Boniface Forbine, publisher/editor of the herald newspaper has encouraged Christian Cardinal Tumi –
“One of the little known but significant points of the Pope’s recent visit to Cameroon was the Pontiff’s encouragement of closer relations between Paul Biya and Christian Tumi”, Forbin argued, adding, “no doubt, a working relationship between the president and the highest moral and spiritual leader of the Catholic Church in Cameroon can only be for the benefit of the country”. The publisher in his latter advanced pertinent points spiced with strong arguments to support the need for this new relationship between the lone Cardinal in the Christian dominated Country and president Biya.
It should be noted here that relationship between both men had been strained due to the Cardinal's open criticism of the Biya regime noted for corruption, human rights abuse, and bad governance. On this score Tumi, who doubles as Bishop of the arch diocese of
Full text of Forbin’s letter below
Dear Cardinal Christian Tumi
We of the herald newspaper are much delighted to write you this letter at this time and to wish you well. Since we raise a wide number of issues of interest to the general public we have chosen to keep it open for our readers as well.
We have also timed our letter now, shortly after the visit of the Pope, because the issues raised are related to the visit, while it is still fresh in our thoughts.
The visit was an overall success and made our early fears unfounded. The government deserves much praise for the success even though it went about it as to give the impression of wanting to politicize the visit. Happily it did not.
On the contrary, it was the Pope that did not conceal his awareness of the doubtful governance in
You will agree with us, Cardinal, that with that statement, the Pope provided an unequivocal response to the
The Pope actually meant that you are on the right track with your critical outspokenness about the many errors of the regime.
We note furthermore that in that same arrival address the Pope placed your good self in the lofty position that is rightfully yours. It was you he called right after the president and his government on his protocol list.
The Pope thereby conveyed the fact that, as cardinal, you are the highest moral and spiritual authority of the Catholic Church in
Under-esteemed
Regrettably, the Cameroonian society is still heavily dominated by the state. It is not surprising that those who do not agree with the government tend to be under-esteemed.
Cardinal, after giving you that unqualified backing at the airport, we have had cause to believe that the Pope was nevertheless concerned about the fact that you and Paul Biya are so wide apart that you do not even meet to exchange views on public affairs.
We understand that it was the Pope’s greatest desire to reconcile the two of you and get you both working together for the betterment of
Who are we after the Pope has done it? You know only too well that Cameroonians also would prefer some working relationship between you and the president. Having turned down popular demand to stand for president Cameroonians do not think your complete disconnection with the government is in anyway helpful.
Paul Biya has never hidden the fact that he would like to consult you on certain issues. But, as you know, he has been unable to do so. He is so scared of you! We thank the Pope for taking the initiative of encouraging you both to rethink your relations and forge a working relationship.
We want to urge you, Cardinal, in honour of the Pope’s desire and also for the rightness of it, to take the initiative and ask for audience with the president, to get the ball rolling.
As a long-serving priest you surely are close enough to human nature, how frail and fragile it is, more so than it appears. Even the most important people are often very much in need of understanding; emotional support and spiritual help.
Observe Paul Biya, for instance, how shifty and untrustworthy he has been. He affirms or promises a thing today and by tomorrow he has changed his mind! He even finds it strange that anyone should question him over the promise he made! Don’t we learn right in primary school that a promise is a debt and that we should think twice in making any?
Take the question of justice which the Pope dwelt repeatedly on. Again, we all learn from infancy at home and at primary school how to share sweets, macara beans, puff-puff etc equally among ourselves, making sure that no one is cheated.
Isn’t that the same lesson of respecting other people and conceding their rights as a matter of course that we carry into adulthood – in business and all other transactions?
Yet these two basic qualities of justice in sharing public goods, and making and keeping promises Paul Biya is still grossly wanting. It would be correct to say that we are ruled by an emotionally, or spiritually immature adult.
Prayerful assistance
Cardinal, wouldn’t you consider that Paul Biya is actually in great need of help, your help, and your prayerful assistance? Wouldn’t the Cardinal agree with us that the president is in great need of spiritual support? That in no way absolves him of his spiritual responsibility.
All this is just a long hand way of making our point, like the Pope, that it is time to move your relations with the president forward towards a more productive arrangement. We think Paul Biya would only be happy to receive you and also move away from the past that is sometimes nastier than some of your admirers would prefer.
Indeed some of the Cardinal’s bashing of the president is so thoroughgoing and unsparing that it evokes the feeling of the baby having been thrown away with the bath!
New Year’s Day homily was particularly stern and unpardoning. It was an expression of hopelessness for
Who knows whether instead of waiting for so long for the Pope, Paul Biya wouldn’t have turned but to the Cardinal for his confession and revival? Shouldn’t that be the new goal – to develop a relationship of such high trust that it is to the Cardinal that Paul Biya, a born-again Catholic, goes for confession?
Dear Cardinal, the Pope’s visit announced a period of discussion with a view to revising the church in
Priestly training, to begin with, seems very much in want of programmes of leadership and business management. Extensive academic studies in philosophy and theology may be intellectually stimulating but hardly lend themselves to practical use. Instruction in virtuous and exemplary living is, surprisingly, taken for granted, whereas it ought to receive overwhelming emphasis. There is absolute need for training in fundamental human values.
The problem of celibacy is in urgent need of drastic review. Cameroonian priests cannot keep that law. That seems also to be applicable to Africans elsewhere. There seems to be a good case for making an exception for the Church in
The Church’s hostility to the use of condoms as a means of preventing AIDS definitely needs to be reviewed, if for no where else, for
Abstinence campaigns
On the contrary, the Church’s position in favour of abstinence is defendable when applied to youngsters who have not begun their sex life. Surveys by faith-based groups in the
But a British government campaign of condom distribution among secondary school girls with the intention of checking teenage pregnancy did not help. The problem only exploded!
Part of the Church’s problem with its moral teaching is in trying to manage the lives of its members instead of keeping to moral principles and letting individuals apply them in a living manner in their varying circumstances. This would appear to be closer to Christ when you read the Sermon on the Mount. This approach also frees people’s consciences.
As we write this letter Italians across the nation are outraged by a Catholic bishop who excommunicated a doctor for terminating the pregnancy of a nine-year old girl. She was pregnant with twins after being abused by her stepfather. She didn’t even know she was pregnant when she began feeling abdominal discomfort.
The doctor believes sincerely that he did the right thing by acting to save the baby-mother’s life after she had been raped. The bishop’s authority as a moral leader is, of course, gone forever!
The Church would do a lot better to focus on general moral principles and let individuals apply them as their consciences guide them. That way people are truly and freely responsible for their own spiritual salvation. We believe this is the direction the revamped African church should take.
The issue of the new Pentecostal Churches that focus on making religion directly relevant to the churchgoer is not to be taken lightly. They do this by focusing on miracles and the power of prayer. Church session are lively, participatory and refreshing, a welcome departure from the drabness of the older religions. That is what is drawing the crowds from the older traditional churches.
The idea is not for the Catholics to run after the Pentecostals but to draw useful lessons from them in order to adapt the Church to be more helpful to the Christian in quest of a life ever more abundant.
We already made observations above about priestly training. We want to note further that Christ did not teach a theology or a philosophy; he taught practical principles of a truly happy, peaceful and productive life (I have come to give you life, and life in abundance).
The telling experience of Thomas Aquinas, a highly respected Father of the Church, makes one wonder if in fact intellectual learnedness in theology and philosophy renders one anymore godly.
The great medieval philosopher and Catholic theologian had a profound spiritual experience one day while in church for his evening prayers. Shaken by what occurred to him he told his personal assistant afterwards that his experience had made his life’s work look like «a reed in the wind.»
Summa Theologica
He stopped all writing forthwith and went into contemplation. He died shortly afterwards in his 49th/50th year. Aquinas was a neo-Aristotelian who had written a seven-volume work on Catholic thought, the «Summa Theologica.» To his credit was also a multi-volume «Summa contra Gentiles,» a work he did to defend the Church and his country,
Why would all that steeply intellectual work still is of value to the Church when its own author dismissed it as nothing following an experience that made him perceive spirituality much better and differently?
At a much later age the Prussian philosopher, Imanuel Kant, came to the same conclusion, which provoked his monumental work, «A Critique of Pure Reason» in which he argues for the limitation of the intellect in approaching spiritual knowledge and values.
Kant thus courted the anger of the Church and especially the wrath of King Frederick of
Cardinal, would it be too much, to ask the Church to reduce its intellectualism and focus on how to render religion a practical experience for daily living? The argument against religious intellectualism holds true for the very complex liturgy of the Catholic Church. Did Christ teach any of that?
To close this letter, we urge the Church to redefine itself in the sense of limiting the scope of its involvement. Last year the current Pope was forced to apologise over Galileo who was condemned by the Church in the middle ages because he used a crude telescope and made observations about the universe that challenged the views of the Church on the matter.
Time was when the Catholic Church was the only church. The Pope had both spiritual and temporal powers. The world has since very much evolved and human thinking has changed very much. Since the 16th century reformation, religion has undergone several more reformations.
The human being of today wants to be independent and to be free of all constraints. The classical values of only fifty years or less ago have been rendered obsolete. Freedom in dressing, dancing, sex, manners, religious worship, etc is the new world order. But that new freedom is coming with a crisis. (See «The coming Crisis of humanity» by Alvin Tofler)
Regrettably, humanity is overwhelmed by more of every evil and disease. There are also previously unimaginable evils and diseases that have compounded the unhappy fate of mankind.
The Pentecostal Churches can only afford quick fixes. It is doubtful that they will substantially address the present human crisis. But it seems that far more than the other churches they are the ones that come closer to providing the band aid that grants temporary satisfaction.
Their strengths lie in being devoid of a theology, a liturgy and an ecclesiastical hierarchy. They focus on the word of Christ, and no more. We think the Catholic Church must summon the courage to drop much of the ballast it drags along which renders it less and less relevant and attractive to the spiritual seeker.
Thank you Cardinal. The Herald wishes you well.
Yours truly
Boniface Forbin
Publisher/Editor
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