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Following the recent stampede that let to the dead of over 1500 pilgrims including 76 Cameroonians, the Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary during a press briefing at his cabinet in Yaounde, updated the media on the latest on Cameroonian Pilgrims. He stated that 4465 Cameroonians left the country for Mecca. To this date, 76 have been confirmed dead. Out of the 76 dead confirmed, 61 have been registered in the hospital while 15 have been reported from other sources. Concerning the injured, 40 pilgrims had received assistance from the Saudi hospital before the Cameroonian medical team took over. So far, 28 are still unaccounted for. In relation to the missing, experts have come up with three hypotheses.
- Some may have been buried unidentified
- Others might have been buried with false identity
- Most especially, not all who cross over to the holy land comes back.
They might have opted for illegal immigration These notwithstanding, the Minister assured Cameroonians that the government is keeping a very close watch on these developments until all Cameroonians who left the country must have been accounted for.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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An archbishop from Kazakhstani has said that the “smoke of Satan” entered the Extraordinary Synod last year. During his intervention at the Ordinary Synod of the Family last Friday, Polish-born Archbishop Tomash Peta, Archbishop of Astana, said: “Blessed Paul VI said in 1972: ‘From some crack the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God.’ “I am convinced that these were prophetical words of the holy pope, the author of ‘Humanae vitae’.
During the Synod last year, ‘the smoke of Satan’ was trying to enter the aula of Paul VI.” Archbishop Peta continued: “Namely: the proposal to admit to Holy Communion those who are divorced and living in new civil unions; the affirmation that cohabitation is a union which may have in itself some values; the pleading for homosexuality as something which is allegedly normal.” Archbishop Peta said that the smell of this “infernal smoke” could still be perceived in some parts of the Instrumentum Laboris and in some of the interventions offered by the synod fathers. He added: “To my mind, the main task of a Synod consists in indicating again to the Gospel of the marriage and of the family and that means to the teaching of Our Saviour. It is not allowed to destroy the fundament – to destroy the rock.”
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Various cardinals have said they didn’t sign the letter, some of them waiting several hours before distancing themselves from it. Now Erdö says he didn’t sign it. It’s extremely hard to get at the truth. ‘Not signing’ can mean a number of things, ranging from an outright false claim that a cardinal supported the letter to panicky backtracking by cardinals who did assent to it but are grasping at the technicality that they didn’t personally append their signature. But the damage to the synod is done. A group of cardinals – including some of the most powerful figures in the Catholic Church – have written to Pope Francis telling him that his Synod on the Family, now meeting in Rome, has gone badly off the rails and could cause the church to collapse. Their leaked letter, written as the synod started, presumably explains why a few days ago the Pope suddenly warned against ‘conspiracy’ and reminded the cardinals that he, and only he, will decide the outcome of the synod.
This is the gravest crisis he has faced, worse than anything that happened to Benedict XVI, and he knows it. And, talking of the Pope Emeritus, I suspect that, had he been free to sign the letter, he would have done so. The cardinals warn the Pope, in diplomatic language, that (a) the synod is being hijacked by liberals obsessed with the narrow issue of giving Communion to divorced and remarried people; (b) going down the route of ‘pastoral flexibility’ could lead to the Catholic Church falling apart in the same way as liberal Protestant denominations; and (c) the synod working papers prepared by the Pope’s allies Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri and Archbishop Bruno Forte are a mess and going down badly with the Synod Fathers.
The seniority of the signatories shows how close the church is to civil war. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation of the Faith – the Church’s doctrinal watchdog – is on the list. So is Cardinal George Pell, head of the Vatican’s finances, and Cardinal Robert Sarah, in charge of the Church’s worship. Sarah is the most prominent African cardinal in the church, along with Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban, who has also signed. Add to that the name of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and it becomes clear that the loss of confidence in Pope Francis extends far beyond the Vatican. He is, however, passionately supported by liberal cardinals in Europe and Latin America, among them Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German bishops. He can also count of the unquestioning loyalty of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. As the Catholic Herald reported this morning: Two of the cardinals who signed the letter, published in full by [Vatican commentator] Sandro Magister, have prominent roles in the synod. Cardinal Péter Erdö is its relator general, and Cardinal Wilfrid Napier is a president delegate. [NB: On Monday afternoon, several hours after it appeared Cardinal Erdö denied signing the letter.] Other signatories included Vatican officials Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Cardinal George Pell. In the letter, the cardinals expressed concern that ‘a synod designed to address a vital pastoral matter – reinforcing the dignity of marriage and family – may become dominated by the theological/doctrinal issue of Communion for the divorced and civilly remarried’.
The letter continued: ‘The collapse of liberal Protestant churches in the modern era, accelerated by their abandonment of key elements of Christian belief and practice in the name of pastoral adaptation, warrants great caution in our own synodal discussions.’ The cardinals also asked the Pope to ‘consider a number of concerns we have heard from other synod fathers, and which we share’ and criticised the synod’s Instrumentum Laboris, or working document. ‘While the synod’s preparatory document, the Instrumentum Laboris, has admirable elements, it also has sections that would benefit from substantial reflection and reworking,’ the letter said. ‘The new procedures guiding the synod seem to guarantee it excessive influence on the synod’s deliberations and on the final synodal document.
As it stands, and given the concerns we have already heard from many of the fathers about its various problematic sections, the Instrumentum cannot adequately serve as a guiding text or the foundation of a final document.’ Here is the list as originally reported by Magister:
• Carlo Caffarra, archbishop of Bologna, Italy, theologian, formerly the first president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family;
• Thomas C. Collins, archbishop of Toronto, Canada;
•Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York, United States;
• Willem J. Eijk, archbishop of Utrecht, Holland;
• Péter Erdö, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, president of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe and relator general of the synod underway, as also at the previous session of October 2014 [He has now denied signing the letter, though there was a noticeable delay before he did so];
• Gerhard L. Müller, former bishop of Regensburg, Germany, since 2012 prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith;
• Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, South Africa, president delegate of the synod underway as also at the previous session of the synod of October 2014;
• George Pell, archbishop emeritus of Sydney, Australia, since 2014 prefect in the Vatican of the secretariat for the economy;
• Mauro Piacenza, Genoa, Italy, former prefect of the congregation for the clergy, since 2013 penitentiary major. [He now denies signing the letter];
• Robert Sarah, former archbishop of Conakry, Guinea, since 2014 prefect of the congregation for divine worship and the discipline;
• Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan, Italy. [He now denies signing the letter];
• Jorge L. Urosa Savino, archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela;
• André Vingt-Trois, archbishop of Paris, France, president delegate of the synod underway as also at the previous session of the synod of October 2014. [He now denies signing the letter.]
Note that not all these cardinals are regarded as outright conservatives: Cardinal Dolan, for example, is gently orthodox, an amiable figure far removed from the thundering traditionalist Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has been excluded from the synod. Moreover – and this is very dangerous for Francis – the main point of contention is not the question of whether the church should be give communion to divorce people in second marriages, or whether gay unions should be given some degree of recognition. This is an argument about the wisdom of calling the synod in the first place, and expresses the suspicion of over 100 Synod Fathers that the organisers are manipulating proceedings by confronting them with working papers and procedures designed to push them in a liberal direction.
Others are simply fed up with the amateurish nature of the proceedings and wonder why, after last year’s chaotic preparatory synod, the Pope left the same people in charge. To quote the Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge, ‘At times our work has seemed more muddled than methodical’. I’m one of countless commentators who has warned that holding this synod could split the church. Now it’s happening, much faster than any of us anticipated.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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A Nigerian Hajj authority says the number of the country's pilgrims killed in the deadly crush during Hajj rituals in Mina, Saudi Arabia, has reached 145. Saleh Oknewa from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria said on Sunday that 165 of Nigerians are still unaccounted for after the deadly human crush. He also told reporters in Mecca that seven of 42 injured pilgrims remain in different hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
The tragic incident took place on September 24 after two large masses of pilgrims converged at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of the holy city of Mecca, during the symbolic ceremony of the stoning of Satan in Jamarat. Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people lost their lives.
The bodies of 399 Iranian victims have so far been handed over to Iranian officials, according to Sa’eed Ohadi, the head of the organization. Ohadi said on Sunday that 65 Iranians are still missing after the incident. A new tally by the Associated Press (AP) shows that at least 1,453 people were killed in the incident. The AP count is larger by 684 than the official toll of 769 provided by Riyadh. Iran has slammed Riyadh’s handling of the incident and its aftermath, and has laid the blame on the kingdom’s “incompetence” in managing the highly-significant ritual.
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Heavy criticism of the West imposing secular values on Africa in exchange for aid emerged as a theme from the continent's bishops, as the Vatican's synod on the family kicks off its first week. From press conferences to individual interviews, multiple prelates voiced concern over what Pope Francis has termed “ideological colonization,” in which Western nations have made the acceptance of legislature favoring gay rights and “marriage” contingent on receiving financial aid. “It's one thing that the African bishops are very, very conscious of,” Cardinal Wilfred Napier of South Africa told journalists Oct. 7. “What we are talking about is when countries are told unless you pass certain legislation, you're not going to get aid from the governments or aid agencies,” he said, pointing to the danger of “political colonization” being replaced “by a different kind of colonization.” This year's Synod on the Family, which runs from Oct. 4-25, is the second and larger of two such gatherings to take place in the course of a year. Like its 2014 precursor, the focus of the 2015 Synod of Bishops will be the family, this time with the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.”
Cardinal Napier held up the example of the Obama administration, specifically the President's visit to Kenya in July. During his two-day trip to the country Obama spoke out about the importance of gay rights, despite requests from Kenya’s leaders to not address the issue. Homosexual acts are illegal in Kenya, as well as several other African countries. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State “repeated much the same message” to Africa as well, he added. In an Oct. 8 interview with CNA, Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu and president of the Ugandan Episcopal Conference called the act “criminal,” and said ideologies must never be attached to receiving aid, which is meant to save lives. “The issue of homosexuality should not be linked with saying ‘if you don’t accept this we won’t help you,’ that is criminal, I call it criminal,” he said. “Aid should not be linked with ideological acceptance or rejection. Aid is to save human life. If you link it to ideology it becomes contradictory...it is self-defeating.” Human beings must be helped without any conditions attached, Archbishop Odama said, adding that the survival of human life “is paramount,” and that the family exists precisely to promote human life. “Any other society, any other groups elsewhere should exist to promote life and protect life, so if it intends to limit the life to be protected or to be accepted to a certain way of thinking then we run shot, and that running short is not only for that small group, but it is against humanity,” he said. “So any issue against human life is an issue against humanity in general.”
In an Oct. 8 press briefing with journalists, Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana lamented how some European countries pressured Africa to accept legislation favoring gay “marriage” after Pope Francis made his 2013 “Who am I to judge?” comment on the way back from Rio de Janiero in reference gay individuals authentically seeking Christ. The comment, he said, “had huge repercussions in our country (Ghana),” and prompted one European country – which he identified as Britain – “to tell us that if we do not accept this gay marriages and the rest, they were not going to give us financial help.” “We found it rather very sad that some government could take the sovereignty of another country and say ‘if you don't do this we won't do that,’” he said, calling the move a “gross violation of what we call the sovereignty of countries.” Similarly, Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M, archbishop of Addis Abeba in Ethiopia, told CNA Oct. 8 that Africa’s traditional values must be respected. He recalled how when Benedict XVI visited Africa in 2011, the pontiff said that the African continent has “their own values you are in fact the spiritual lung of the world and you can become the spiritual lungs of the world because you have traditional values.” Protecting those values, such as life and the love and protection of it, is of utmost importance to the African bishops, the cardinal said, explaining that they have already spoken about these issues and “we will speak about them more I feel.”
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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Zimbabwe’s state security agents have detained two Nigerian pastors while the immigration department deported five Nigerian preachers over a sinister prophesy made by their leader, Chris Okafor, NewsDay reported. In October last year, Okafor, who is the leader of the Liberation City World Outreach Ministries, reportedly prophesied the fall of President Robert Mugabe, saying Zimbabwe would have a new leader by March this year.
Okafor, prophesied “Zimbabwe [is] to have a throne change in six months and three weeks, the new leader will be less than 50 years old and those who oppressed Zimbabwe will start dying in 30 days’ time,” NewsDay reported.
Okafor who was due in the country today has since cancelled his trip after it became apparent that he has been declared persona non grata by Zimbabwe. The security officials also reportedly detained and questioned Pastor Joseph Magorimbo, of Glory to All Nations Ministries who had invited Okafor and his team to Zimbabwe for a church conference. The prophesy which has not been fulfilled appears to have angered Mugabe's henchmen.
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- Ngwa Bertrand
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