Cameroonian Catholic Diocese Launches 2025–2026 Pastoral Year with Calls for Stronger Collaboration in Parish Services

Douala, 20 September, 2025 / 9:35 PM

Bishop Christophe Zoa of the Catholic Diocese of Sangmelima in Cameroon has opened the 2025–2026 pastoral year with an appeal for greater collaboration in parish life, urging the faithful to strengthen parish services and embrace their shared responsibility for the Church.

In his address during the Wednesday, September 17 event, Bishop Zoa called for a renewed understanding of baptismal co-responsibility.

“The Church is everyone’s responsibility. The baptized are the Church. Inscribed in a relationship both of sonship and of fraternity, they share in the communion of the Church and in its mission,” the Cameroonian Catholic Bishop said during the event that was held at the Education and Training Center for Christian Managers (CEFAC).

He said all baptized “are all co-responsible for proclaiming the Gospel, each according to his or her vocation and personal charisms—in other words, according to their canonical status—but always on the basis of fundamental equality in dignity and in common action.”

Bishop Zoa lamented, however, that “very few parishioners actually understand that they are the Church in this place, and that the parish is also their responsibility.” 

He explained that while all baptized Christians share co-responsibility for the Church’s mission, “within this co-responsibility of all parishioners by virtue of their baptism, there must be recognized a more specific collaboration of some.”

“This more properly ministerial collaboration, however, is distinct from the general co-responsibility of all,” the Bishop said.

Clarifying “Service” in the Parish

Bishop Zoa dedicated much of his message to clarifying the terminology surrounding “service” in the Church. 

He said collaboration refers first to ordained ministers—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons—who, through Holy Orders, “have been permanently marked in their persons, not by merit of their own, but as a gift from God, to be configured to Christ the Head.”

The Catholic Church leader explained that sacramental ordination produces a real distinction in the Church: 

“The difference between these ‘some’ and the whole body of the baptized is essential, in the sense that sacramental ordination produces a meaningful distinction that results in a structural asymmetry within the Church,” he said.

The Local Ordinary of Sangmelima highlighted the role of the laity, saying, “Collaboration also refers to lay faithful who have the necessary qualities to exercise a ministry, office, or task in the Church and who are called to this by the pastors.”

“No one sends himself into the service of the Church. Whether cleric or layperson, all are sent,” he said. 

The Bishop explained that a layperson may have a charism of consolation and, moved by faith, visits the sick around him or even in the parish. “This is service in the name of his baptismal vocation,” Bishop Zoa said, and added, “But the day his parish priest formally asks him to visit the sick on behalf of the parish community, he is then exercising a mission in the name of the Church.”

Ministries in Parish Life

Bishop Zoa went on to present the various ministries that express “ministerial collaboration.”

The Curate, he explained, holds a single office: presbyteral collaboration with the Parish Priest. 

As such, the Bishop said, the Curate is both the Parish Priest’s assistant and collaborator, sharing the Priest’s pastoral concern but always under his authority, “in common agreement and joint effort.”

Together, the two are “simul sponsores”, jointly responsible for the pastoral care of the Parish.

Speaking of Deacons, Bishop Zoa 

Clarifying the role of Deacons in Parishes, the Bishop said, “The Deacon’s proper ministry is clear: in liturgy, especially the Eucharist, and in the service of charity.”

He explained that a Deacon animates Parish or inter-parish works of solidarity with the poor. “By office, he is a member of the parish pastoral council, where he represents the poor and promotes authentic charity,” Bishop Zoa said. 

On lay ministries, the Bishop emphasized that lay collaborators are not merely volunteers but are entrusted with genuine missions in the name of the Church. 

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“The baptized no longer act solely in their own name but now officially engage the Church itself under the authority of the pastors. All ministries, offices, and functions come from a mission entrusted by the Church,” he said.

Examples in the Diocese include Catechists, liturgical leaders, Caritas coordinators, and administrators of temporal goods. 

Bishop Zoa explained that in Sangmelima Diocese, the term Pastoral Agent is preferred “to highlight their active collaboration with parish priests as true partners, not mere assistants.”

A Call for Renewal

Bishop Zoa acknowledged the gaps that remain in Parish life, saying, “The Diocese notes the significant absence of such lay ministers in many parishes.”

“Parish Priests are therefore encouraged to formally establish these ministries according to canon law, thus transforming parish life through a renewed articulation of ministries,” he said.

Bishop Zoa expressed confidence that the 2025-2026 Pastoral Year orientations would bear fruit, saying, “The Diocese of Sangmelima will advance considerably toward its full constitution through this pastoral renewal.”