After the Official and High Level Religious talks by all the Cameroonian Bishops with the Holy Father, Pope Francis at the Saint Peter`s Basilica in Rome, concerning burning Issues affecting the Modern Church in Africa, the Bishop of Mamfe Mgr Andrew Nkea took upon himself the personal responsibility and was at the forefront to unite the disintegrated and fracturized OPSANS in the United States of America during their annual convention in Metropolitan Washington DC. Cameroon Concord US Bureau Chief Bertrand Etukeni Agbaw-Ebai caught up with the prelate from Mamfe in the first ever thrilling and graphic exciting interview of which the Bishop describes his vision and concerns for the Diocese of Mamfe.

Cameroon Concord: Your Lord, the Holy Father Pope Francis appointed you as Coadjutor Bishop of Mamfe, before confirming you as Bishop. Is there any difference between your time as Coadjutor and now that you are Bishop of Mamfe?

Bishop Nkea: Yes, there is a difference. The difference is that as a Coadjutor Bishop, you do what the Bishop tells you to do. You don`t do your own things. But as Bishop you take initiative for the good of the Diocese. As Coadjutor Bishop, I only did what Bishop Francis asked me to do. Now as Bishop, I can take initiative and move the diocese to the direction am convinced according to the will of God.

Cameroon Concord: Mamfe Diocese is still a baby Diocese of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province. What are some of the projects you are running to make Mamfe Diocese catch up with the likes of Buea and Kumbo?

Bishop Nkea: I don`t want Mamfe Diocese to catch up with any Diocese in the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province. I just want the Diocese to be authentic and grow at its pace. Notwithstanding, we are doing our very best to get projects that are good for Mamfe Diocese. And our big priority which is also my Pastoral strategy now is the construction of the Pastoral Centre Hostels which will enable us to implement the Provincial Pastoral Plan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. In addition the Diocese is abundantly blessed with the coming of John Paul II Major Seminary which is a major step and the construction of Presbyteries which will facilitate the coming together of Diocesan priests making sure that priests stay and work together for the pastoral growth of the Diocese.  

Cameroon Concord: The media all over Europe and the United States of America have given you a pet name “The Preaching Bishop”. Are you aware that you have a pet name? If yes! What makes your Homilies special?

Bishop Nkea: [laughs] I only read it just like many other people do. But it goes back to my teaching days in the major Seminary-Bambui. I encouraged all the seminarians never to go to the pulpit without preparing. And once you prepare put it in writing. Even if you don`t look at the scripts, let it be in your pocket but you have to put it in writing. Preaching well and convincing too is not just a matter of getting up and start talking. Do not be too confident in yourself. Prepare and pen it and that is the secret.

Cameroon Concord: We understand that there is a Health Scheme going on which was started by the Roman Catholic Bishops. Can you give us an insight on how the scheme is operating?

Bishop Nkea: Yes, they called it a Health Scheme. But actually it is a Solidarity Scheme for health in which people put money together in order to help those who are sick. It is not like an insurance which is renewable by payments. The important point for the scheme is that Christians put money together as a community, and whoever gets sick is helped from that scheme. Therefore it is a solidarity scheme among Christians.

Cameroon Concord: We know that Mamfe Diocese hasn't got a major income generating activity. How do you intend to solve this difficult situation?

Bishop Nkea: [Optimistic] I believe like every true Cameroonian that the soil never fails, it never deceives anyone. Therefore am preparing to embark on a very serious aggressive agricultural projects which will become income generating activities for the Diocese. My action will not only be limited to the Diocese, it will engulf all parishes to embark on small agricultural schemes that will help generate income. In that way we can be working slowly towards self reliance. I assure all that in the near future Mamfe Diocese would have move forward to be able to generate income for itself.

Cameroon Concord: Your Lordship, making Mamfe Diocese “Something Beautiful for God” cannot be easy judging from the fact that you have to rely on goodwill gestures from Home and Abroad. How is your relationship with the Diaspora?

Bishop Nkea: I think that I am just one year old as Bishop and new in the Diocese. So you have to cultivate a relationship, you don`t just walk into a relationship. I am nursing and cultivating a relationship with the Diaspora. As it stands now, I can proudly say we are on the good footing. People in the Diaspora are working very hard and committed to helping their Diocese. One of my major task is to go round and sensitize the people that the Diocese belongs to them. Above all that is their ultimate end. There are many people who will understand it early, some will take time to understand, but we have to be patient. So far I can say I am very very proud of the Diaspora Christians of the Mamfe Diocese.

Cameroon Concord: Any Last word for our readers?

Bishop Nkea: My last word for Cameroon Concord readers is that going around the United States, I see a lot of division among cultural groups, alumni groups including church groups which are a real anti witness to the Gospel message. Let unity be the watch word, respect for one another, let love for one another be the guiding principle for all our Christians and even non Christians who are readers of Cameroon Concord.

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Oct.2014

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Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai

Unlike the xenophobic comments of Cardinal Kasper who is blinded to the fact that many in his native Germany no longer go to Church, Cardinal Dolan of New York has shown remarkable openness and appreciation of the heroic Church of Africa. We want to remind Cardinal Kasper that by maintaining the biblical faith on the meaning of marriage, the African Church is simply being faithful to the apostolic form of the faith. It is this form of the faith that Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Ireneaus, Justin, will recognise. While Islam is growing in Germany, Kasper is busy watering down the faith. 

Cardinal Timothy Dolan spoke about the African bishops participating in the synod, in an interview with Catholic News Service. "We in the Church in Europe, the Church in North America, we suffer sometimes from a lethargy, don’t we? Not Africa! … The bishops of Africa are prophetic in reminding us that the role of the Church is to transform the culture, not to be transformed by the culture. … I’m afraid sometimes we in the West might say, "Oh, I guess we ought to dilute things, I guess we ought to capitulate, it’s obvious this teaching’s being rejected, oh my Lord, we’re not popular." And the Africans say, "Well, you know what? We’re not supposed to be. What we’re supposed to do is propose the truth and invite people by the love and the joy of our lives to embrace the truth. And take it from us, brothers, it works."

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Oct.2014

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Oct.2014

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Fon Lawrence in Rome

In the afternoon of Monday, October 12, "L'Osservatore Romano" gave a first dim account of the pitched battle that burst into the open in the morning in the Synod Hall after the reading of the “Relatio post disceptationem” written by Cardinal-Rapporteur Peter Erdo, with the collaboration - at times with prevarication [prevaricante - "with malicious abuse of one's position"], as Erdo himself made known in the morning press conference - of Special Secretary Bruno Forte. Under the gunfire of around 41 interventions, Cardinals Pell [Secretary for the Economy], Ouellet [Prefect for Bishops], Filoni [Prefect for Propaganda Fide], Dolan [of New York], Vingt-Trois [of Paris], Burke [Prefect of Apostolic Signatura], Rylko [President of Laity], Müller [Prefect of Doctrine of the Faith], Scola [of Milan], Caffarra [of Bologna] among others spoke up, all against an opening to second marriages as proposed by Cardinal Kasper, who also intervened. But among the protests also reported by “L’Osservatore Romano” there were also those regarding the paragraphs (written by Forte) on homosexuality, regarding which "a formulation was demanded that took people into account but that does not contradict in any way Catholic doctrine on marriage and family." And also "was proposed a stronger message on the tragedy of abortion, as well as on assisted reproduction." But "above all what was asked was a great prophetic encouragement towards all those families that, even at the cost of enormous sacrifices, lay witness every day to the Christian truth on marriage. In sum - it was revealed - a positive affirmation of marital love would be appropriate, as also that of the social value of families." What appears clear from the sarcastic dismissal of rapporteur Erdo himself, the strong word used by Magister ("precaricante", that is, a malicious abuse of one's position), and the immediate furious response from the Synod Fathers (15 just during the morning and just on this matter, according to several reports, including many from the most vibrant region in the Church, Africa), is that Abp. Bruno Forte, known as an extreme liberal in theological matters, abused his position and the trust of Cardinal Erdo and included something that had not really been discussed in that way at the Synod but that was his own pet personal view on homosexuality and homosexual couples, and made it look as if it had been a Synodal view. That is why Erdo was so adamant to make clear that he, Erdo, was not responsible for this outrage, and why the response from the Synod Fathers was furious and explosive. Forte acted like a Bugnini for "Gayness", making things up to achieve his own end.

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Oct.2014

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Oct.2014

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Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai

The official mid-term report from the Synod of Bishops, which uses strikingly conciliatory language toward divorced and remarried Catholics, cohabitating couples and same-sex unions, has proven highly controversial inside and outside the synod hall, with some synod fathers saying it does not accurately reflect the assembly’s views. Following a nearly hour-long speech on Monday by Cardinal Péter Erdő of Esztergom-Budapest, who, as the synod’s relator, has the task of guiding the discussion and synthesising its results, 41 of the 184 synod fathers present took the floor to comment the same morning, the Vatican said. According to the Vatican’s summary of their remarks, which did not quote bishops by name in accordance with synod rules, a number of synod fathers objected that Cardinal Erdő’s text lacked certain necessary references to Catholic moral teaching. “In regard to homosexuality, there was noted the need for welcoming, with the right degree of prudence, so as not to create the impression of a positive valuation of that orientation,” the summary said. “It was hoped that the same care would be taken in regard to cohabitation.”

Bishops also remarked on the mid-term report’s scarce references to the concept of sin, and encouraged the assembly to emulate the “prophetic tone of Jesus, to avoid the risk of conforming to the mentality of today’s world.” Regarding one of the synod’s most discussed topics, a proposal by German Cardinal Walter Kasper to make it easier for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion, at least one bishop argued that it would be “difficult to welcome some exceptions without in reality turning it into a general rule.” Some members of the synod made their objections public. US Cardinal Raymond Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, told Catholic World Report that the mid-term report “advances positions which many synod fathers do not accept and, I would say, as faithful shepherds of the flock cannot accept. Clearly, the response to the document in the discussion which immediately followed its presentation manifested that a great number of synod fathers found it objectionable.” Cardinal Burke accused leaders of the synod of giving the public a distorted image of the proceedings, almost all of which are closed to the press. “All of the information regarding the synod is controlled by the General Secretariat of the synod, which clearly has favored from the beginning the positions expressed” in the mid-term report, the cardinal said. “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the approach at work, which is certainly not of the church.” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, Poland, president of the Polish bishops’ conference, told Vatican Radio that Cardinal Erdő’s speech was not acceptable to many synod fathers, because it departed from the theology of St John Paul II and reflected an ideology hostile to marriage by seeming to approve of same-sex couples raising children, among other ways. The mid-term report “should be an incentive to fidelity, family values, but instead seems to accept everything as it is,” the archbishop said.

The controversy over the report prompted the synod’s General Secretariat to issue a statement on Tuesday lamenting that a “value has been attributed to the document that does not correspond to its nature” and emphasising that it is a “working document, which summarises the interventions and debate of the first week, and is now being offered for discussion by the members of the synod.” The bishops were to work in small groups of about 20 each, discussing Cardinal Erdő’s speech and presenting their conclusions to the entire assembly on October 16. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of Durban, South Africa, said his group had found in the mid-term report “quite a lot of things which are expressed in a way which we certainly wouldn’t feel that are very helpful to giving a clear idea of where the Church stands on some of the issues that are being raised.” “Individual things that were said by individuals, may have been repeated a couple of times, are put in here as if they really do reflect the feeling of the whole synod. They’ve been picked up by the media then and made to be the message of the synod. I think that’s where the upset is,” he said. The cardinal would not specify the statements or topics in question. When asked about media reports that Cardinal Erdő’s speech represented a new overture to divorced Catholics and homosexuals, he said, “That’s one of the reasons why there’s been such an upset among the synod fathers, because we’re now working from a position that’s virtually irredeemable. The message has gone out, ‘this is what the synod is saying, this is what the Catholic Church is saying,’ and it’s not what we are saying at all.” The cardinal said the mid-term report accurately reflected bishops’ calls to drop “very harsh language that alienates people,” such as cohabitating couples, who act in conflict with Church teachings, but he said Cardinal Erdő had not suggested the teachings themselves would change. “My worry is that the message has gone out — and it’s not a true message — that this synod has taken up these positions, and whatever we say hereafter is going to be as if we’re doing some damage control, which is certainly not what is in my mind,” Cardinal Napier said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.Oct.2014

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