AFRICA/CAMEROON - "To seek the common good" urges the President of the Episcopal Conference in the face of growing tensions

Thursday, 17 September 2020 elections   bishops  

Yaoundé (Agenzia Fides) - "For some time our Country no longer lives in the perspective of its progress, but in growing chaos. The effects of this creeping chaos are easily visible in our cities and villages: they derive, in large part, from the weakness of government mechanisms", denounces His Exc. Mgr. Abraham Boualo Kome, Bishop of Bafang and President of the Bishops' Conference of Cameroon, in a statement sent to Agenzia Fides. Mgr. Kome expresses concern over "the refusal to entrust our Country to an electoral process capable of expressing responsible leadership in the face of the majority that voted for it".
In Cameroon there is growing intolerance for a political system dominated by President Paul Biya, in power since November 1982. In view of the regional elections on December 6, the opposition has called for a series of demonstrations throughout the Country on September 22, to ask for a new electoral law and the resolution of the Anglophone crisis that has raged since 2016 in the North-West and South-West regions.
Mgr. Kome says that several faithful have asked him if it is appropriate to participate in these events. "My mission as a religious leader consists in highlighting the situations of this world starting from transversal values", replies the Bishop of Bafang in his message. "Why has the current governance produced such a deterioration in mentality and social well-being? Because it did not remind itself and others what it means to "exist". We are not made to worry about ourselves, but to build the good of those around us. This is what Christ Jesus did by abandoning his heavenly comfort and offering his life for the love of his creature, so that he/she might be saved".
"From this current state of affairs we must realize that we have managed to avoid the demands of "existing" and, in doing so, we have become men without humanity", emphasizes Mgr. Kome. "The most decisive, but not exclusive, revolution for our society today consists in teaching our children that man is not made for the comfort of his/her personal satisfaction, but for the mesmerizing gift of himself/herself at the service of the common good". And "the common good, according to the social doctrine of the Church, constitutes the highest goal that every society must seek". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 17/9/2020)


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