By Kini Nsom
The parishioners of St. Joseph Anglophone Catholic Parish in Mvog-Ada Yaounde, have continued to grumble ever since the Archbishop of Yaounde, Mgr. Tonye Bakot appointed Fr. Severin Zoa Obama their Parish Priest two weeks ago.
Their main grievance, The Post learnt, is that the new Parish Priest does not only speak something worse than approximate English, but has been unable to say mass in English.
During his installation last week, Fr. Obama, who is also the Vicar General of the Yaounde Archdiocese, apologised for his limited English.
One newsletter, Sunday News, published by one of the parishioners, Lawrence Kihkishy, quoted the priest as saying that his assistants were better English speakers and called on Christians to help him learn English because he speaks better Italian than the Queen's language.
But one parishioner who asked not to named, said: "We want a pastor to deliver the word of God to us in a language we understand."Another parishioner told The Post that the new priest has not been able to say mass ever since he was installed because of language problems.
The Anglophone parish that was created in 1993 has been moving from one crisis to the other. That is why a group of female parishioners threatened to stage a demonstration to the Archbishop's office last Thursday. They were reportedly restrained by the Parish Council.
Mismanagement Crisis
When the former Parish Priest, Fr. Joseph Befe Ateba, was appointed the Bishop of Kribi recently, he left behind a mismanagement crisis that has continued to deepen animosity among Christians.
The apple of discord remains the way the priest spent the over FCFA 43 million that was raised in the 2006 Harvest Thanksgiving.The mismanagement of the Harvest Thanksgiving was the subject of a strongly worded petition some highly placed parishioners sent to the Archbishop recently.
The petitioners complained that the Parish Priest spent the money on trivial issues that had nothing to do with the investment programme the church had earlier earmarked.
"Parishioners were sensitised to offering this huge sum (FCFA 43.545.749) as harvest by an efficient organising committee, which stressed that the harvest funds were to be used to continue the capital investment programme of the parish," partly reads the letter.
This capital investment, the writers of the petition explained, had to do with completing the church building, finishing the Church Parish Hall and completing the unfinished aspects of work at the presbytery.
The parishioners took great exception to the fact that "in his accounts as presented in the news letter."Together" of October 14, 2007, the parish priest preferred to give a daily-journal approach expenditures totalling FCFA 40.335 50 within a period of nine months."
The petitioners screamed that the money was spent in the running or recurrent expenditure.
They disagree with the following expenditure: running cost of parish: FCFA 790.000, running cost of parish: FCFA 800.000, running cost of Presbytery: FCFA 777.640, services rendered to the laity: FCFA 200.500, running cost of parish FCFA 745.000 among others.
Hear them: "Your Grace, parishioners are at a loss as to why the bulk of those disbursements which are "running costs" had to be made from the Harvest Fund at all when the weekly alms allows for the same period. An average of FCFA 400.000 per week collected for one year would have provided an estimated sum of about 400.000×52 weeks = FCFA 20.800.000, which would have been more than sufficient to cover the running costs of the parish as was the case before Mgr. Befe arrived."
The Christians called for the transparent management of their parish funds. They said they needed independent auditors to do a scanning of the accounts.Many items that appeared on the accounts Fr. Befe rendered seemed dubious. They read as followed: Help to some people: FCFA 1.5 million; blinds for the Father's house: FCFA 1.3 million; two sets of leather chairs: FCFA 2.8 million, repairs and fuel of cars: FCFA 2.5 million, SNEC and SONEL bills: FCFA 850.000 and an envelope for the Bishop: FCFA 1 million.
The petitioners reportedly received no answer from the Bishop. They are reported to have called the attention of the highest authority of the Catholic Church in Cameroon but were rather threatened with ex-communication from the church if they persisted with their complaint.
After failing to have an account of the money they contribute in church, some parishioners issued tracts, calling for what they termed "Operation 5 Francs" during alms.This means that all of them should be putting only FCFA 5 each in the offertory basket.
The campaign was blown open when Fr. Befe's successor, Fr. Clement Binzi took over office.The Post learnt that Fr. Binzi struggled in vain to let the then secretary cum bursar of the parish, Mrs. Josepha, to render proper account of the church funds.
In the heat of the brouhaha, Fr. Binzi was transferred out of the parish as he attempted to sack the compromising scribe.The scribe later resigned after the parishioners multiplied tracts that read: "Josepha must go: she is no longer the parish secretary."
The parishioners are now asking for an audited account of all money collected in the parish during the last three years. They want a resident priest; preferably an Anglophone.Any parish priest appointed, they say, should have complete authority over his parish without any external interference. He should work in very close collaboration with the laity, viz parish council, economic council and church groups, they emphasised.
Besides, they want the parish's economic council to be responsible and accountable for all income and expenditure of the parish. They are also calling for the dissolution of the parish council for fresh and democratic elections to be conducted.The Christians want that all gifts from the offertory processions should be auctioned immediately after mass.
Welcome to the world of indifference and silent strong-hand management. To those who think bilingualism is a modus operandi in Cameroon, let them think again. In a country that operates two major seminaries with one each linguistic location of the country, you would think the church will do better than the corrupt government that runs the country, a parish that is supposed to run an anglophone population is actually handed to a francophone. Thats just marvelous. Even in God's house in Cameroon, corruption and marginalization are glorified. And you think Christ would have a better chance running Cameroon? Think again.
Posted by: Che Sunday | Sunday, 14 December 2008 at 06:47 PM