Pope Benedict XVI will next March 17 come to Cameroon as part of his first pastoral visit to Africa since he became pope in April 2005, it has been confirmed. The confirmation was made January 26 during a press conference in Yaounde by the president of the National Episcopal Conference and Archbishop of Yaounde, Victor Tonye Bankot.
On arrival, President Paul Biya will gladly receive the pope at the Yaounde Airport
Picture: Pope Benedict XVI
The German-born Benedict is scheduled to have audience with President Paul Biya at Unity Pace, during which, it is widely hoped, there will be frank exchanges between the Pope and the President on matters of good governance, human rights, moral and democratic values.
The Papal visit to Cameroon is coming at a time when President Biya’s image is badly battered and soiled for socio-economic and political reasons, begging for cleansing.
The Presidency of Cameroon had earlier announced that, the Pope’s coming to Cameroon was also at the invitation of the Head of State, suggesting that President Biya, himself a staunch catholic, may, after all, want to confide in the pontiff and seek his blessings in his leadership and apparent bid to stand for reelection in 2011.
Many political pundits consider Biya’s leadership as “undemocratic and anti-people” even though the president has always claimed he is bent on modernizing and democratizing Cameroon.
The Papal visit to Cameroon is coming at a time when President Biya’s image is badly battered and soiled for socio-economic and political reasons, begging for cleansing.
The Presidency of Cameroon had earlier announced that, the Pope’s coming to Cameroon was also at the invitation of the Head of State, suggesting that President Biya, himself a staunch catholic, may, after all, want to confide in the pontiff and seek his blessings in his leadership and apparent bid to stand for reelection in 2011.
Many political pundits consider Biya’s leadership as “undemocratic and anti-people” even though the president has always claimed he is bent on modernizing and democratizing Cameroon.
Picture: Paul Biya
Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for some 26 years, for example, still got his crushing majority in Parliament last year to amend the country’s constitution, removing term limits, against popular protest at home and abroad. The move was interpreted as Biya’s intention to become life president. His current and second seven- year mandate is expected to end in 2011.Again, late last year Biya appointed several CPDM diehards as members of ELECAM and has since been widely criticized for not respecting the law which calls for the appointment of independent personalities. But the president does not seem to bother about the criticisms.
In Cameroon, the pope will also meet with bishops, Muslim authorities and celebrate an open-air mass at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde.
The Pope leaves Cameroon on March 20 for Angola’s capital, Luanda. Benedict XVI will not be the first pope to visit Cameroon in recent memory.
Pope Benedict’s predecessor Pope John Paul II had visited Cameroon twice -in 1985, and in September 1995 at the celebration phase of the African Synod.
And in his departure speech at Yaoundé airport on 16 September 1995,after his three-day visit, Pope John Paul II had called on Cameroonians “in positions of authority in public life and business… to contribute to removing the obstacles, which still impede the development that ought to benefit their compatriots”. He strongly remarked, “My visit to Cameroon has enabled me to see the many material and spiritual gifts which the Almighty God has poured out upon your country”
But despite Cameroon’s abundant natural and human resources a majority of its citizens still live in abject poverty as corruption, emblezzement of public funds by holders of public office, unemployment are at record high.
Cameroon recently emerged twice as the most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International, a Berlin –based good governance watchdog.
These social ills that are so rife in Cameroon are not unknown to Pope Benedict XVI
That is why on receiving Cameroon’s Ambassador to the Holy See last year, Pope Benedict XVI seriously warned the Biya regime to contain corruption, which has eaten deep into the fabric of this central African country
The Pope is coming to Cameroon at a time when even the country’s Catholic Church is known to be critical of the Biya regime, for not doing much to improve the lot of citizens The Catholic Church in Cameroon has in the last two decades had several of its priests murdered in mysterious circumstances, prompting the Vatican to call on the Cameroon government to carry out investigations so to prosecute the killers, but results of such probes are hardly made public.
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