Meeting with the Ecclesial Community in the Yaounde Cathedral

On Saturday, 10 August 1985, the Holy Father met with the ecclesial community in the Yaoundé Cathedral (Cameroon). The Pope addressed individually priests, religious and catechists and those involved in a lay apostolate, speaking of the diversity of gifts.

Praise be to God!

1. He has called you, dear brothers and sisters of Cameroon, to form, in this country, a people consecrated to him, to become, you too, an integral part of his Church, of his people scattered throughout the universe. He has always chosen you in his plan of love. He has predestined you to reproduce the image of his Son, so that he may be the first of a multitude. He has sanctified you (cf. Ordo Consecrationis Professorum ).

Thus I greet with affection the Church that is in Yaoundé, in this diocese, in this province and in all of Cameroon. And with you I give thanks to God.

Of course, the inhabitants of this country have never ceased to be in the mind of God; you have always been the object of his love, since "at all times and in every nation everyone who fears him and does his righteousness is acceptable to God" ( Lumen gentium , 9). This is also true for your compatriots who profess another faith. But evangelization has enabled you to know God better according to the truth - as has been verified in my country, Poland, as in all countries - from those who have already had the grace to receive him, and who therefore come from elsewhere, from Churches already established. The Church has developed from the companions of Jesus whom he himself designated as apostles and from their other followers, from generation to generation. Our gratitude also goes to the missionaries who, in 1890, and without stopping since then, have come to share the treasure of faith and to found the apostolic Church here. You yourselves have welcomed this Gospel as the good news from God. And it did not take long, like a vigorous seed, to bear fruit among all those who adhered to it in faith and were baptized. In less than a century - and for some regions in a quarter of a century - the Church has become firmly established in a significant part of the Cameroonian population; priests, bishops, men and women religious, and committed lay people have been called among you to guide and animate this Church, with the fraternal help of their predecessors in the faith. Successor of the Apostle Peter, surrounded by my brother bishops, I come for the first time to visit this Church in Cameroon, to recognize it, to confirm it in the faith, to consolidate its necessary bond with the universal Church, to affirm its spiritual impetus and to encourage its missionary dynamism, respectful of persons and cultures.

2. In this Church you exercise different responsibilities, you have received various gifts, but I would first of all underline what you have in common. “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who works all of them in everyone” ( 1 Cor 12:4-6). In the one people of God, there is no room for “any inequality based on race or nation, social condition or sex” (cf. Lumen gentium , 32). You have accepted the same faith of the Church which has revealed to you the same love of the Father for each one. You have received the same Baptism which has brought you into new life through the death and resurrection of Christ and which has made you members of his mystical body. You participate in the same Holy Spirit who makes you his temple.

You have been adopted by God as sons and daughters and are constantly sanctified by the same sacraments; in particular, you participate in the same Eucharist to offer yourselves with Christ and to receive the bread of life which is his most holy body; you approach the same source of forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation. You possess in germ eternal life, called to be realized in heaven. You have the same destiny. In the "dignity and freedom of the children of God" (cf. ibid ., 9) you are called from now, through different ways and conditions of life, to the same holiness, to the same perfection as Peter (cf. ibid ., 11). The essential value is, in every person, his response to grace, the holiness that only God knows in full light. Prayer and charity are the foundation of your Christian life. You constitute - as St. Peter already said - "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people" ( 1 Pt 2:9). And you have every honor and duty to contribute to building the Church and to bear witness in the world in which Providence has placed you.

There must be, therefore, among you, a great esteem, “a charity without division” (cf. Lumen gentium 32); practice active help and cooperation, as between members of the same body, the body of Christ. And thank God incessantly for the unheard-of gifts he has given to each of you. Let us often repeat the words of the psalm you have chosen: “Thanks to you, infinite thanks”.

3. But in the Church, as in the body, the members do not all have the same function and the same vocation. Their diversity does not only reflect the reality of civil society in which not all have the same abilities, the same responsibilities. It comes from the very mystery of the Church, which receives its powers with divine grace, from another, from Christ; its members receive their charisms as free gifts of the Holy Spirit who, through them, rejuvenates, renews and continually expands ecclesial life. Yaoundé Cathedral (Cameroon) "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" ( 1 Cor 12:7). Not all are called to sell their possessions to follow Christ, like the rich young man in the Gospel, but all are called to make their life a gift.

4. I greeted my brothers in the episcopate whom I will meet again during this journey. Here I would like to address myself first of all to the priests who share so closely their mission, the mission of Christ the Priest, the only Mediator between God and men.

Dear priest friends of Cameroon, you have been chosen from among the men of this country, you know well their concerns, their hopes, their weaknesses; you are in solidarity with their culture and their ethnicity. It is in their name that you give thanks to God and that you implore him. But, through priestly ordination, you have become the ministers of Christ; you represent him, him, the head of the Church and his body, him, the author of salvation and the source of all grace. You proclaim his word, you work in his name to offer his sacrifice, to give his bread of life, to transmit his forgiveness; all gifts of God that the Christian people cannot produce by themselves, because they receive them from above. Your mission is sublime and indispensable. You must ceaselessly, in all humility, give thanks to God for the trust he has placed in you. Your ministry also deserves that you devote all your time and all your strength to it, because Christ, who looked at you with love, like the rich young man, and said to you “follow me”, has not called you to return to profane activities that are not related to evangelization. It is for this purpose that you must organize and regulate together and with your faithful the important questions of the material sustenance of priests, because the kingdom of God requires full-time harvesters, requires fishers of men devoted body and soul to their mission, that is, with a shared heart.

You have become shepherds in the Church following the Good Shepherd, that is, charged with gathering the people entrusted to you, loving them and serving them without making preferential distinctions between rich and poor, adults and children, healthy and handicapped people, men of another race or another social class. You represent among them not only the authority of the head, attentive to each and servant of all. You are also the shepherds concerned for the lost sheep, the distant ones, those who are far away or who are not yet part of this flock because they have not truly discovered the Gospel. You are all in a state of mission, like the entire Church.

We will speak of all this again tomorrow, when it is time to ordain your young brothers. But I already pray to the Lord to make you always available for his work, in full and exclusive love for him, and to keep you entirely in solidarity with his Church; I ask him to make you holy and to keep you in his peace and his joy. And I also ask this for the permanent deacons who are beginning to offer this Church a very appreciable service.

5. My encouragement also goes to the seminarians of the major seminaries, the adult seminaries and the minor seminaries. Each province has wanted to provide itself with these instruments of formation for the priesthood, and this is truly important for the future of your country.

Dear young people or adults who are preparing for the priesthood directly or who plan to do so in the future, you are aware of the greatness and beauty of the mission that awaits you. You will not be surprised, therefore, if the Church - which ultimately decides whether to admit you to orders - shows itself demanding for your formation: cultural formation, which should not be underestimated in a society that increasingly invites its children to intellectual effort; deepening of theological studies that must familiarize you with all the doctrine of the Church developed in the course of history and confirmed by the Magisterium; meditation on Sacred Scripture and formation in prayer; or again, discipline of life that prepares you for the control of your affectivity, for the gift of yourselves, for constancy in work; and, of course, apostolic formation.

We count on you, on all your abilities, to lead to Jesus Christ a Cameroonian people who ardently desire their integral development, but who can often be disturbed by all that is imposed by a technical civilization in which the religious sense fades; this development can also be tempted by a certain return to paganism, or seduced by various forms of false religiosity. The Ratio nationalis institutionis sacerdotalis , developed by your bishops and your leaders, traces interesting and safe paths for the preparation of priests. I hope that you will travel this difficult but exhilarating path with your teachers. Be courageous and confident, draw support from the friendship of Christ who gives you the grace to call you to his service.

6. And now I turn to you, dear men and women religious of Cameroon who have come here to respond to a missionary vocation, or who are originally from this country. You too have a privileged place in this Church. You render unparalleled services to her in a great number of pastoral tasks linked to parishes or in the field of teaching, education of the young, care of the sick, assistance to the poor of every condition. With your competence, you offer total availability, especially since you do not have a personal family to support. But more profoundly, by your very existence as religious, you bear witness to the kingdom of God as Jesus described it in the Beatitudes, to the future kingdom which has its beginning of realization in this land. You consecrate yourselves entirely to this. And what animates you in this demanding life is the joy of imitating Jesus, chaste, poor, obedient; it is the will to live the radicalism of these calls; it is the gratuitous love that you bring him. As St. Peter said to the first Christians: “You love him, though you have not seen him; and now, though you do not see him, you believe in him. Therefore you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, while you receive the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” ( 1 Pt 1:8-9).

This gratuitous love finds a very special expression in the cloistered monks and nuns who, secluded in the monasteries of this country, dedicate their lives to praise and intercession, on behalf of all their brothers and sisters. These contemplatives serve the glory of God, secretly feeding the flame of the Church; I know that these monasteries are also represented here.

All of you, men and women religious, are associated in a special way with the redemption of Christ; with him you offer your person as a living host (cf. Rom 12:1), imitating the love which, in the heart of Christ, is both redeeming and nuptial and inaugurates a new life of alliance with God through his sacrifice. You know that last year, in the exhortation Redemptionis donum , I developed these themes for you.

This way of following Christ guides the men of religious congregations, of active or contemplative life, priests and brothers. But my thoughts are especially turned to the institutes of men and women, since eighteen religious are preparing to make their temporary or perpetual profession: Servants of Mary of Douala - Cameroonians and Congolese - Daughters of Mary of Yaoundé; Sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus of Buea; Franciscan Tertiary Sisters of Brixen. Religious life and all forms of consecrated life are a great gift that God gives to this country, a sign of evangelical maturity. At the same time, I congratulate the religious who have come from other countries; they have brought, yesterday and today, a testimony that has undoubtedly been decisive for the blossoming of new vocations and new Cameroonian congregations.

Dear sisters, the ceremony you are about to experience is an expression of your commitment. You are committing yourselves to a life in which your whole being is consecrated to Christ, to serve him in his brothers and sisters. You must renew this availability interiorly every day. The congregation will help you, it will provide you with the framework of your life of perfect chastity, poverty and sharing, of self-denial; it will not replace your personal vigilance; you will be responsible for the lamp that, like the wise virgins of the Gospel, you will have to keep lit as you go to meet the Spouse. But do not be afraid! We will ask for God's mercy; it will be He who will support you with the charity of your sisters.

By handing over the cross to the temporary professed, I will invite them to dedicate themselves without reserve to Christ; and by handing over the ring to the perpetually professed, I will say to them: “From this moment, you are the bride of Christ”. May he be your strength and your joy along your path! May he also grant you the spiritual fruitfulness of your life dedicated to the Church.

7. “Each receives the gift of manifesting the Spirit for the good of all”. I now turn to the catechists. I know that there are more than ten thousand of you throughout Cameroon. Without your ecclesial service, dear friends, how could the evangelical message entrusted to the apostles and pastors be effectively proclaimed in the communities of villages and neighborhoods? How could it be translated, explained and progressively assimilated into the culture of Cameroonians, adults or young people? How could patient preparation for the sacraments be ensured? How could faith be sustained day by day, how could it be realized in prayer and in concrete life? You have a capital mission as witnesses, teachers, educators. An authentic ministry is entrusted to you lay people and this obviously presupposes a close and trusting collaboration with the priests and the biblical and catechetical formation that your specialized centers help you to acquire. But, as I said to the priests, deacons, men and women religious, it is first and foremost the quality of your faith, of your prayer, of your Christian life, personal, family and professional, that will make your service to the Church fruitful, with the grace of God.

8. In addition to the catechists properly speaking, I am happy to meet here many other lay people involved in the apostolate. Dear brothers and sisters, your Baptism and Confirmation have given you the grace and responsibility of being active members of the Church and witnesses of Christ in the context of earthly tasks. The Second Vatican Council expressed this by stating that you participate in the common priesthood of the faithful, in their prophetic and royal role. Some of you help Christian communities more especially through prayer meetings and the liturgy, through teaching and education in a Christian perspective, or even through the charitable assistance needed by the sick or the poor of every kind in the parish. But you are also called to be witnesses of Christ, of his justice, his charity, his truth, his purity in the midst of the world, to contribute to the conversion of men to a better life, to the transformation of mentalities and also to the regulation of the structures of social life which are the fruit of these mentalities or which influence them. Only at this price will it be possible to carry out in depth what can be defined as the second stage of evangelization.

The terrain of such action is first of all the family environment: there is still much to be done to help spouses to live conjugal and parental love, to prepare themselves as befits Christians, overcoming the handicaps that certain traditional institutions or certain modern temptations weigh on sincerity, unity and fidelity of love. We will speak about this again in Bamenda. I am also thinking of the different realities of professional life that must be inspired increasingly by justice, honesty, courage, so that no one is harmed and so that the common good is guaranteed. The youth, so numerous in this country, the youth who study, the youth who work in urban businesses or in the countryside, need above all to be helped in their Christian reflection and in their action, in the face of social changes; because often faith, the sense of human relationships, attachment to the family, attachment to work are threatened.

I know that the JAC, the JEC, the JOC, the Catholic Action for Children, the Legion of Mary, the Catholic Action of the Focolare, the various confraternities are active; the movements - these and others - can seriously contribute to the deepening and perseverance of the apostolate. But the appeal and the trust of the Church are addressed to all the baptized, whether or not organized in movements. It is not a question of imposing our needs on other citizens, but of bearing witness to them, of freely stimulating their inclination and desire, so that they contribute to forming a more human society where moral and spiritual values ​​have their rightful place. Jesus said to his disciples and I repeat it to you today: you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, you are the yeast that must leaven all the dough.

9. Dear brothers and sisters, all members of the body of Christ, each of you has your vocation, your role in the Church and in the world. Carry it out with conviction and fervor: your salvation and that of others depends on it. Carry it out with humility, because it is a calling and a gift from God and we all carry this treasure in vessels of clay, with our share of the weakness of the men who surround us and the seduction of the Evil One who is in us. Carry it out also with boldness, trust and joy, because the Lord is with you and will always support you if you remain faithful.

Let us lean on the rock of faith: after Peter's profession of faith, which recognized Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, the Lord said to him: "You are the rock on which I will build my Church". I have come, in his name, to confirm you in this faith. Let us resort to prayer without ceasing.

May all our actions be inspired by charity, which sums up the whole law. Let us make our life a gift to God and a service to our brothers: through this gift of ourselves, men will be able to better recognize God. Let us follow the example of Mary, she is the model of faith and availability. I am happy to know that the cathedral that welcomes us is dedicated to Our Lady, as the cradle of evangelization in this country was dedicated to her with the name of Mountain of Mary, Marienberg. She, your Mother, will constantly help you to build the Church, the mystical body of her son. Amen.
 

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