On Tuesday, September 4, the Bishop of Buea, His Lordship Immanuel Balanjo Bushu, signed an injunction suspending Reverend Father James Ekwende of the Buea Diocese for a period of 12 months in accordance with Canon Law or the Codex Juris Canonici, instituted on May 19, 1918 by order of Pope Benedict XV, imposing limitations and regulations for the religious government of members of the Holy Catholic Church.Bishop Bushu, who has the obligation of fostering and safeguarding the unity of the faith and of upholding the discipline, which is common in the whole church, indicated in the official letter read to the Christians of the Cathedral Parish Small Soppo recently, by Father Bartholomew Anyawu that, Father James Ekwede was suspended because of a series of scandals and financial misappropriations threatening the image of the Universal Church.
Since his installation on January 31, 2007, Bishop Bushu has worked relentlessly to inculcate moral values of honesty, transparency and love for one another within the community of the Buea Diocese.
In the same letter signed by the Bishop Bushu, the hitherto suspended Father was ordered to leave the Presbytery and take refuge anywhere he likes, accounting for all his responsibilities.
The church will, however, ensure the health care of Father Ekwede since his case is now pending.
All the Christians of the Diocese of Buea have been warned not to approach Father Ekwede to administer any of the Sacraments of the Church.
And because this is a truly heartbreaking story, Bishop Bushu called on the Christians to remain prayerful with the hope that this may give rise to a new drive of sanctity in the Diocese.
Even though it is a fact that the Church is holy and sinful at the same time, its recent problems, now described as the Catholic disgrace, has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many. The story of Father Ekwede is just one of the many ills transforming the Holy Catholic Church into the Sinful Catholic Church.
Only last April, Bishop Bushu signed a letter calling on the religious men and women of his Diocese to avoid misusing church funds. The issue of money constantly being mentioned in the Catholic Church now serves as a push factor to some Christians as the church's financial demands have sky-rocketed.
The annoyance against the Catholic Church seems to be getting more and more compounded with some church leaders being a source of shame to the Universal Catholic Church.
Presently, there is fire on the mountain as some executive members of the Parish Council of Small Soppo are greatly being criticised for their style of leadership and the ugly things they do.
The story is bitter but it must be told before things get out of hand. The fight pitting virtue against vice is a perennial conflict in the Catholic Church.
Some Christians now see Father James Ekwede as the rejected stone, failing to understand that he is simply the microcosm of a macrocosm. With all these facts portraying the present-day misfortune of the Catholic Church, we are comforted by the philosophy that Christ came to save sinners, the outcast of the world and the hopeless cases.
The Catholic Church has always resisted the temptation of rigorous Christians that sinners and pagans should be rejected totally and completely, because she is aware that within herself, there exists a supernatural immunity that maintains her perfection. Cameroon Bishops have constantly condemned bribery and corruption that have become rampant in our society. They even ordered prayers to be said in church against the evils.
If at all bribery and corruption have become the Cameroonian way, then we should acknowledge that the church too is becoming corrupt. It is an open secret that church leaders and some priests have become very money-minded, ignoring the fact that the Christian way of life is a process rather than a goal, a turning towards God rather than a desire for material things.
Indeed, things are gradually falling apart in the Catholic Church and some Christians now believe that it is because of the permanent presence of sin that a majority of Catholic Schools have been plunged into limbo.
Their opinions count.
The future of Catholic Schools is so seriously threatened with parents finding it difficult to meet up with the high school fees, and government subventions are not regularly paid.
In the heart of all these setbacks, God has maintained an unexplained silence. Did you say that God's time is the best?
The Diocese of Buea is still under the sign of the rising sun, but this notwithstanding, the time has come for all and sundry to join forces in a bid to give the uprising Diocese a new spirit, a new life and a dynamism worthy of the new era brought by Immanuel Bushu.
There is a need for change, a need to win the youths, a need to reorganise and strengthen the Buea Diocese, a need for the leadership to open up and avoid intolerance to criticism and a need to kill the veritable worm characterised by slander, backbiting and character assassination.
To every son of the Diocese of Buea, it is incumbent on you to ensure the growth of the church, to heal all festering wounds and bring peace and brotherhood once and forever, among the Christians of the Diocese of Buea.
The Diocese is ours; its lot is your lot. Be sure of this without any trace of scepticism that, its onward march shall be your pride and its backwardness your shame.
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