Theologians are flying to Yaoundé, Cameroon this week for a three day conference, beginning on November 27th.

The conference comprised of five panels of discussion, with the focus being the application of Pope Benedict XVI’s thought from the African perspective, and covering the topics of Contact with Africa, Canon Law, Philosophy, Law, and Social Teaching.

This is the second conference held by the Benedict XVI Institute for Africa (BIA), and follows closely after the first conference, which took place in October, and closed with a joyful feeling of hopeful accomplishment.

Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai, a key organizer and director of the BIA, expressed optimism that “doors are opening up” for the institute, as the conferences are setting the foundation for future BIA educational programs for the Church in Africa.

Participants will bring essays for discussion, and a body of output will be gathered. Current topics include:

• The Word of God and Exegeses in Benedict XVI: What heritage for Africa? – Dr. Patrice Mekana
• The vision of the liturgical reform of Pope Benedict XVI – Prof. Atoine Essomba Fouda
• Africa’s place in Benedict XVI’s social teaching – Prof. Thomas Bienvenu Tchoungui
• Joseph Ratzinger and the Universality of the Logos in Cultures: The Preference for Inteculturality over Inculturation – Dr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai
• Love and Truth in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI – Fabrice N’semi
• The Concept of Reason in Benedict XVI – Prof. Gabriel Ndinga
• Benedict XVI and the Philosophy of Hope: From Africa the Forgotten to Africa of Authentic Hope – Prof. Stephen Kizito Forbi
• Benedict XVI and the question of sexual abuse committed by clerics on minors – Prof. Jean-Marie Signe
• Benedict XVI and the formation of the diocesan clergy – Prof. Jean-Paul Betegne
• Benedict XVI and Marriage – Prof. Angele Makiang
• Benedict XVI and Africa: Hope as a Utopian Model – Dr. Engelbert Meyongo
• The thought of Benedict XVI to open the breach in the blockade of the ideology of development of the African – Dr. Mawata Augusta Anata
• The Impact of the Justice and Peace Commissions in Citizen Engagement of Catholic Christians in Cameroon – Dr. Martial-Aime Wakeu
  Benedict XVI and Africa: An engaged and apolitical thought – Dr. Saint Daniel Marcel Enama

A retired pastor and a Christian boy were reportedly killed by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram in the Central African nation of Cameroon earlier this month.

As reported by Barnabus Aid, retired pioneering pastor David Mokoni and a hearing-impaired child were killed on Nov. 6 when Boko Haram militants carried out a nighttime attack on a church in the town of Moskota in Cameroon’s northern Mayo-Tsanaga district.

Two other pastors present at the church when the attack occurred managed to escape while another is being treated for a gunshot wound in the leg, according to the international Christian aid agency.

In addition, the militants were said to have taken food, clothing and even the pastor’s robes from the church.

A local source told Barnabus Aid that the Nov. 6 attack in Moskata was the second attack on the town in a week’s span and that a series of attacks carried out in Cameroon’s far north region since October has left at least eight people dead.

On Oct. 31, six people were said to have been hacked to death by militants in the village of Kotserehe, according to Barnabus Aid.

The attack was also reported by the French-language outlet Actu Cameroun. But that report published on Nov. 5 only tallied four people who were killed by Boko Haram in Kotserehe: Sati Vaza, Ganava Zinahad, Isnia Tangola and Vara Tiri. The Actu Cameroun report also tallied three who were seriously injured and in critical condition.

“They were armed with machetes, axes, knives, and clubs, and cut out anyone they met on their way,” Masai Abraham, a member of Kotsereh’s vigilance committee, told news outlet in French, according to a Google translation. “Four people in total were killed. They were literally chopped up by their executioners.”

Resident Maogai Rebecca, who is nine months pregnant, said that her 15-year-old nephew was killed. She recalled the horrifying experience when five militants broke into her home at night when speaking with Actu Cameroun.

After the militants entered, she said, one knocked her out with a club blow to her head. She said that she was interrogated as militants demanded money. After she was able to escape, she said militants “drove the blade of the ax” through her nephew’s skull “to the point where it was necessary to use a hammer to extract it from his skull.”

Also on Oct. 31, militants struck in Moskata. They reportedly killed one man, stole up to 140 oxen and cattle and looted shops in the town.

The day before on Oct. 30, militants were said to have looted six Christian villages in the Mayo Sava district.

According to a local resident who spoke with Barnabus Aid, attackers stole food, clothing, livestock and even stripped the sheets off beds as the villagers fled for their lives.

“The village hasn’t got a single sheep or goat left,” the resident said.

Boko Haram is an Islamic insurgency based in Northeast Nigeria. It has become one of the deadliest terror groups in the world as it also carries out attacks across the Lake Chad Basin in countries like Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

According to the United Nations, the terror group has displaced over 2.4 million people in the Lake Chad Basin. As of Sept. 30, the group is responsible for the internal displacement of over 513,000 in Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The U.N. reports that Boko Haram has carried out a number of attacks in Cameroon’s Far North region in districts such as Logone and Chari, Mayo Sava and Mayo Tsanaga.

In April, at least seven people were killed with five others who were seriously injured in a nighttime attack by Boko Haram in a locality of Mayo Sava. Militants also stole sheep and burned buildings.

Source: Barnabus Aid

Retired pioneering pastor, David Mokoni, and a hearing-impaired Christian boy were killed when Boko Haram militants attacked a church in Moskota, Far North Cameroon, on 6 November.

Two other pastors were amongst those who escaped the night-time onslaught, the second attack on the town in a week. Another Christian man is receiving hospital treatment for a gunshot wound to the leg.

The militants went on to loot the church, taking food, clothing and the pastor’s robes.

A Barnabas Fund contact said a brutal spate of attacks since late October, by gangs of up to 200 militants, has left eight dead. The first of the attacks came on 30 October with the looting of six villages in Mayo Sava district.

Attackers made off with food, clothes and livestock, even stripping sheets from beds as villagers fled. “The village hasn’t got a single sheep or goat left,” said a local resident.

On 31 October, five people were hacked to death when militants armed with axes, knives and wooden clubs stormed the village of Kotserehé. A sixth wounded man later died from his injuries.

Rebecca, a witness in Kotserehé, described the ruthless attack on a boy there, “He was a 15-year-old adolescent. He was so deeply asleep in his bed that he didn’t hear any of the noise around him. They thrust the blade of the axe so deeply into his skull, to the point we had to use a hammer to get it out of his head.”

The militants struck at Moskota on the same day, killing one man and stealing more than 140 oxen and cattle. They also looted the health centre and shops.

Our contact said the attacks have caused many to flee rural areas for larger towns and cities, where they are now living in “extreme misery”. He called for “our support and prayers” and added, “This is beyond persecution. It is a dramatic situation, plunging thousands of families into a deplorable humanitarian crisis.”

Boko Haram has been stepping up its attacks on Christian villages in Far North Cameroon in an attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate from north-eastern Nigeria all the way to northern Cameroon. The UN estimates that more than 170,000 Cameroonians, mainly Christians, have been forced to flee their homes by Boko Haram. In July, the extremists cut off the ears of at least three Christian women in the town of Gagalari.

From Barnabas Fund 

Every Christian is a “rebel against evil,” according to Cameroon’s lone cardinal.

Speaking during a program on Cameroonian state television, Cardinal Christian Tumi also called on Christians to become more involved in politics.

“Every Christian is a rebel against all that is not good-that is morally evil. A Christian is a rebel against lies,” Tumi said.

“We are therefore called to evangelize the politicians and politics, because their activity also is preparing them for the kingdom of God. There is no activity that is out of the region of the church,” Tumi continued.

The program brought together Christian leaders from different denominations to discuss relations between Church and State in the West African country, which is currently experiencing a number of crises, including a rebellion in the country’s two English-speaking provinces. Cameroon is 80 percent French-speaking, and the Anglophone minority has long complained about discrimination and marginalization by the Francophone majority.

Around 70 percent of the country’s population is Christian, almost evenly divided between Catholics and Protestants.

“It is intended to create boundaries so that as a Christian when you get involved in politics, you don’t turn the political platform into a Church,” the Baptist minister said.

“So I believe the dichotomy of Christians not involved in politics is not true to scripture, because the Christian life calls the Christian to engage all of life. There is also the false dichotomy of circular and sacred. I am first a Christian before a pastor; and my Christian life calls me to engage the traditional sinful background from which I come unto transformation, and I am supposed to engage others and bring them to transformation as well .So to say that a Christian should not be involved in politics because he would dirty himself is inadequate. A Christian should be involved in politics in order to clean up the politics,” Ncham continued.

Tumi even said that if had not become a Catholic priest, he would have become a politician.

Tumi criticized politicians for telling lies and making promises they never intend to keep, and said Christian politicians should be able to inject truth into politics.

“The Truth is the agreement between what I am saying and what I am thinking. If what I am thinking contradicts what I am saying, I am telling a lie. And we pastors have been called and sent by God to promote the truth. Christ is the truth. ‘I am the Truth, I am the light, I am the way,’ says Christ. The truth is objective. If it is not objective, it’s not true,” he explained.

Tumi said the Christian’s mission should also be to sanitize politics, because “Christ came to save the sinner, not the saint.”

The Christian leaders were unanimous that the state was “at war” against the Church.

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rt. Rev. Samuel Fonki Forba, accused the government of undermining religious studies.

“Religious studies in our schools should not be mocked and treated as a side issue,” he said.

“What is happening in our country is because the morals of our society have gone down the drain, and we must do something to keep those morals. When things are bad, that’s when they (political leaders) call on religious leaders to come and have an ecumenical prayer session for the nation,” Forba continued.

“When things are moving the way they want them to move, the Church is not recognized. And so we are saying that we have a lot to offer; to partner with the state of Cameroon to change the present dispensation. They must recognize the role of the Church in all of this,” he said.

Tumi was even more harsh in his criticism of the government, reprimanding the state for excluding religious studies in competitive examinations for professional schools.

“It’s a fight against us. It’s a fight by the government against us,” the cardinal said.

“You are telling the children that religion is not so important, and it betrays your ignorance. The highest university in England is Oxford University and the highest degree you get in Oxford University is DD – Doctor of Divinity, and that’s religion,” he said.

The animosity of the Cameroonian government against the Church reached a head in 2017 when the Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua of Bamenda, his auxiliary Bishop Michael Bibi, Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo, two priests – Fathers Michael Kintang and William Neba – and ministers from other denominations were dragged to court for  statements made in connection with the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions.

Ncham said such extreme measures by the state are to be expected.

“The Church being taken to court is expected, because if you look at the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those who thirst after righteousness’; and he says those who are peacemakers and who thirst after righteousness will be persecuted. So we consider the being taken to court as being part of the persecution of the Church trying to fill its role in the community,” the Baptist minister said. “And it shouldn’t hurt us to produce wounds that will not heal, it should fortify us to be resilient to continue to play our role in the community.”

Source: Crux