

The Presbyterial Secretaries of the PCC

All Pastors, Elders  and Presbyterians , students at the PTS

The Minister of Territorial Administration of Cameroon

The Governors of the all regions hosting PCC Presbyteries and Institutions

All foreign Embassies in Cameroon

Traditional Authorities in the North and South West Regions

The All African Council of Churches

The World Council of Churches

The International Labour Organization

The PCUSA  and the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland and co

The Consortium of Theological Seminaries in the USA , Canada and Europe

The Basel Mission

African bishops lament inability to stop young people from leaving

African bishops lament inability to stop young people from leaving

In the din of Yaoundé’s traffic, thousands of youths comb various offices, documents in hand, in search of jobs.

As frustration sets in, many see a future beyond the country’s shores. That is how Jannet left Cameroon two years ago.

A recruiter told her she would have a well-paying job upon arrival in wealthy Kuwait. Her family agreed to go into debt with the recruiter to pay for airfare and other associated expenses.

But the promise of a good job turned into a nightmare in Kuwait. A member of the recruiter’s network confiscated her passport, mobile phone and other personal documents and took her to the home of a wealthy family, where Jannet had to work long hours with little food.

“I wake up at 5 a.m. and go to bed at 1 a.m., at times no food,” she told Catholic News Service.

For over two years, Jannet slaved for that family, sleeping on the kitchen floor. She said she was forced to use the “toilets” reserved for cats.

“I used to call them (the cats) my brothers,” Jannet recalled, because “they were the only family I had out there.”

Hers is not an isolated story. Beatrice Titanji, vice president of Cameroon’s Trauma Centre for Victims of Human Trafficking, said these modern-day slave markets can be found throughout the Gulf states.

“They actually have booths as you would have in the market, and (people) are sold and bought for domestic service,” said Titanji.

“So they move them to their various owners as negotiated before, because there are linesmen here in Cameroon who actually negotiate, get money, sell them at higher prices, sell them depending on the outlook of the victim, as it happened 200 years ago during slave trade. Our children are sold and bought today in the Middle East.”

The situation has caught the attention of members of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar.

Meeting in Accra, Ghana, July 25-Aug. 1, the bishops examined the causes of migration, the risks involved — particularly when it comes to irregular migration — and what the church needs to be doing to help.

“Migration is a normal social phenomenon that is linked to the history of humankind,” the bishops said in a statement signed by Cardinal-designate Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Wa, Ghana, president of SECAM.

“This is why migration cannot be considered illegal but could be irregular,” they added. They said while the suffering of migrants is not linked to migration as such, migration can involve suffering: “abuse of the social status … exploitation, ignorance” and fear of poverty.

“We wish to express our pain in seeing our youth leaving our countries, knowing that they are going to suffer and possibly lose their lives, and we lament our inability to stop them from leaving,” the bishops said.

They urged young people willing to exercise their right to migrate “to do so in a manner that is administratively acceptable and with full knowledge of the challenges that await them.”

“We encourage our youths not to lose hope and to hold on to God through a life of holiness.”

The church leaders also called on governments to put in place structures and conditions that discourage irregular migration, such as good governance, employment opportunities, multifaceted security, political and social inclusion, promotion of social justice.

“We urge transit and host countries to respect the rights and human dignity of migrants.”

They also challenged Christian communities to “develop an active pastoral care for migration” that should involve welcoming migrants, protecting them, promoting them and integrating them into society.

Jannet eventually returned to Cameroon, sick and frail, with nothing other than the clothes she was wearing. She said when she became sick, her slavers threw her onto the streets.

As she roamed the streets of Kuwait, not knowing exactly where she was going, Jannet eventually came across the Embassy of the Central African Republic. Embassy staff took her to a hospital, helped her replace her stolen passport, and paid for her flight back to Cameroon.

Still, young people in Cameroon say they will continue to risk leaving.

George Atanga, who has a master’s degree in chemistry, said he has been looking for a job for the past five years.

“Whether I get a visa or not, I have to leave this country,” he told Catholic News Service as he waited in line to take photos for his passport.

“If I don’t get a visa, I will travel through Algeria and see if I can get to Spain. My future lies out there,” he said.

It’s a trend across Africa, a continent where 51% of young women and 43% of young men are unemployed.

Source: Crux

When God Refuses to Speak: Random Thoughts of a Simple Christian- In Memoriam, Fr. Didimus Nformi

When God Refuses to Speak: Random Thoughts of a Simple Christian- In Memoriam, Fr. Didimus Nformi

Tuesday July 19 began like any other day in Boston. After the usual early morning standing appointment with God, I embarked on the chores of the day, mainly, academic work. Around mid-morning. Everything changed. The news came that Fr. Didimus Nformi YOMBO was no more! He had died in a ghastly accident on his way to Buea, after procuring his study visa at the US Embassy in Yaoundé. At first, I thought it wasn’t true. This could not be true. He was supposed to be in Boston in August. Everything was ready for him to begin his graduate studies at Boston College. How could this be?

I met Didimus while attending a wedding in Buea in January of this year, and again in February, after the Ratzinger Conference at CATUC, Bamenda, when we stopped over in Buea on our way to the airport to visit with Bishop Bibi. He came across as very welcoming, humble and unassuming, eager to make a visitor feel at home. And I remember saying to him while leaving Small Soppo, see you in Boston and hope that you study Ratzinger when you come to Boston College! He smiled. I guess that was a mortal’s wish! After all, I am just a man, limited by finitude. A creature. It was never to be! How could I have known! Boston was never to be enriched by the presence of Didimus, a young priest, gone too soon, I would say, and under very painful circumstances.

I spent much of the day in the chapel, just staring at Jesus in the Tabernacle. Praying the breviary felt dry. No emotions. No words could express anything. Just staring at the Tabernacle was all one could do, in utter shock. I asked Jesus countless times: Why, Lord? What does this mean? What value is his death to you? Did you think of this young man’s mother? And many other questions. It was a Job-like experience, and like Job, I am not sure the Lord answered me. Perhaps I was talking to myself and not to Him. But I was in His presence. He was there. He is always there, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. How could He not be there? He has been a Prisoner of the Tabernacle for over 2000 years. How could you be, Jesus, and you allow such a thing to happen to a young priest of yours? Why place such a promising future before him, and then not give him the opportunity to pursue it? Why show David that he is going to become king, only to leave him as a shepherd for the rest of his life? Does not Scripture say that hope deferred makes the heart sick? (Proverbs 13:12). Are you really there, Jesus, and yet are allowing such pain in the world?

At one point, my thoughts went to the question of the non-existence of God in the Summa of Aquinas. Two objections stand out supporting the non-existence of God, for Aquinas: divine omnipotence (God is all powerful), and divine omnibenevolence (God is all good). If God is all powerful and all good and yet, there is evil in the world, then we are left with a scenario of two alternatives: either God is all powerful and yet not all good because he allows for evil to inflict the world; or, God is all good but not all powerful, again, because of God’s inability to stamp out evil in the world. And the dilemma that Aquinas raises is captured by Dostoevsky The Grand Inquisitor in more stark terms: Ivan rejects or rebels against God, attempting to persuade his believing brother Alyosha, that God’s ordering of creation and Christ’s redemption are basically ineffective, based on a simple premise: God has been unable to free the world of suffering, pain and evil. Aquinas’ resolution of the impasse between Divine omnipotence and omnibenevolence leaves Ivan unpersuaded.

My thoughts further pondered Vatican II’s description of death in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes: it is when faced with death that the human being is most caught up in doubt. Human beings are tormented by the thought of their ceasing to be, and rightfully so (Gaudium et Spes, 18). And there is an underlining reason for the fear of death, as Ratzinger points out in his treatment of Eschatology, namely, the state of incommunicability regarding the foundation of human existence, that is, love. In death, we are unable to respond to love. We enter into a state of aloneness. And this, to Ratzinger, accounts for the excruciating pain that characterizes death.

Caught up in these thoughts, it occurred to me that though I had spent a good deal of time in the silence of the chapel, God wasn’t going to provide an explanation to me regarding the painful passing of Didimus. Perhaps like Job, even if God spoke, He was going to bully me into silence by posing questions that a finite mind like mine wouldn’t be able to answer. Or maybe God’s silence was his speech. He had done it before. This was not the first time that God was staying silent in the face of death. He did same one Friday afternoon on a hill outside Jerusalem called Calvary. And history is repleted with examples of God staying silent when one would have loved him to say a word. I think of the death of my own sisters, late twenty and early thirty in age, two years apart. God stayed silent. And other sufferings over the years, such as when a young child dies! Or when a young child is suffering from so much pain, hospitalized! God appears to always stay silent when we would need him to speak. Again, could God’s silence be God’s speech? Or maybe God knows that speech in such circumstances cannot resolve anything.

Perhaps the best God can do in the situation of the tragic death of Didimus is just God’s presence. He had promised in the revelation of His Sacred Name to Israel – Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (Exodus 3:14) – I will be with you in the manner in which I will be with you. Perhaps Buber and Levinas were right after all: the Tetragrammaton was not, in the first place, about being, ontology or metaphysics. It was about presence: God will be present with Israel. God will be present with us, in life and in death. And precisely that presence, even if He does not speak, leaves the possibility for hope open. God is present, even when God does not speak. I am not alone. And so, God is presence, because God is being. That is the Ratzingerian synthesis: being and presence are not antithetical.

Like Job and like Jesus, we end where we began: God has refused to speak. God has refused to answer. God has refused to take the witness stand to provide me an explanation for why Didimus had to go so soon in such a painful way. And yet God is not nothing. God is there. Perhaps, with Newman, I could only console myself with these thoughts: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work (…) Therefore, I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am. I can never be thrown away” (St. John Henry Newman). We must learn to live with God’s silence. May the soul of Didimus, priest of God, rest in the peace of the Silent God, Amen. May he pray for us who are still on the way. See you, Fr Didimus, in the heavenly Boston College. We will discuss theology there, with Augustine, Aquinas, Bonaventure, and other great minds, not leaving out your patron saint, St. Didimus the Blind (c. 318 – 398), Dean of the Theological School of Alexandria, disciple of Origen of Alexandria.

By Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai

The deformation of the PCC: The Theology of Rev Fonki Samuel Forba

The deformation of the PCC: The Theology of Rev Fonki Samuel Forba

My fellow Presbyterians of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon ( PCC) ,

“Fear Not for I am with thee” Isaiah 41: 10

“Do not be afraid” Jeremiah 1: 8

Moderator Fonki Samuel and his gang inside the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon ( PCC) have deformed the church and transformed it into a dent of thieves. They have no mercy ,no compassion and no care at all but I say to all of you  fear not!

These are Pastors who have declared war against Widows, Primary School Teachers, Senior Citizens and Children living in poverty and oppression. Their cries for mercy and compassion felt on deaf ears over the years. The outcome has been violence- war and killings of people under the watch of Rev Fonki Samuel and his Synod Executive Committee.  “It shall not be so amongst you.”

Still I am delighted to write to all of you to encourage one another during this long journey to defend the PCC and uphold the “Presbyterian belief” which by all account was inspired by the theology of John Calvin based on the biblical covenant of faith in Jesus Christ.

The pride and image of a Presbyterian Christian is determined by their understanding of grace, faith, justification/ sanctification, social justice and salvation through Jesus Christ per the theology of John Calvin.

In 2 Corinthians 5: 19, God is in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to Himself and caring for those in need Matthew 25: 35- 45. God was not in Christ persecuting and exploiting Christians and marginalizing.

Therefore, any church or Pastor who persecutes God’s people does not belong to the covenant of faith. These are the types to be purged from the Church. It should not be the other way around.  There comes a time when we have to stop wickedness and evil because it is incumbent upon us.

As Christ followers ,  ✝️ we must sing this song ” Onwards Christian Soldiers  marching as to war with the cross of Jesus going on before.”

Many of you Elders, Teachers and Widows and Pastors have cried  out  to me to help advocate for the powerless( Teachers, widows, children and Seniors) all of whom are being scammed by the PCC authorities under the Hitler of the Presbyterian Church,  Moderator Rev Fonki Samuel.

This time will be very different than 24 years ago. Let me put things into proper perspective  so that  everyone can  see where they belong even if that is against their will. Many of you who are familiar with my “craziness” know when God calls me to act , I never say NO.

I am fully aware that the PCC is divided into two camps and these divisions are nourished by a carefully crafted propaganda machine of lies, manipulation and persecution of innocent Presbyterians. These two camps are as follows ;

1. Presbyterians who are loyal to Moderator Fonki Samuel Forba orchestrated by a greedy  business- minded  Synod Executive  secretly  privatizing the PCC and profiting off the sweat and tears of mothers ,children and teachers.

2. Presbyterians who are loyal to  Jesus Christ and the authoritative  word of God as reflected by the theology of John Calvin. These Presbyterians see the PCC as a community of faithful stakeholders saved by Grace and justified by faith.

So I already  know that I am speaking to two categories of Presbyterians here because whatever the Fonki loyalists are doing ,  it is important they realize that  we know what has been going on  since  he began his theology of deformation of the PCC .

I will not repeat myself because I have spoken for the powerless  Presbyterians Moderator Fonki Samuel has intentionally trampled upon and discarded them by his own  ruthless  and  insensitive corrupt policies of marginalization

I have watched Moderator Fonki minister only to his loyalists, rewarded them and covered up for them even when they were damn wrong. I have seen it all.

He had only one objective to deal only with a select few who would allow him to have access to money at will without transparency and accountability.

Therefore, his trips overseas was designed to promote Fonki and build an empire for himself, his family, friends  and his loyalists at home and abroad. He has never been out to promote Presbyterians and enhance the dignity of all Presbyterians. No effort is even met to help.

Moderator Fonki Samuel and his loyalists have become the wealthy Presbyterians overnight moving rapidly from rags into riches since they deformed responsible Christian stewardship into Fonki plundering machine (stealing, theft and embezzlement).

I do not anticipate Fonki’s loyalists to insult us  as usual telling us  to toe the line or leave . I hope that we do not have to endure one more insult again because the times have changed.  Jeremiah exalts us to uproot evil if necessary.

The reign of tyranny in the PCC perpetuated by Moderator Rev Fonki Samuel is compounded by the reign of terror Presbyterians and co have endured with the exception of the few loyalists.

So how do we preserve the PCC and stop Moderator Rev Fonki Samuel and his gang? I have some ideas to propose to all responsible Presbyterians in my next edition.

Also all concerned Presbyterians are free to send me your ideas on how we should move forward. You can email or contact me on whatsup. I want to assure you that your name will be kept private because  the Hitler of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon drunk with greed ,power and wicked  is dangerous and we will not allow them to  hurt  or destroy  the lives of more Presbyterians. However,  do not be afraid to send any information that will help  me to go after them  here in the USA.

This is my contact

Brother Jonathan Awasom

 Email : Jonathan_light2000@yahoo.com

Whatsup number  12018785829

Facebook: Jonathan Awasom

Jeremiah  1 : 1- 19

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue  you,” declares the Lord.

9 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched  my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.10 See, today I appoint you over nations  and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” 

God bless you all. 

Corruption in the PCC: Bad news for Moderator Fonki Samuel

Corruption in the PCC: Bad news for Moderator Fonki Samuel

From:  Brother Jonathan Fru Awasom ( JAF)

To: Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon,

Subject:  Why have you forsaken the Truth?

Dear Rev Fonki Samuel,

In keeping with 1 Timothy 3,I bring greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ and for the sake of the founding generation of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC).

According to 1 John 2: 21 ” I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth”.

We have known ourselves far back when I was a youth Pastor like yourself some 22 yearsago. You will neither be reading from me for the first time nor foreign to where I stand about corruption in Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and PCC- USA. It is obvious to me that you, your wife and cronies are determined to ruin the PCC taking advantage of the corrupt political regime that has failed to hold corrupt Anglophone leaders accountable thereby enabling the current Anglophone violent conflict.

Instead of being a prophetic voice and the conscience of the state during these tough times in Cameroon, you have become more like the state exploiting God’s people and enabling all the atrocities of the Cameroon regime against the downtrodden, majority of whom are children and women internally displaced and suffering in the bushes and crowded cities across the country. All you care is to gather some of them to exploit.

I am sick to my stomach about how you have become a pestering sore to the church and Christians. Since you were selected by your predecessors to replace them as the next Moderator, your reign has been rat-infested by theft of church funds, accusations of abuse of power, gross violation of the Constitution of the PCC, distortion and tampering with the Constitution to suit you and your cohorts at home and here in the USA.

I have also read articles widely circulated calling upon you to account for private business investments you have carried out while in Office as the Moderator (President of the PCC) whereby you have hijacked the office of the Moderator to hold shares in private businesses using church funds to invest in your name and family members as though PCC is your private owned company.

You have been accused of bullying Pastors and Christians who question your motives when convinced beyond any reasonable doubts that your conduct was/is not in alignment with the execution of your office as Moderator (First amongst Equals). For instance, you were accused of indulging with a war of words with a community of Presbyterian Christians in locations here in the United States to the extent which your actions split the Church. It is alleged that a small group of people loyal to you decided to site with you while majority broke away. I have to wonder what PCC is doing in the United States?

In Cameroon, your propensity to divide and conquer is alarming with detail reports about perpetual conflicts and animosity under your watch and even so orchestrated by your corrupt leadership style. I have been deeply troubled by your corrupt activities within the PCC Community and wanted to address these issues directly with you because they are very serious. The Cameroon Intelligence Report captioned

“PCC Cameroon under Rev Fonki: Corruption runs rampant. Who should we hold responsible? – Cameroon Intelligence Report” is just one of the numerous publications x-raying the culture of corruption you have masterminded in the PCC since you became Moderator.

PCC Cameroon under Rev Fonki: Corruption runs rampant. Who should we hold responsible?

Therefore, I urge you to give me your undivided attention and to consider my letter to you and your entire body of Synod Executives and Synod of the PCC as an appeal to be mindful of these concerns because enough is enough, Rev Fonki Samuel. We cannot be anymore silent and allow you to continue scamming and exploiting Presbyterians.

Whereas “Moderator” the English Dictionary definition states that he or she a mediator and of course “in the Presbyterian church, the officer who presides over a synod or general assembly”

Whereas as Pastor you are expected to serve and tender “God’s people ” consistent with the calling and mission to reflect the mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and compassion of Jesus Christ

Whereas the church once “reformed is always reforming”

Whereas no Moderator or any other Synod Executives own the PCC except to be guardians and custodians under appropriate biblical standards in the light of John 15, the Constitution, Book of Order and Confession, and in accordance with governing laws of the State

Whereas your prophetic role in the State can only be effective if you are free from the ills of corruption, fraud, embezzlement and in all dictatorship perpetrated by the state

Whereas you are “First amongst Equals, which does not make you above reproach and accountability or any lesser or greater than your fellow Presbyterians

Whereas the PCC is a church of Presbyters and not a church of individuals loyal to Rev Fonki Samuel,

Whereas it is imperative that the global evangelical and missionary focus of Presbyterianism does NOT discriminate on people based on race and culture with respect to the liturgical application of worship geographically and culturally

Whereas the modus operandi of mission is to foster partnership, diversity and inclusion when spreading the gospel

Whereas Christian discipleship and Financial stewardship go hand – in – hand, I will like to call upon you and your entire leadership at the Synod Office levels of the PCC to account for the following;

1. You, the Rev Fonki Samuel and all Synod Officers serving in high ranking positions shall declare your assets including your bank accounts and investments in Cameroon and abroad including businesses where you are shareholders

2. The Rev Fonki Samuel and the Financial Department shall publish the Financial statements of the PCC including sources of income grants, donations, church contribution etc and expenditures on Salaries of Church workers, projects and charity

3. The Rev Fonki Samuel shall give a detail account of his standing with the PCC USA 🇺🇸 with respect to accusations published against him. Mindful of the non- profit tax exemption of the PCC-USA,  I reserve the absolute right to file a complaint to USA authorities against the lack of financial transparency and accountability during the reign of you, the  Rev Fonki Samuel from 2014 – 2022 marked by a culture of theft of church funds to enrich yourselves.

4. The Rev Fonki Samuel shall explain the reasons behind his suspicious tampering of the Constitution of the PCC . Perhaps by your own tyrannical actions the PCC does not need to be taken back into the dark ages of corrupt tyranny

We will not lie low to watch you and your gang ruin the church our forefathers and parents have built with faith, sacrifice, humility, grace, mercy, forgiveness, reconciliation and love. These sacred Christians values embodied by Jesus Christ are not part of the vocabulary of PCC leadership.

You may boast of your flamboyant unholy alliance with corrupt politicians in Cameroon to oppress and exploit God’s people to enrich yourselves.  That practice ends effective immediately. 

Rev Fonki Samuel if your sole purpose is to change the Constitution of the PCC in order to appoint your wifethe Moderator in the same manner you were appointed, so be it but should that not behappening in your own private church in Akwaya or somewhere else.? So long as this is the PCC you shall not oppress and exploit God’s people for so long. It ends effective immediately as appropriate steps are underway to ensure that someone more powerful than you and your regime will end your evil and wickedness against God’s people in Cameroon

Every project you have carried out in the name of PCC is only done so as a calculated means to embezzle most of the money. Why do you close primary schools, unable to pay the salaries of teachers, some who taught you in primary school, yet you are able to increase your salaries in the Synod Office without taking into consideration the plight of others?

That explains why you are now living at large while thousands of children are living in abject poverty around the country due to violent conflict and warfare. It is better for you to resign now from that office   in keeping with the laws that govern your activities here in the USA. Rev Fonki Samuel I cannot imagine that you are so inconsiderate to the pain and suffering of children and families to the point where you shut down primary school in the 21st century. You increased your salary from Moderator to CEO. Let me ask you a simple question? Are you the one who owns the PCC? If you are the CEO of PCC then be prepared to come to court in the USA because you will have to account to this country.   If you insist I will file a complaint against you and against all PCC churches in the USA. Your conduct is despicable and unacceptable.

Finally,  it is important that the Presbyterian Church In Cameroon and PCC-USA be brought to her traditional and historical context as the basis for the present day mission and evangelism by upholding the sacredness of Presbyterian beliefs in the light of   Holy Scriptures.  This is well articulated by this statement and since you are not complying with this Presbyterian belief, please , leave  the PCC .

“Some of the principles articulated by John Calvin are still at the core of Presbyterian beliefs. Among these are the sovereignty of God, the authority of Scripture, justification by grace through faith and the priesthood of all believers. What these tenets mean is that God is the supreme authority throughout the universe. Our knowledge of God and God’s purpose for humanity comes from the Bible, particularly what is revealed in the New Testament through the life of Jesus Christ. Our salvation (justification) through Jesus is God’s generous gift to us and not the result of our own accomplishments. It is everyone’s job — ministers and lay people alike — to share this Good News with the whole world. That is also why the Presbyterian church is governed at all levels by a combination of clergy and laity, men and women alike.”

Theology

Thank you for your cooperation and thoughtfulness to these issues.

Yours truly in Jesus Christ,

Bother Jonathan Fru Awasom

Jonathan_light2000@yahoo.com

Phone: 201-878-5829

CC All Pastors, Elders, Deacons and Christians of the PCC

       PC (USA)

       United States Authoritiesin Cameroon and USA

       Cameroon Authorities in the United States

       All persons of interest in the PCC

The Holy Father Pope Francis arrives in Canada to apologise for Indigenous school abuse

The Holy Father Pope Francis arrives in Canada to apologise for Indigenous school abuse

Pope Francis arrived Sunday in Canada, where he is expected to personally apologize to Indigenous survivors of abuse committed over a span of decades at residential schools run by the Catholic Church.

The head of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics landed at Edmonton’s international airport shortly after 11 am (1700 GMT).

He was welcomed by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mary Simon, the country’s first Indigenous governor general, as well as Indigenous leaders in an airport ceremony that began with drums and chanting.

Afterwards Francis received welcome gifts from Indigenous leaders, shaking or kissing their hands and making conversation with each before the short ceremony ended.

During the 10-hour flight from Rome Francis told journalists travelling with him that “we must be aware that this is a penitential journey.”

The 85-year-old pontiff’s Canada visit is primarily to apologize to survivors for the Church’s role in the scandal that a national truth and reconciliation commission has called “cultural genocide”.

From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada’s government sent about 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit children into 139 residential schools run by the Church, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture.

Many were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers.

Thousands of children are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect.

Since May 2021, more than 1,300 unmarked graves have been discovered at the sites of the former schools.

A delegation of Indigenous peoples travelled to the Vatican in April and met the pope — a precursor to Francis’ six-day trip — after which he formally apologized.

But doing so again on Canadian soil will be of huge significance for survivors and their families, for whom the land of their ancestors is of particular importance.

The flight constituted the longest since 2019 for the pope, who has been suffering from knee pain that has forced him to use a cane or wheelchair in recent outings.

The pope was in a wheelchair Sunday and used a lifting platform to board the plane in Rome, and was also in a wheelchair on the tarmac in Edmonton, an AFP correspondent accompanying him said.

‘Too late’

 After resting Sunday, the pope will travel Monday to the community of Maskwacis, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Edmonton, and address an estimated crowd of 15,000 expected to include former students from across the country.

“I would like a lot of people to come,” said Charlotte Roan, 44, interviewed by AFP in June. The member of the Ermineskin Cree Nation said she wanted people to come “to hear that it wasn’t made up”.

Others see the pope’s visit as too little too late, including Linda McGilvery with the Saddle Lake Cree Nation near Saint Paul, about 200 kilometres east of Edmonton. 

“I wouldn’t go out of my way to see him,” said the 68-year-old.

“For me it’s kind of too late, because a lot of the people suffered, and the priests and the nuns have now passed on.”

McGilvery spent eight years of her childhood in one of the schools, from age six to 13.

“Being in the residential school I lost a lot of my culture, my ancestry. That’s many years of loss,” she told AFP.

After a mass before tens of thousands of faithful in Edmonton on Tuesday, Francis will head northwest to an important pilgrimage site, the Lac Sainte Anne.

Following a July 27-29 visit to Quebec City, he will end his trip in Iqaluit, capital of the northern territory of Nunavut and home to the largest Inuit population in Canada.

There he will meet with former residential school students, before returning to Italy.

In total, Francis is expected to deliver four speeches and four homilies, all in Spanish.

Francis is the second pope to visit Canada, after John Paul II, who visited three times (1984, 1987 and 2002).

Source: AFP

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