Tens of thousands of Cameroonians, many waving branches symbolizing peace, lined the streets of Bamenda to give a hero’s welcome to Pope Leo when he arrived in the capital city of the restive Anglophone region of Cameroon on his second day in the country.
They hailed him as one who could help bring an end to the 10-year-old conflict that has pitted the separatist movement in the region against the Francophone central government and has brought immense suffering to this part of the country.
He arrived by plane from Yaoundé at the local airport after a one-hour flight and was driven to St. Joseph Cathedral, where an even bigger crowd awaited him.
The welcome Leo received in Bamenda today reminded me of the ecstatic welcome Pope Francis was given when he arrived in the war-torn Central African Republic in November 2015. And like his predecessor then, the look on Leo’s face today and the words he spoke revealed that he was overjoyed to be there as an apostle of peace seeking to help end a conflict and give hope to the region’s inhabitants.
The cathedral was packed to capacity with many women from different religious orders and religious associations, as well as priests, seminarians and lay people, together with representatives of the Protestant churches, traditional religions and Islam, who had come together to work for peace.
They sang with gusto several hymns in English, including, at the end, “Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace.”
The encounter for peace, as it was called, began with words of welcome from the archbishop of Bambenda, the Most Rev. Andrew Nkea Fuanya, who said Leo had come at a time when the people of the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon “need your presence and your comfort the most.”
Describing the situation of the regions, Bishop Fuanya said:
We have seen a lot of suffering for the past eight years. Many of our people have suffered a lot from a situation they did not create, and thousands are either internally displaced or escaped as refugees. Businesses were shut down and for about four years, our children were not allowed to go to school. Children were used as a bait for political motives and struggle. Many priests, religious and even bishops of this province have been either harassed, beaten, kidnapped or even killed in this conflict, and yet the church continues to carry the Gospel message as the light of hope among a traumatized people. Many women have been rendered widows, children rendered orphans, and many people rendered homeless by this crisis.
He concluded, “We are happy because in this time of crisis, we see you as a messenger of Peace; we see you as an ambassador of reconciliation; we see you as a promoter of justice; we see in you the presence of God Himself among us who has come to visit his people like the dawn from on high.”
Five people then gave testimonies of their harrowing experience during the conflict: a tribal chief whose father had gifted the land to the church on which the cathedral was built; a Presbyterian emeritus moderator; an imam; a religious sister who had been kidnapped for three days and the father of a displaced family that had to leave their home and belongings to save their lives. The imam, Fonki Samuel Forba, told the pope, “We thank God that this crisis has not degenerated into a religious war, and we are still trying to love one another despite our religions.”
Pope Leo thanked each of them and then delivered a heartfelt appeal for reconciliation, peace and an end to the forgotten conflict in this region of the world.
“As your testimonies have just demonstrated, the lived experience of suffering by your community has only made stronger your conviction that God has never abandoned us! In him, in his peace, we can always begin anew,” he said.
Today, an ever-more confident Pope Leo spoke with a passion that we have rarely seen hitherto, even adding some off-the-cuff phrases to his prepared text.
He commended their commitment and work for peace in difficult times and told them: “I am here to proclaim peace. Yet I find it is you who are proclaiming peace to me, and to the entire world.” He noted that the crisis impacting these regions of Cameroon “has brought Christian and Muslim communities closer than ever before. Indeed, your religious leaders have come together to establish a movement for peace, through which they seek to mediate between the opposing sides.”
“I wish this would happen in so many other places on earth,” the pope added.
Then, in significant words that were read here as addressed not only to those involved in the conflict in Cameroon but also to those conducting wars in other parts of the world, Pope Leo said: “Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Leo extolled their “hunger and thirst for justice” and said, “Bamenda, today you are the city on the hill, resplendent in the eyes of all!”
He expressed gratitude to all those engaged in this work for peace, and especially “the lay and religious women, who care for individuals traumatized by violence,” which, he said, “is an enormous task that goes unseen day by day, and it is also dangerous.”
In this context, Pope Leo again denounced those conducting war. He said: “The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet often a lifetime is not enough to rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found.”
He also denounced those who exploit the natural resources of Cameroon and other countries in Africa. “Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death. It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience,” he said
He called for “a decisive change of course—a true conversion—that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.” Not mincing words, he said, “The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters! “
Pope Leo urged those present committed to peace:
Let us look into each other’s eyes: We are this immense people! Peace is not something we must invent: It is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbor as a brother or sister. We do not choose our brothers and sisters: We simply must accept one another! We are one family, inhabiting the same home: this wonderful planet that ancient cultures have cared for over millennia.
Upon leaving the cathedral, Leo released seven doves as a symbol of the peace he hopes will soon become a reality here.
That afternoon, before returning to Yaoundé and his residence at the Vatican embassy, Pope Leo celebrated a festive Mass in English, enriched by African hymns and music, for some 20,000 Cameroonians at the airport base, after driving among them in a closed, protected popemobile.
The American missionary pope is deeply committed to social justice, as he made clear from the name he chose at his election. This commitment was also evident in his homily today as he drew attention to serious problems of injustice in this majority-Christian country of 30 million people.
“Our hope for a future of peace and reconciliation, in which the dignity of every person is respected and their fundamental rights guaranteed, is continually disappointed by the many problems afflicting this beautiful land,” Leo said. “These include the numerous forms of poverty, which even recently have affected so many people amidst an ongoing food crisis.”
Repeating what he had said at the palace last evening, Pope Leo said, “There is moral, social and political corruption, seen above all in the management of wealth, which hinders the development of institutions and infrastructure.” Pointing to challenges related to education, health care and out-migration, he said these problems “are often fueled by hatred and violence” as well as outsiders “who, in the name of profit, continue to lay their hands on the African continent to exploit and plunder it.”
He acknowledged that “all of this can make us feel powerless and diminish our confidence,” but he told them in words that drew strong applause from the crowd: “This is the moment to change, to transform the story of this country. The time has come, today and not tomorrow, now and not in the future, to restore the mosaic of unity by bringing together the diversity and riches of the country and the continent. In this way, it will be possible to create a society in which peace and reconciliation reign.”
After this extraordinary day in which he pitched hard for peace in this region, Pope Leo took the plane back to Yaoundé. Tomorrow, April 17, his last full day in Cameroon, he will fly to Douala, the economic hub of the country, to celebrate Mass at the Japoma Stadium and visit a hospital. On returning to the capital, he will speak at the Catholic University of Central Africa.
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