Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Yaounde (Fides Service)- “The history of the Church in Cameroon is a detailed testimony of women religious from 1892 to our day” says rev. Boniface Bouobda, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Cameroon who gives a brief history of the presence of women religious in his country.
“German Pallottine Sisters worked in all the parishes Douala, Dschang, Einsielden, Engelbert, Kribi and Marienberg. Then came the Sisters of Divine Providence from Münster also from Germany. These Sisters taught in schools, prepared couples for matrimony and cared for the sick and young mothers and their babies.
Between 1915 and 1916, four Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of took over Douala Hospital. They were replaced later by Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the 1920s, at the request of the ecclesiastical authorities of the time, one of these sisters, Sister Bernadette Clément, formed the first 5 Cameroon born Sisters including Sister Anna and Sister Marie of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of Yaounde.
In 1939 another local institute was founded, the Sister Servants of Our Lady of Douala, and in 1941 the Daughters of the Holy Family of Nkongsamba (today Bafoussam).
Sisters of various congregations work in every diocese discreetly and silently animating movements and associations such as Catholic Action, organising catechesis, instruction for children, caring for the sick. They are agents of communion and development and guarantee the Church’s presence for those most in need: street children the sick, unmarried mothers, widows etc… Sisters also promote the conditions of women and give support to Christian families, working side by side with priests, men religious and catechists.
The importance of their role is confirmed every day with the arrival of members of new congregations or the forming of a new diocesan congregation in one of the 23 dioceses in Cameroon.
The national office of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Cameroon is very grateful to Sisters who work in the offices. Therefore women religious are a precious and irreplaceable resource for the Church in Cameroon”. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 12/1/2006 righe 34 parole 383)
