*Accuse him of highhandedness,
*Allege excesses in
Church Administration
*Diocesan Chancellor regrets leak of Memo to the press
By Christopher Ambe
 |
| Bishop Bushu:His Leadership under criticism |
The Association of Diocesan Priests (ADP) of Buea Diocese has
risen up against their Chief Shepherd, Bishop Immanuel Bushu Banlanjo, barely
falling short of describing him as a devil in cassock, in a strongly worded
six-page memorandum, addressed to him.
The memo is copied to
His Excellency Piero Pioppo, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial
Guinea, the President of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPE) and
the Provincial Chairman of the Association of Diocesan Priests.
The bashing of Bishop Bushu by his own priests has come as a
surprise, especially as many Christians and critical observers describe him not
only as a true Man of God, but also as a committed development agent, considering
the many development projects he has initiated in the Diocese since taking over
as Chief Shepherd, in 2007.
In the memo dated 2nd October 2012 and reportedly signed
by Rev.Fr John Tchamnda (ADP chair) for and on behalf of the Buea Diocesan ADP,
the priests allege that the administration of Mgr. Bushu since he replaced
Bishop Pius Awa, in January 2007 is high-handed.
Although the memo was said to be confidential, it has been
leaked to the press.
“Among many things, we have found your administration of the Diocese
to be high-handed, and we’ve the impression that it is vindictive, divisive and
leading both priests and the laity to be scandalized that some of our excesses
in Church Administration are worse than those seen in the very corrupt
government of our country,” the priests note in the memo.
The memo was drafted in an extraordinary meeting of the ADP
aimed at taking stock of Bishop’s stewardship. The meeting was provoked by
controversial appointments made on September 28 2012, by Mgr.Bushu, barely
three months after the College of Consultors sat and worked conscientiously
through the list of priests to be appointed or transferred, The Recorder
learned.
The Bishop House in Small Soppo-Buea has strongly regretted that
the memo has been leaked.
When this inquisitive reporter
on Monday October 22 met Rev. Fr. Evaristus Nkede, the Diocesan Chancellor and
showed him the leaked memo, in his office at the Bishop’s House to cross check
if the Bishop received such a document, the Reverend Father- looking embarrassed, acknowledged he did but wondered why and how such a sensitive
document could have gone public.
“The memo was not intended for public consumption, if it were
we could have got it published ourselves,” Rev.Fr Nkede told The Recorder,
regretting: “It is unfortunate that this occurred.”
Other priests The Recorder had earlier spoken to about the
leaked memo and shown it to them, admitted the document is authentic, but
declined commenting on its contents.
“Since you are already
here, I advise that you get the reaction of the Bishop or his Secretary”, a priest
told this reporter on Sunday, October 21, at Bishop Rogan College, when The
Recorder first attempted to get the reaction of the Bishop’s House.
Efforts by this reporter to meet Bishop Bushu himself on
Monday were futile. The Diocesan Chancellor said His Lordship was very busy.
“Even If you meet him, he would not like to talk about the memo. I know how he
feels about it”, Rev. Fr Nkede said, adding that after receipt of the document Mgr.
Bushu convened a meeting to that effect. But Rev. Fr Nkede did not give details
about the meeting.
Also, all attempts by The Recorder to reach Rev.Fr John
Tchamnda, the ADP chair who allegedly signed the memo on behalf of the Diocesan
priests, by phone, failed.
The priests, in the memo, regretted that Mgr.Bushu has been
unable or unwilling to stop infighting and struggle for power among priests,
which has led to back-stabbing and back-biting, despite the fact that his
attention has been brought to it. They allege that the bishop has made “some priests in the
Diocese untouchable and has introduced positions hitherto unknown in the Diocese in the Ecclesiastical Province
and the Universal Church to establish their authority and give them freedom to
do as they choose with Church property and the lives of fellow-priests
“You have introduced a two-class system in the presbyterium
where some priests are high and others are low-class. The high-class priests
can do whatever they like and receive your protection, and their “jobs” have
become their vocation, so that even the celebration of holy mass and the Sacraments,
their primary calling, is relegated to the background. This is done apparently
with your blessing as you don’t know where the celebrate Holy Mass and the
Sacraments”
The memo notes that Bishop moves priests around as if the
Diocese has no direction. “In fact, we don’t know where we are going in the
area of pastoral ministry, education, communication and others. Priests are
moved in to one function today and changed the next day; others are dismissed
for apparently flouting Diocesan rules and re-established the next day…” they
allege.
They draw Bishop’s attention to this: “The Code of canon Law
outlines the procedures of the movement of Parish priest and the recent
Complementary Code for the Church in Cameroon, approved by the National
Episcopal Conference even makes the mandate for parish priests, at least six
years before they can be move. The word consultation hardly exists in your
administrative vocabulary and you throw down heavy appointments on priests
without even telling them or giving them specific assignments as to why they
take up their appointments. How can we follow the Provincial pastoral Plan in
this Machiavellian style and government? ”
Bishop Bushu is accused, in the memo, of being insensitive to
the needs of priests in many areas and “we feel that you are not the “Father”
you are supposed to be for us”. They allege that he has not been visiting
priests who are sick and hospitalized and those traumatized by armed robbers -as
well as not inviting wayward priests for advice as a father would do to his
sons.
The memo raises concern about Retired Bishop Awa. “Your
insensitivity and lack of empathy come out strongly in the way you treat Bishop
Awa,” they write, noting that “we were shocked when you did not even mention
his name during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the
Diocese and when you were praised for doing in three years what Bishop Awa did
not do in 30 year, and you took the vain glory. You even forgot to introduce
him when you were introducing the Bishops present” They regret that Bishop Awa
does not even have a good car.
They accuse Bishop Bushu of floating projects here and there
whereas the Church has little or no means to fully realize them. Hear them: “There
have been too many projects initiated in the Diocese and it is becoming clearer
with the passing of each day that we cannot manage these projects all at
once.We simply do not have the financial resources necessary to carry out the se
projects. We have started schools which we cannot finish building and littered
our colleges with semi-permanent or half-finished buildings”
The memo alleges that funding of some projects like the
University Institute is wrapped in mystery.
The priests question why Bishop Bushu signs contracts on
behalf of the Diocese involving huge sums of money without consulting the curia
and without consulting Diocesan lawyers.
“ These include
contracts signed with Architect Paul Ekema,for which he is now taking us to law and claiming over two billion Francs CFA, as well as contracts with Platinum and Professor Nkafu
which are costing us a lot in monetary terms”
The priests allege that, by so doing Bishop Bushu is being
insensitive to the needs of Christians who have strained every nerve to raise
money for their Diocese and who are now complaining that “we talk/preach more
about money in our Churches these days than we do about God”.
In the memo, Bishop Bushu is warned not to treat the Church
as if he were the owner and treat priests as if they were page boys and slaves.
“The Church belongs to Christ and we are priests of Jesus Christ, not slaves of
the Bishop”, they warn.
Hear the priests: “There are certain priests in the Diocese
who must be in control of everything that matters. So one person is
Pro-Chancellor and the same time Interim President of the University Institute
of the Diocese of Buea (UIDB),Bishop’s Delegate in charge of missions with Government
and the external world, as if there is no one else in the Diocese who can
handle that post. The same priest is known by us to be very influential in the
appointments and transfers of priests in this Diocese, especially his friends
who he controls and manipulates to gain his own interest.
“He has therefore influenced the appointment of the Education
Secretary and has also brought the St.Thomas Aquinas Catholic Bookshop under
his control.
“In the same vein, a priest is appointed to the post of
President of university Institute, who left for a Doctorate Degree in Rome less
than a year ago and who has not put in one year of course work yet. The
Pro-Chancellor, who was removed from UIDB less than two years, has bounced back
and now both the education Secretariat and the Bookshop are in the hands of the
only person matters in this Diocese”
The memo says “Many of
our priests and the laity believe that the Bishop’s delegate has cast a spell
over him. Things are never the same in the diocese when he is around. Something
must go wrong. Some of us the priests were happy with the May 14th,
2012 transfers but we suspected that as soon as the Delegate returned there
would be changes. We have been proved right”
The Bishop’s transfers are described in the memo as rash and inhuman,
and the priests have asked the Bishop to recall his transfer list and should
call a meeting as soon a s possible of the College of Consultors to discuss
this in detail before implementation.
They concluded the memo by calling on priests of the Diocese
to work together to “re-establish unity and peace that once reigned in the
Diocese. They recommended the dissolution of the Board of Trustees of UIDB at
home and abroad, and a reconstitution according to the statutes of the
university.
First published in The
Recorder Newspaper, Cameroon, of October 25, 2012
1 comment:
God bless the church
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