Archbishop Andrew Nkea has strongly rejected the notion that opposition to the LGBT agenda is based simply on African cultural norms.

“Our stand had nothing to do with culture,” said Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda, Cameroon. “It was about fidelity to the truth; fidelity to what Christ taught. It was about fidelity to what the Apostles handed down to generations.”

Archbishop Nkea, who is president of the Cameroon bishops’ conference, said that African bishops spoke forcefully against blessings for same-sex marriage during the last session of the Synod of Bishops, and in response to the papal document Fiducia Supplicans. “We are going back to the second session with the same vehement rejection of that document,” he said.

Source: Catholic Culture

The Synod on Synodality, which started off as a pastoral issue, bringing on board every baptized member of the Church, has now become a “theoretical” topic for intellectuals, the Archbishop of Cameroon’s Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda has observed.

In his presentation at the August 23 session of the ongoing weekly synodal palavers, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya explored the various ways in which the ongoing multi-year Synod on Synodality, which Pope Francis extended to 2024, with the first phase, 4-29 October 2023, having concluded with a 42-page summary report, has evolved.

“Synodality has undergone an evolution from the time it was conceived through the time it was put out as a subject for the next synod up to where we are now,” Archbishop Nkea said at the event that the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN) organized in collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM).

He noted, “Synodality, which stood out as a pastoral topic, is becoming a more academic and intellectual topic.”

According to the Cameroonian Catholic Archbishop, synodality started as a means of gathering the people of God and getting everyone to participate in the life of the Church both in governance and in the preaching of the Gospel.

He said that along the way, he had noticed people move from discussions of inclusion and participation of every Christian in the life of the Church to “very fundamental theological discussions.”

Synodal conversations at present, he said, are theological in nature and “rise far above just the Christians and the Baptized participating in the life of the Church.”

“We started with participation, communion and mission, and these were just simple tools to get every baptized individual involved in the life and the governance of the Church,” the Archbishop of Bamenda, who also serves as President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) said.

“We are beginning to push down the three words that define synodality for us: participation, mission and communion. And we are beginning to move to more theological conversations,” the vocal Catholic Archbishop said, and expressed concern that the Synodal conversations are evolving in a way that “is taking us away from the more practical realm to the theoretical realm.”

The August 23 African palaver, which brought together African theologians, Clergy, women and men Religious, and Laity was organized under the theme, “Theological criteria and synodal methodologies as a basis for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues.”

Source: aciafrica

As separatist conflict continues to escalate in Cameroon’s English-speaking North West and South West regions, Catholic bishops from the two regions have called on the warring parties to down their weapons and engage in dialogue.

In a release at the end of their 76th Ordinary Meeting – taking place August 17-23 – the bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province urged God’s people to “work together to restore peace and justice, and to support initiatives that promote safety and stability.”

“Give peace a chance,” the bishops said, and warned that that violence only leads to even more violence.

“Violence begets violence and those who take the sword perish by the sword,” the bishops said, adding “nothing can ever justify the destruction of human life for it is always sacred and inviolable.”

Fighting broke out in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions in 2016 when the government used lethal force against teachers and lawyers in the two English-speaking regions who were protesting against the over-bearing influence of French in Anglo-Saxon schools and courts.

Historical divisions, marginalization, and identity issues are all contributory factors to the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, which has so far killed at least 6,000 people according to the International Crisis Group, and forced more than a million from their homes, with over 70,000 fleeing to Nigeria as refugees.

Historically, Cameroon was divided between British and French administrations, after the Germans – who initially colonized Cameroon – lost World War One.

The British-administered territory, today’s North West and South West, developed distinct legal, educational, and cultural systems. After independence in 1960, the two regions were unified, but tensions persisted due to differing colonial legacies.

Besides these distinct colonial legacies, Anglophones have long felt marginalized by the predominantly French-speaking government. Policies and actions, including the dissolution of the Federal system of government in 1972, increased this sense of discrimination.

All these factors pushed Anglophones to start seeking recognition of their linguistic and cultural rights. The government instead resorted to repression, fueling radicalization.

A cross-section of Anglophones subsequently resorted to the fight for secession, aiming to create a new nation that would be called Ambazonia, and the violence continues.

On August 27, three police officers were killed by suspected separatists in the locality of Bwitingi in the South West region. The same day, a driver in charge of distributing medical supplies for the Special Fund for Health was killed by unidentified gunmen in Bamenda in the North West region.

Victims of the violence often tell harrowing tales of what they’ve been through. Cecilia (not her real name) escaped from separatist captivity, but what she saw still affects her.

“I was kidnapped by separatists in November 2018. They accused me of collaborating with the military,” she told Crux.

“They called me a blackleg, and that had only one outcome: Death,” Cecilia said.

She spent fifteen days in captivity, waiting for the day she would be killed.

“One girl was killed right in front of me. They first raped her in turns, and then slit her neck,” she remembered, tears running down her cheeks.

Between February and December 2020, the United Nations recorded more than 4,300 cases of sexual and gender-based violence in the two regions. Children were victims in approximately 30 percent of these incidents.

One particularly disturbing incident occurred in Ebam, in the South West region, where government soldiers raped 20 women in March 2020. The following year, over 500 cases of rape were documented across both regions.

The bishops said they are “appalled by reports of the torture, extortions, huge losses of life and property, forced displacements, obstruction of the rights to sojourn and movement and other frustrations of the people living in the North West and South West regions.”

The bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province – bringing together the dioceses from the two regions – now believe that a viable path to peace can only come through genuine dialogue.

In their August 22 statement signed by the Secretary General of the Province, Father Giles Ngwa Forteh, the bishops called on the faithful “not to allow their hearts to be filled with negative feelings such as hatred and the desire for revenge.”

The bishops also had a word of advice for the perpetrators of violence, calling on them to end violence and “opt for dialogue and justice over passion and to remember the words of Jesus to Saul the persecutor: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? … I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’.”

They expressed solidarity with victims of the violence and called for “fervent prayers so that God for whom nothing is impossible, may give peace to his people.”

Source: Crux

Archbishop José Avelino Bettencourt, the pope’s representative to Cameroon, is urging Christians to remove the obstacles to peace as the central African country reels from a separatist crisis to the west and Boko Haram incursions to the north.

The Apostolic Nuncio was speaking August 14 during the annual Diocesan Peace Pilgrimage held at St. Joseph Cathedral of Bafoussam Diocese.

He emphasized the divine origin of peace and condemned all forms of violence.

“Peace is the creation of God. It is also a gift from God. Violence is the creation of evil. Violence is never justified. Let us stop any obstacles to peace,” the archbishop said.

He urged Christians to “carry our branches of peace with conviction, with humility, and raise them up to the Lord.”

“Let us place them in our doors, in our windows. Let us make everybody know that we have new symbols of life, not a Monday that is a symbol of death because of someone’s definition, but a branch of life which is a symbol of life and freedom and resurrection in Christ,” Bettencourt said.

The reference to Monday as “a symbol of death” is predicated on the fact that separatists in Cameroon’s two English-speaking North West and South West regions have enforced lockdowns on Mondays as they seek to undermine state presence.

Those who violate the lockdowns are kidnapped, tortured or even killed.

Bettencourt said it was critical that those who pursue peace should do so in humility, and respect towards others.

“I have to be humble before God. I have to be humble before my brother Bishops. We all must be humble before each other in order to be able to understand each other,” the Portuguese-born archbishop said.

“Violence is not justified today, which is Wednesday, or Thursday, or Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, because every day is a creation of God,” he added.

Violence erupted in the two English-speaking regions in 2016 when the government responded to teachers and lawyers’ strikes with lethal violence.

The teachers and lawyers in the two regions were striking over what they saw as the overwhelming influence of French in Anglo-Saxon schools and courts.

The government’s violent response led most Anglophones to coalesce around a common theme: The time had come for them to reaffirm their identity as Anglophones, with a distinct educational and legal system.

But it also led to the growth of a separatist wing who felt that the only way for Anglophones to practice their legal, education and political systems was to break away and form a separate nation to be called Ambazonia.

The conflict is now in its eighth year, and has led to the deaths of at least 6000 people, according to the International Crisis Group. More than one million others have been displaced, with more than 70,000 seeking refuge in Nigeria.

The United Nations says 2.2 million of the Anglophone regions’ four million people need humanitarian support while about 600,000 children have been deprived of effective schooling because of the conflict.

The country also faces a reinvigorated jihadist insurgency with deadly attacks in the Lake Chad area. According to the International Crisis Group, the war with Boko Haram, centered in the Far North, has killed over 3,000 Cameroonians, displaced about 250,000.

During the Bafoussam pilgrimage, Christians seized another opportunity to pray for peace in their strife-torn nation. Bishop Paul Lontsié-Keuné of Bafoussam urged both individual believers and the collective community to become ambassadors of peace, spreading harmony wherever they go.

The bishop also urged Christians to “do everything necessary to register and vote in the 2025 presidential elections for the candidate they believe will bring peace to Cameroon.”

He said such a vote would “promote social justice in a country where many live in fear due to kidnappings, the rise of hate speech, tribalism, and other challenges.”

Cameroonians are set to vote in a presidential election next year with ailing president, Paul Biya, now in power for over forty years, expected to seek re-election.

Opposition leaders have accused the president of plotting to extend his stay in power after parliament recently passed a bill extending the mandate of members of parliament by one year and shifting parliamentary elections by the same period.

That move has technically knocked off some of Biya’s potential challengers from the ballot. The Cameroon law requires a candidate for the presidency to belong to a political party that has representation in either parliament or in councils.

The country’s main political party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) of Prof. Maurice Kamto is neither represented in parliament nor in the councils.

The CRM said it expected to take part in local and parliamentary elections that should have taken place in February 2025. That way, Kamto would have been able to run in the presidential.

Kamto said the law extending the term of parliamentarians, along with a presidential decision postponing local elections, is another ploy by 91-year-old Biya to remain leader for life.

In light of the growing uncertainty in the country, Lontsié-Keuné urged the faithful to “trust in the saving grace of God, not to succumb to fear, and to strive for unity and fraternity while rejecting all forms of tribalism and division among them.”

Source: Crux

Boxer Cindy Ngamba is hopeful of winning a medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics – but has vowed never to go back to her home country of Cameroon.

Ngamba left the African nation aged just 11 with her family to head to the UK, where they settled in Bolton, eventually being granted asylum status years later.

She picked up boxing a decade ago, but while she trains with GB Boxing and had hoped to represent Great Britain at the games, she has been prevented from doing so after failing to attain a British passport in time.

As such, in Paris she is representing the 37-athlete strong Refugee Olympic Team and was one of their flagbearers in the opening ceremony.

But Ngamba has no intention of ever stepping foot in the country of her birth again, having come out as gay aged 18.

‘In Cameroon, it’s illegal to have any kind of sexuality instead of straight,’ the now 25-year-old said of this summer’s games.

‘That was one of the reasons why I was given refugee status. I can’t go back.’

Ngamba’s worst fears were nearly realised shortly after she came out, when she and her brother were arrested during a routine visit to an immigration centre in Bolton and subsequently sent to a detention camp in London.

‘It was like a prison in there, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,’ she recalled.

‘I spoke to some of the women, some had children with them, some didn’t know if they were going back that evening. I was left with so many thoughts, not knowing what was going to happen to me.

‘I had created something here and I would be sent back to a country I hadn’t been to since I was a child.’

Everything has been going to plan so far in Paris however, winning her opening bout in the women’s 75kg event against the third seed Tammara Thibeault from Canada.

Ngamba, who previously won British National Amateur Championships in three different weight categories, will now take on France’s Davina Michel in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

‘If it wasn’t for the support I got from the people who saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself…no matter how hard you try, it’s those people who started this for me.

‘Having to adapt to a lifestyle here was difficult. Then becoming an adult and needing papers to take the next step, making my case to the Home Office and failing so many times, it’s been very, very hard.’

Source: metro.co.uk

Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Cameroon’s Catholic Archdiocese of Bamenda has outlined six levels of communion, which he said Catholic Priests share in their Priestly ministry.

In his Wednesday, July 31 homily during the opening Mass of the General Assembly of Priests of Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province (BAPEC), Archbishop Nkea highlighted Communion with the Trinity, Communion with the Church, Hierarchical Communion, Communion in the Eucharistic Celebration, Communion in the Exercise of Ministry, and Communion in the Presbyterate as vitally important in the ministry of Priests.

He described the July 31 – August 2 meeting as a “wonderful encounter of faith and fraternity”, and added, “The Priesthood is the strongest brotherhood in the world.”

“We are linked by that special fraternity which flows from the mystical oil of Chrism with which we were anointed during our Priestly ordinations, and nothing can weaken or separate us from this divine brotherhood,” the Cameroonian Catholic Archbishop said at St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Bambui (STAMS) in Bamenda Archdiocese.

Communion with the Trinity

“The communion of the Priests is fulfilled above all with the Father, the ultimate origin of all his power, with the Son, in whose redemptive mission he participates, with the Holy Spirit who gives him the power for living and fulfilling his pastoral charity,” Archbishop Nkea said.

The Local Ordinary of Bamenda, who doubles as the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) advocated for “pastoral charity” on the part of Priests.

“Far from being reduced to a series of techniques and methods serving the functional efficacy of the ministry,” he said, pastoral charity “refers to the nature proper of the mission of the church for the salvation of humanity.”

Communion with the Church

“The ecclesia communion of the Priest is lived in diverse ways. In fact, through Sacramental Ordination, he develops special bonds with the Pope, the Episcopal body, his own Bishop, other Priests, and the faithful,” he said.

Communion with the Church, the Archbishop of Bamenda emphasized, “is of utmost importance because without the Church the Priest cannot exist. We are Priests, and we can only experience this Priesthood in its fullness by being in communion with the Church.”

Hierarchical Communion

“Taking form in said ministerial communion are also some precise ties, first of all with the Pope, the college of Bishops, and Priests’ own proper Bishop,” he said referring to communion from the hierarchy viewpoint.

The 58-year-old Catholic Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 2013 as the Coadjutor Bishop of Cameroon’s Mamfe Diocese explained, “There can be no genuine Priestly ministry except in communion with the Supreme Pontiff, the Episcopal College, especially with one’s own Diocesan Bishop who deserves that filial respect and obedience promised during the right of ordination.”

“The Priesthood has absolutely no meaning if it is separated from that of the Bishop in whose Priestly ministry we share,” Archbishop Nkea said.

Communion in the Eucharistic Celebration

“Hierarchical communion is most meaningfully expressed in the Eucharistic prayers,” Archbishop Nkea said.

He explained, “When the Priest prays for the Pope, the College of Bishops and his own Bishop, he expresses not only a sentiment of devotion but attests to the authenticity of his celebration as well.”

“The Eucharistic celebration manifests the unity of the Priesthood of Christ in the plurality of his ministers as well as the unity of the sacrifice of the people of God,” he added.

Holy Mass, the Cameroonian Catholic Church leader said, “contributes to the consolidation of the ministerial fraternity existing among Priests. Without the Eucharist, the Priesthood has absolutely no meaning.”

Communion in the Exercise of Ministry

“Each Priest is to have a deep, humble, and filial bond of obedience and charity with the person of the Holy Father and adhere to his Petrine ministry of magisterium, sanctification and governance with exemplary docility,” he said.

Filial union with a Priest’s “own vision is also an indispensable condition for the efficacy of the Priestly ministry,” the Local Ordinary of Bamenda Archdiocese added.

“Priesthood without communion in ministry has no meaning. In this province of Bamenda we have a provincial pastoral plan that binds us in the exercise of our ministry, and therefore we share commitment in the exercise of ministry through this common pastoral plan,” he said.

Besides being an expression of maturity, Archbishop Nkea said, “This adhesion which entails proceeding in unison with the mind of the Bishop, contributes to the education of that unity in communion which is indispensable for the work of evangelization.”

Communion in the Presbyterate

“By virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders, each Priest is united to the other members of the Priesthood by specific bonds of apostolic charity, ministry and fraternity,” Archbishop Nkea said.

Priesthood, he said, is “a true family, in which the ties are not of flesh or of blood but come from the grace of Holy Orders.”

“Belonging to a specific Presbyterate always takes place within the context of a particular church, and not for reasons of incarnation, which in no way alters the fact that the Priest too, as a baptized person, belongs in an immediate manner to the universal church,” he explained.

Archbishop Nkea described the Priesthood as “a moving signpost”, and went on to explain, “The signpost stands on one place and indicates the road to heaven. But the Priest is a moving signpost. You are moving as you show the people the way to heaven.”

“You are also moving towards heaven. You cannot be showing the way to heaven, and you are moving towards hell,” he added. 

Archbishop Nkea called upon Priests to “give up everything so as to enter heaven at the end of our lives. It will be a total catastrophe and a waste of life if we direct people to go to heaven and we find ourselves outside heaven.”

Source: aciafrica