Kumbo ordains six new priests

Fr. Peter A. Foleng, SD.

On Friday 21st April 2006, the Archbishop of Bamenda and Apostolic Administrator to the Diocese of Kumbo, admitted six men into the Presbyteral College of Kumbo. The six Deacons, Rev. Denis Martin Njobam, Rev. Francis Bongajum, Rev. Justin Sefembiy, Rev. Polycarp Wirba, Rev. Sylvester Ngarba Nsah and Rev. Vitalis Tatah all hail from the Diocese of Kumbo. Apart from Rev. Tatah and Rev. Bongajum of the Order of Friars Minor-Capuchins, (OFM) the other four are Diocesan. This brings the presbyterium of Kumbo to 77.

In a homily by Bishop Bushu, he reminded the priests and lay faithful that “In the priest the office and the person merge in the mystery of the living Christ, the eternal high priest”). Heb 3:8.
A priest has no private life; if you are a priest, you are for everybody. And so you cannot sneak out somewhere and say no person is seeing us. If human beings do not see us, God is seeing us. “No person seeks the priesthood on his own. It is Jesus who chooses his priests as he did his apostles. He does this through the Church, his body, built on Peter and the apostles.”
The priest is called to witness on his word, to proclaim, to pronounce and to offer sacrifices. A priest is called to serve and not to be served. In a society marked by materialism and the quest for personal aggrandisement, the prelate exhorted the people to pray for their priests saying that the greatest gift any body could give to a priest is to remember them daily in prayer.
All other things we give them are secondary even if they are important. Addressing all those at the ceremony, the Chairperson of the Diocesan Laity Council, Kumbo, Mr. Chrysanthus Sala revealed that all six priests at some point or other were students of the now Government Bilingual High School Kumbo.
An important detail to be associated with this, is the fact that the Kumbo diocesan youth team at the time undertook visits to this and other non-Catholic schools within the diocese. Alluding to this, the chairman went on to specify that whenever a sound moral environment is created more vocations to serve the Church and the State are prepared.
Unfortunately, Moral Instruction at some point became an appendix on the lecture timetable of most of the Government Secondary Schools, consequently, the Diocesan Youth Team could no longer make these visits with the hope that Catholic Teachers in those institutions facilitate the Christian formation of Catholic students in these schools.
The ordination ceremonies brought together a cross-section of the faithful, civil and traditional authorities. The officiating prelate, Archbishop Cornelius Esua was assisted by Archbishop Antoine Ntalou of Garoua, Bishop Immanuel Bushu of Yagoua, the Provincial and representative of the General of the Capuchins, the Delegate of the Apostolic Administrator Fr. Peter Watson, the Rector of the St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Bambui, Fr. Agapitus Nfon, together with 60 other priests and a permanent deacon from Canada.
It should be noted that the Diocese of Kumbo is principally made up of two administrative divisions Bui and Donga-Mantung even though Fonfuka sub division in Boyo division is administered to pastorally by the Diocese of Kumbo.
Bui Division is predominantly and area of Secondary evangelisation while Donga-Mantung is more of primary evangelisation. The road network in the diocese and its topography are not the best. The entire Ako sub division is administered by only two priests, who most times cannot reach all the villages in over six months.
During the very heavy rains, some of the villages cannot be reached by land owing to the thick mangroves and fast flowing rivers. More priests will increase the chances of some of these villages to meet the priests, who are not only their spiritual physician, but also their psychological and ontological doctor, their engineer, midwife and barrister.
In most of the villages, especially in the Donga-Mantung area the people depend more on the Church for almost every aspect of their lives.