By Mildred Ndum Wung Kum
In defiance of a ghost town programmed by Ambazonians, thousands of Catholic Christians turned out January 31, 2021 to witness the bestowal of the pallium on Andrew Nkea, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda.
A Christian assigned to sell hymn booklets printed for the day’s occasion spoke of two thousand five hundred copies sold out that ran in short supply.
Radio Evangelium Bamenda reported that one hundred and thirty eight priests and eight bishops filled the alter.
The turnout at the pontifical High Mass at the St Joseph Centenary Piazza for the pallium investiture was saluted as an act of faith given the multitude.
In his opening statement at the beginning of Mass, Andrew Nkea hailed the faith of Christians in the presence of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of States of the Vatican sent by Pope Francis to hand the pallium “We the people of Bamenda lack many things but one thing we don’t lack is faith. The presence here of of the people of Bamenda in such great numbers is a sure sign that their faith is greater than politics, the faith of the people of the Archdiocese of Bamenda is greater than intimidation and their presence here is a proof that the devil is a liar.”
Catholics who turned out for the pallium told Cameroon Infotrend that their presence at the Holy Mass was an act of faith.
“On my part, I brave all odds to attend the pallium investiture first of all because I wanted to receive the blessings from the Holy Father through the Cardinal Secretary of State of the Vatican city and secondly because I wanted to get the experience of the event and thirdly as a response to the invitation of our chief shepherd to come to the cathedral. All of these was because of my faith which cannot be compromised by any situation or threats.” Niba Fracis, seminarian of the Archdiocese of Bamenda noted.
“A Pallium is an Ecclesiastical Vestment presented by the Holy See upon a metropolitan Archbishop as a symbol of authority over a particular area of jurisdiction. This is always presented in Rome and this was first of its kind for me as a Catholic Christian to witness the handing of Pallium to an Archbishop, reason I had to defile all threats to be part of the history making event in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda” Said a Christian who chose to stay anonymous.
Chris Anu acting as Communication Secretary of the Ambazonian Interim Government sent a message Thursday January 28, asking Catholics to stay at home where he gave reasons that “They may deliver a message that doesn’t reflect the message we see on the ground . When we have an important guest like the cardinal visiting from the Vatican, we do not want anyone else to tell our own story for us. We want to tell our story by ourselves. Stay home and pray at home this week and choose lockdown over this Vatican visit” he said in an audio while criticizing the national Episcopal conference for being indifferent and not condemning the killing of Ambazonians.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin’s visit to Bamenda to hand the pallium to His Grace Andrew N. generated polemics with critics on one hand saying that his was a political mission to meet elements of the Biya regime. Some political minds raised fear that Pope Francis’ envoy would be ill informed on the socio political crisis affecting Bamenda, a city in Cameroon’s Northwest Region rendered restive by the struggle to carve out a separate state from the existing t unitary system of government.