Religion

Pope Francis has arrived in Ecuador on the first stop of a seven-day tour of South America, his second visit to the region since becoming pontiff in 2013. "Progress and development must ensure a better future for all," he said in a speech on the Quito airport runway. His trip will focus on the issue of poverty and inequality, the Vatican said. The pontiff will also travel to Bolivia and Paraguay, but not his home country of Argentina. The Vatican said the decision not to visit the continent's larger nations reflected the Pope's interest in the "peripheries".

Pope Francis was welcomed at Quito airport by left-wing President Rafael Correa, a devout Catholic. Mr Correa criticised the immigration policies of wealthy nations. "They are looking for global consumers, not global citizens. The world order is not only unfair, but immoral," said Mr Correa. In a brief speech, the Pope said that "the tools to deal with the challenges of our times" could be found in the Gospel of Jesus. Attention must be paid, the Pope said, "to our most vulnerable brothers and the most vulnerable minorities, which are the debt that Latin America still has". President Correa said Ecuador was honoured by the Pope's visit

  

Pope Francis is the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to come from South America. In 2007, before becoming Pope, he told a gathering of Latin American bishops that they were living in the most unequal part of the world. On Wednesday Pope Francis will travel to Bolivia. He has requested to chew coca leaves while in Bolivia, according to Culture Minister Marko Machicao.Thousands of people waited for hours on the streets of the capital, Quito, to welcome the Pope

Coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, has been used in the Andes for thousands of years to combat altitude sickness and as a mild stimulant. In September the Pope will travel to Cuba ahead of a trip to the US. The pontiff is credited with helping bring about last December's diplomatic thaw between the two countries. During his previous visit to Latin America in 2013, he addressed millions on Brazil's Copacabana Beach as part of a Catholic youth festival.

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Ngwa Bertrand

06.Jul.2015

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Wednesday June 24, 2015, Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist shall remain a historical day for Christians of St. John the Baptist’s Parish, Foncha Street, Nkwen. The Archbishop of Bamenda canonically erected the former Quasi Parish to the status of a full-fledged parish during a Pontifical Mass. Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua erected the Parish of St John the Baptist, and at the same time raised St. John’s Mission Station Church to the status of a Parochial Church with all the rights and privileges thereof. During the rite of the canonical erection, the Archbishop equally appointed Rev. Fr. John Bosco Ambe as Pioneer Parish Priest of the new parish and entrusted the Parish to the intercession of St. John the Baptist, her patron.

Another highlight of the day was a fundraiser for the parish project which is the construction of an ultra-modern hall complex estimated at some 185 million FRS CFA. Governor Lele L’Afrique who was guest of honour donated a million FRS CFA. An estimated 3 million FRS CFA was raised that day.

What is remarkable about this newest parish is that it had the status of quasi parish only for about 2 years, whereas places like Mbengwi, Yemge, Ntaafi just to name a few have been quasi parishes before St. John for many years now and have still remained so. The explanation is that St. John fulfilled the conditions for becoming a parish within a very short time. These conditions include: an evaluation of the pastoral, spiritual and financial situation of a given Quasi Parish and its growth since its creation; statistics concerning the number of Mission Stations, Small Christian Communities, the population of the parish, Baptisms, First Holy Communion, Confirmations, Marriages, etc.

As far back as the early 90’s, what is today St. John the Baptist’s Parish started in a long classroom hall in the St. John School premises, where Sunday Masses were celebrated. It was then an out station of All Saint’s Parish Bayelle. Later on when contacted, Dr. John Ngu Foncha (R.I.P) and his family willingly offered spacious land for the church; thus the vision for the church became a reality. Following the construction of the church, it became a mission station under Bayelle Parish and maintained that status until August 16, 2013, when the mission station became St. John the Baptist Quasi Parish, Nkwen with territory detached from All Saints’ Parish Bayelle and Fr. John Ambe as pioneer rector. Following the close and effective collaboration between the faithful of that parish and their rector to establish a measure of pastoral activities that fit that of any other parish in the archdiocese of Bamenda, it was then accepted that the quasi parish be canonically erected into a parish.

The Parish has three mission stations: St. Augustine’s Mubang, St. Luke’s Ntasen and the main mission of St. John the Baptist, Foncha Street. According to a recent census the parish has 3035 Christians; 471 men, 658 very active women, 1143 youth and 763 infants, all drawn from 586 families. This youngest Parish in the archdiocese is located on a hill which can more or less be referred to as a holy, spiritual or better still sacred hill. This is because of the presence of the Mill hill Missionary Formation House; the Aspirancy of the Congregation of the sisters of St. Ann; the Focolare House and the La Verna Spiritual Centre of the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis.

Speaking to L’Effort Camerounais the Pioneer Parish Priest shared what challenges he faced as Rector of St. John the Baptist’s Quasi Parish. Hear him: “I have been in Catholic Education for most of my priestly ministry as Manger of Schools, Chaplain and Principal of Colleges, Formator in the Seminary and Education Secretary before coming to St. John’s since almost two years ago. It was about time that I got back fully to what every priest is ordained for-pastoral work. When I became Rector of St. John’s in August 2013, I had to face the challenge of dusting up my notes on the Provincial Pastoral Plan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda to find out what it means to follow the new way of being Church which is what guides all pastoral work in our Local Church today”.

Asked what difference this transition from a Quasi to a full-fledged Parish will make to him in particular and to the parishioners in general Fr. John Ambe said: “In Mathematics, we know that a whole is better than a part. Quasi means not full. So being a full parish is already better that one which is not full. From now onwards, I shall be considered and called a Parish Priest and not the Rector of a Quasi Parish. As far as the parishioners are concerned they will be happy that their parish is functioning in a full capacity and not on a trial basis any longer.”

Some Christians also shared their experience:

Excerpts from a pioneer: Pa Tayong Joseph Anyere: One of the first church wardens: The pioneer usher of this St. John Mission was a certain Sous Prefet whose name I cannot still remember. I don’t even know too if he is still alive. But all I can say is that he was the very first usher of the church. Later on Pa Muma and I and others joined him. For no particular reason, only the men opted to be ushers. This was in those days when we still had Mass celebrated in one of the Classrooms of the St. John primary school. I feel so delighted to be witness to what this church that started in a classroom has today become. When it was in the classroom very many people never dreamt it was going to become what it is now. I want to say that I have very high impressions about it and I hope that in the years ahead, it will become even bigger than what it is today. Personally this transition from a Quasi Parish to a full-fledged parish makes a great difference considering that most of us, you know my peers who started did not know it will come to this and even if they knew, they did not stay alive to witness it. I feel very happy this day finally came. At least I now have story to tell.

Nginjeh Odette epse Tim: Member of Choir of Angels: Being a Christian at St. John’s makes me feel like always belonging. The fact that I got to grow deeper in faith through childhood till present in St. John’s means a lot to me. I received doctrine from the sacrament of Penance to Matrimony in this mission station. In effect I was born and bred in this Parish and I watched it being born from the time Masses were said in the primary school hall in the days of Fr. Boekema (Joe white man) as primary kids used to distinguish him from Fr. Joeseph Mbiydzenyuy (Joe Blackman); the foundation stone being laid and the church being constructed and so on. I just feel privileged to be counted amongst those who can say something about this newest parish in the Archdiocese.      

Martin Ambe: Member of Parish Finance Committee: The aspect of being a Christian in St. John Mission Station does not create any difference from being a Christian elsewhere. If there are differences, such can only be the social aspect of the society. In St. John as in other mission stations there are devoted Christians and lazed ones. But actually, differences exist between a parish and a quasi-parish. As quasi parish, one still has the feeling that the parish is not mature in all aspects be they spiritual or financial. As a parish, we are a parish forever.

Jaika Chantal: Chorister of Angels’ Choir: Being a Christian at St. John’s Mission Station has never stopped being an honour to me even as far back as the days when this mission station was still part of All Saints’ Parish, Bayelle. My being a member of this mission station means a lot to me because I have worshipped and served here since my adolescent days. Not long ago, when St. John’s Mission Station became a quasi-parish, I was so elated. Now that it has been erected to a parish, I am but thankful to God Almighty for his bountiful love shown through this marvellous blessing which was once a mere fantasy.

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Jun.2015

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Today's event has started with a pontifical holy mass!! The candidates being ordain deacons are: Gabriel Afunbom Tokoh, Godlove Bong-aba Ngenge, Romaric Stanislaus Njuakom, Gaston Afah Forbah, Bertrand Mangoua Ngameni,  John Vianney Mbangsi, Patrice Tapie Yongnjoh, Divine Chi Fru, Andre Demanou Kenfack, Anthony Chatii Njingo and Emmanuel Meyanui. Their Diaconate Ordination Mass is currently taking place at the St. Joseph’s Metropolitan Cathedral, Mankon. Nine of them are from the Bamenda Archdiocese; Three of them for the diocese of Buea: two for Kumbo diocese, one for the Diocese of Mamfe and another one for the diocese of Bafoussam. Two for the Capuchins. His Lordship Bishop Agapitus Nfon has had a busy week administering the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Jun.2015

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An academic honours for a fallen genuine intellectual Fr. Prof. Christian Ndzerem Mofor, took place on Monday June 22 at the esplanade of CATUC. Fr. Prof. Christian Mofor who died on Thursday, June 11, 2015, was appointed member of a Think Tank that brain stormed on the nature of CATUC before her founding, while he was Rector of the Catholic University of Central Africa, (UCAC) Yaounde. He eventually became one of the lecturers in the Department of Philosophy in CATUC after his tenure at UCAC. 

The solemn occasion started with the arrival of the mortal remains of the fallen genuine intellectual from the Major Seminary, Bambui where he once served as lecturer and Rector before being appointed to UCAC. The Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of CATUC, Archbishop Cornelius Esua and Rev. Fr. Michael Suh Niba respectively, were on hand at the entrance to CATUC to receive the remains. Acting as pall bearers, some lecturers of CATUC conveyed the corpse to the ceremonial grounds amidst professors and assistant lecturers of CATUC and UCAC who cladded in academic robes, had cued up on both sides from the entrance to the ceremonial ground.

The Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Monsignor Patrick Lafon then opened the event proper with a prayerful appeal to the Lord. Closely following this, was the laying of wreath by the Chancellor and then the singing of the CATUC anthem. It was after this that Prof. Ndongmanji who doubled as MC at the occasion, gave a brief presentation of what Academic Honours was all about. In a nutshell, the speaker noted that though the academician dies, he lives forever in his legacy which is his academic works/publications. The Registrar of CATUC, Rev. Fr. Joseph Awoh was next in line with a presentation of the fallen hero’s biography. Most of what is said about the late Rev. Prof Christian Mofor is centred on academics considering he spent 27 out of 29 years as a priest in the academic milieu. 

Other speakers included a former student of the deceased intellectual, Dr. Ngalim, who paid an impressive tribute to his gone teacher; a former colleague at UCAC, Rev. Professor Stephen Fobi Kizito and last but not least, the VC of CATUC, Rev. Fr. Michael Suh Niba. Though in different speeches, they all had similar descriptions for the fallen priest. He was very studious, assiduous and stressed the issue of shunning mediocrity in studies. Fr. Christian preferred something is not done, than that it is not done perfectly. He was described as an exacting scholar and reminded people of the likes of Archbishop Paul Verdzekov and Dr. Bernard Fonlon all of Blessed memory. Rev. Prof Christian Mofor preferred a student failed an exam with honour than that he passes the exam by cheating. This 5^th Rector of the St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary has many publications to his credit. He never claimed to know more than he actually knew and was characterized by intellectual empathy. The former Rector of UCAC demanded more of himself what he demanded of his students and he died with a lot of articles and books in him.

These speeches and academic honours culminated in the paying of homage from Professors and Assistant Lecturers, thus bringing to an end the Academic Honours. The mortal remains were then conveyed to the Cathedral for the vigil and funeral Masses.   

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Ngwa Bertrand

28.Jun.2015

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When humans die, it is customary to say things about them, to look at the legacy they have left behind. When great and good men and women die, it becomes rather difficult to offer a word because the onus is not so much on what they have left behind, but on what one has learnt from their lives. Fr. Christian Mofor certainly belonged to the category of the great and the good of this world, in a way that could be concealing to the prevailing ethos of worldly goodness and greatness. His was a life that was lived more from the inside than from the outside. Those who watched Fr. Mofor closely as a man, a priest, a public intellectual of a rare and refined caliber, and above all, as a Christian-philosopher, would agree that the most meaningful hermeneutic of accessing the life of Fr. Christian Mofor, PHD, is to see him for who he was interiorly: a radical Christian who believed in Christ and believed in Truth, which for Dr. Mofor, was to live according to right reason.

Often when people die, civility demands we say good things about them – De mortuis nil nisi bonum, said Horace. The interior consolation I have is that what I am saying here does not belong to such customary and oftentimes, superficial civility. These are concrete sentiments that could only account for less, not more, of the remarkable life of Dr. Christian Mofor. It fills me with profound gratitude to recall that Fr. Mofor knew my deep appreciation and esteem for him, while he lived this evanescent life. He knew that I had grown to love and nurture a profound admiration for him, first as my teacher, and later as my rector in St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary, Bambui. He was the supervisor of my philosophy thesis while I was in STAMS, and also the one who recommended me for graduate studies at Boston College, with his sole lament being that I was not going to read philosophy!

In Dr. Mofor, a new experience of teaching and learning found a lively and enduring synthesis. He was not a teacher who lived distinctly from what he taught! His life bore an eminent and remarkable harmony with his philosophical master, Plotinus, and the whole entire Ancient Western philosophical tradition. There are teachers that you meet and you are grateful to God when the course ends. There are others that you meet and they remain with you beyond the course work. Fr. Mofor certainly transcended even the former category, for he incarnated in a rare enduring manner, the spirit and the letter of whatever he taught his students.

How could one ever forget Dr. Mofor’s orientation of freshmen in the Library of STAMS, in which with a clear, calm voice, he pronounced his reservations about students who were punctual in the refectory and chapel, and yet, failed in their courses? How could one forget the day Dr. Mofor stood on the professor’s table to demonstrate a philosophical argument, with outstretched arms? How could one forget the oral exams that used to be Fr. Mofor’s own “Christmas party,” how he longed for such examination moments? How could one forget the sight of Fr. Mofor around the football field, coaching in a manner that could only be expectant of one result, victory? How could one forget Fr. Mofor’s most enduring homily I am convinced he ever preached in STAMS, The Dialectics of Gratitude According to Emmanuel Livinas, in which he pointed out the shallowness of expressing gratitude in a bid to pave the way for more requests, especially in the context of what was then referred to as “Seminary Councils”? It is not possible to forget the sight of Fr. Mofor carrying with utmost devotion and reverence, the Enneads of Plotinus from the Library to the classroom in STAMS, to allow students to at least, have a look at them, since he was convinced that many students will never on their own, go to read the Enneads in the Library! Unquestionably, Fr. Mofor’s coming to STAMS, Bambui, marked a new era in the life of the Philosophy Department of that Seminary. The outsized number of students that opted to write their end-of-course philosophy dissertations on topics centered on Ancient Greek Philosophy was a persuasive testimony of the “Mofor Effect” in STAMS, Bambui. Upon becoming Rector of Bambui, Dr. Mofor once again heard the voice of the Lord through the Church that called him to Yaoundé, where he served in a distinguished manner as Rector of the Catholic University of Central Africa, all the while sticking to his teaching career, an experience he could never trade for anything on planet earth!

In 399 BC, the Athenians had charged Socrates of injustice based on their perception that he corrupted the young and had refused to believe in the gods in whom the city believed. In the Apology, Socrates offers the most convincing defense of his life and legacy: “If I was getting something out of this, and if I was receiving pay while I exhorted you to these things, it would be somewhat reasonable. But as it is, even you yourselves see that the accusers, who accused me so shamelessly in everything else, in this have not been able to become so utterly shameless as to offer a witness to assert that I ever took any pay or asked for it. For, I suppose, I offer a sufficient witness that I speak the truth: my poverty”(Apology, 31 c). These words, offered by Socrates, appears to many who knew Fr. Mofor closely to be the most fitting epigraph that could describe the entire priestly life of Fr. Christian Mofor. His poverty!

In an era marked by the miserable conviction held even by clerics that every priest with access to Church finances is an embezzler, Fr. Christian offered a stirring witness to time-honored Christian conviction that one cannot serve both God and Mammon, and that evil, even if attractive, remains a choice that could be consistently rejected.  Some have blamed Fr. Mofor for his radical embrace of poverty. Some have said he could have given a little more thought to the reality of sin, greed and evil in the humans that make up the Church, conscious that not all believe in the ideal of poverty that defined his own convictions. Irrespective of what some think and say now, the radical manner in which Fr. Mofor embraced poverty places him on the angelic and apostolic caliber best described in the words of another Christian radical, Paul of Tarsus: “Here we are, fools for the sake of Christ.” (1 Cor. 4:10)

In deliberately choosing the path of being a “fool for Christ,” Fr. Mofor entered into the Christic experience of a vicarious representative in and for the Church of the Christ: “You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me.” (Heb. 10: 5). With the demise of his health, Fr. Mofor entered the destiny that awaited the radical followers of Jesus Christ. Standing tall in the midst of a sinful world and Church, Fr. Mofor’s whole life lived for the Church, reached its completion in the baptism of his death, which coincidentally occurred on June 11, 2015, Feast St. Barnabas, the Apostle whom Tradition maintains was martyred in Cyprus in 61 A.D. He entered the experience of that which was truly his own, perfect friendship in Christ. He is now at home. He is now beyond the sinfulness of sinners, awaiting with the saints that have gone ahead marked with the sign of faith, the time when men and women will obey God so that the total number of the elect will be completed (Rev. 6:11).

As one looks into the remarkable life of Fr. Christian Mofor, the legacy of this great son from Nso, Kumbo Diocese, Cameroon, is, in the final analysis, an invitation to us left behind to examine the quality of our interiority, in terms of the life we live here as a preparation for the next. In this context, the enigmatic words of Nietzsche, that we men and women do not want to enter the Kingdom of heaven because we have become men and women, and so want a Kingdom of earth, provide a jolting opportunity to discern the locus of our internal adherence: Nietzsche or Christ? In his matriculation thesis for the University of Algiers, Albert Camus parried the words of Christ: “My Kingdom is not of this world: Notre royaume est de ce monde – our kingdom is of this world” (Camus, Essais, 1225). However, in the end, Camus’ fascination for the beauty around him becomes a disappointing melancholic experience when he finds himself in Prague. He drowns in the prison of the abyss of meaninglessness and loneliness. May be Fr. Mofor’s unique legacy that might take us out of the greedy and materialistic culture, comparable, some might say, Sisyphus’ rolling the rock uphill again and again, knowing fully well that it will roll back down again, lies in the victory of Fr. Mofor over Nietzsche and Camus: he proved to them that truly what really mattered was the Kingdom that transcended this fleeting world.

The last entry Bernanos has his country priest enter into his Diary reads, “Grace consists in forgetting oneself.” This certainly was the grace that marked Fr. Mofor’s life. His remains will be lowered into the earth as the seed of his immortality. What can one say to Fr. Mofor who is now beyond all human flattery? In the Symposium, Plato offered the pinnacle of Ancient reflections on love. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul of Tarsus wrote the most profound synthesis in the form of a magna carta of Christian love. What other fitting word can one offer to Fr. Mofor who now stands at the bosom of Abraham? Ratzinger comments about love in his Principles of Catholic Theology: to say, “I love you,” is to say, “It is good that you exist,” for it is the way of love to will the existence of the other. Fr. Christian Mofor, I love you, many of us your students love you, and it was good that you existed in this world of ours! Blessed are you because you believed! Enter the joy of heaven, until we meet there to part no more. Socrates, Aristotle, Plotinus, your Pre-Christian saints, and the Christian saints of God, your true and best friends, will be there to welcome you with open arms, as you enter the glistening gates of paradise. We are on the way!

 

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Jun.2015

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Millions of Muslims all around the world mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. Religious authorities in Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and most other countries declared Thursday as the first day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. It is unprecedented that most of the Muslim countries announce an identical day as the beginning of Ramadan because the moon-sighting methodology has made it almost impossible for Muslim states to be unanimous on the occasion.

Pakistan is the only Muslim-majority country which still has to announce its decision regarding the beginning of the holy month. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is the time when Muslims around the world fast for around 30 days and break their fast after evening prayers by having an “iftar” meal. The act of fasting is aimed at reminding the faithful of the plight of the poor, thus serving as a major incentive for the practicing Muslims to engage in charitable activities during the month.

By advertising the prized virtue of self-restraint, the month increases the staying power of Muslims at times of crisis. Fasting is also highly advantageous to the physical health as it detoxifies the body. During the month, Muslims are strongly recommended to refrain from backbiting, swearing and fighting in a bid to purify their souls. This year, Ramadan falls at the time of summer solstice and thus Muslims must abstain from eating and drinking for long hours a day.

The fasting time span is even much longer for the Muslims in the Scandinavian countries where there will remain only around three hours for eating and drinking between the sunset and the sunrise. "The good thing is that you'll eat with moderation and that you'll stick very much into the true, simple spirit of Ramadan," said Chairwoman at the Finnish Muslim Union in Helsinki Pia Jardi, adding, "Long fasting time means you rarely want to eat heavily." There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, making up a majority in 49 countries.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Jun.2015

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