Pope Benedict the XVI Faces His own Sword

By Innocent Chia
The maiden African visit of Pope Benedict XVI is, at best, receiving more mixed feelings than the accolades that his predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, got during his trips to Cameroon. These feelings have nothing in particular to do with any conflicting pronouncements by the Holy Pontiff, not even his firm stance against the use of condoms which critics fear may send the wrong message to a Continent scorched by HIV/AIDS. It is much ado with the context of this Papal Mission and the perceived beneficiary of it. Much is not lost also with regard to the evident harm and despair that this visit, just like every State visit to Cameroon, is having on the man on the street – fondly abbreviated by some as MOTS. Even as I share my personal thoughts on these grave issues, I hope it makes for more interesting reading if we X-rayed the Pope’s visit based on his message of Reconciliation, Peace and Justice.

Pictures streaming in from the State-owned Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) captured the worst fears of adversaries to the 4-day papal visit to Cameroon that started on Tuesday March 17th. Surrounded by the nation’s top officials and clergy, President Paul Biya was beaming in his apparent hijack of a Papal mission from which he was making the most political capital. One would have to look back a long while - indeed a long, long while past 2007 - to see the last visit by any Head of State to Cameroon. The President’s poor-in-design-and-naked-in-content website carries visits by foreign dignitaries since 2007 and clearly shows that the President has been busy meeting with Ambassadors.

Why all shunning by his equals? On his exit trip to Africa, President Bush visited countries that were making significant Democratic progress. He never visited Cameroon, in spite the backing that Cameroon had given to his administration when the US was making its case to go to war against Saddam Hussein. Cameroon was carrying the status of a non-permanent member at the UN Security council and President Biya was in audience with President Bush in DC. Many observers of Cameroon’s political landscape instantly tied President Obama’s inaugural address in which he called for “unclenching of fists” by dictators as a direct reference to the elks of President Biya.

Hence, opponents of the Pope’s high-profile visit premise their opposition on the fact that it endorses President Paul Biya and breathes new life into a dictatorial regime that is trampling on the rights, freedoms and opportunities of its people. It is the kind of unwelcome endorsement that the American activist and Civil Rights leader Jessie Jackson - in what critics saw as a “pay to play” trip - bestowed on the largely unpopular President Biya in 1992 after he had stolen the election victory of opposition leader, John Fru Ndi.  

The cynicism stretches to an irreverent similarity that exists between the Pope and President Biya. Why would the Pope care whether President Biya is head of State for life? Is it any different from the authority of the Pope at the Vatican? Such is the example that enables proponents of the new laws passed by President Biya’s CPDM governing majority party, that there was nothing wrong with amending the constitition in order to make him President-for-life. But I digress…

Pope Benedict’s message of Reconciliation, Peace and Justice took me to a different place. I have been asking myself why the Pope is taking the message to Cameroon. The question may be important because the leadership of Cameroon and some in the International community have always considered Cameroon as the poster child of peace in a region that is bedeviled by ethnic tensions, coup d’états and war.  The absence of war is therefore equated to peace. And the unscrupulous, power-monger Paul Biya sees himself as that enabler of peace, the one without who the entire sub-region will be in chaos. In his welcome address to the Pope he blew this pipe on how peaceful Cameroon is, pointing to the peaceful manner with which Cameroon handled the Bakassi peninsular conflict with Nigeria.

According to the self-styled Southern Cameroons Government-in-Exile of Carlson Anyangwe, Bakassi remains unresolved. On February 12, 2009 the government-in-exile served Notice to the African Union (AU) Border Program and the International Community calling attention to the fact that there is an international boundary between the former UN trust territory of French Cameroon that attained independence on 1 January, 1960 as la République du Cameroun, and the former UN trust territory of Southern Cameroons, presently under colonial occupation by la République du Cameroun. A communication from Carlson Anyangwe makes an unambiguous warning: “The Southern Cameroons Restoration Government hopes that African Governments will receive this document as an early warning signal aimed at averting another genocide and bloodshed in Africa.” So much for peace…

Besides the people of Southern Cameroons, one has to wonder the justice in destroying the makeshift retail stores of the struggling poor or how it will bring about reconciliation with the corrupt rich and powerful. These are the suffering poor that pay taxes to the corrupt tax collectors for the public treasury. Because of the Pope, their source of livelihood is destroyed in the name of beautifying the city. Others claim that they are there illegally. Who is in illegal territory? Is it the government that taxes them and fails to construct affordable sheds? Is it the government that sends tax collectors to collect at the very same makeshift sheds that are conveniently considered illegal and dirty?

Finally, the message of reconciliation could not be timelier. I need reassurance to cease worrying about the growth of the Catholic Church in Cameroon. Someone needs to tell me that it will purge abusive Priests preying on young boys and girls and married women, crooked Priests that disregard their vows of Celibacy. Tell me that the Catholic Church will finally address those broken families that are dying with unspoken family secrets caused by some knee-jerk Priests. The Catholic Church in the United States has been pushed against its will and labored hard to settle the one-too-many sex scandals that have given it a red eye.

It is time for the healing to begin in Africa. Stories could fill scores of volumes of books about clergymen that are taking advantage of their parishioners. Some of them have fled Cameroon and are taking refuge outside the country, including in America. Reconciliation and healing begin with the Church allowing these men and women of faith to tell their stories. The Church will accept responsibility, pay up and it will be a step in the direction of personal and collective peace, justice and reconciliation.

Comments

[FOINTAMA BEIZIA CHE]

It has been a visit which has been given alot of significance by catholic christians,however the MOTS has wondered about who has paid the bills for the visit of the pope.
Ahead of this visit it was a recurent question on the lips of many tax payers .The ministry of Communication called on the press to be fair in their coverage and not give the country a bad image during the visit of the pope.Why?At a time when the economy is unstable and the youths especially see no future in their country should billions be spent without second thought?....
Fointama B.C

[nshing yong]

I was thinking the pope made the visit out of his will not at the request of the chief.
The question here is:Did cardinal Tumi brief the holy father on the ills of the regime and the suffering of the Cameroonians? If he did,did the pope care ? Afterall,his position on condom use is all that made headlines in the western media,proof that he did not have any other message for Cameroon?