Bamenda, 09 December, 2023 / 9:49 pm (ACI Africa).
Members of the Clergy are to model their ministry upon the humility of Jesus Christ, the Archbishop of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese has said, and cautioned against “clericalism”.
In his homily during the Golden Jubilee of St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary Bambui (STAMS), Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea said, “The exercise of Priestly ministry today cannot be conceived of except in harmony with the Bishop and the presbyterate and in profound communion with other ministries, and charisms.”
Archbishop Nkea called upon members of the Clergy to “reconsider the exercise of authority, modeling it upon Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, emptied himself taking the form of a slave.”
He warned against clericalism, which he said “stems from a misunderstanding of the divine call, viewing it more as a privilege than a service, and manifesting itself in the exercise of power in a worldly manner that refuses to allow itself to be accountable.”
It is a “distortion of the Priestly vocation”, the Cameroonian Archbishop continued to decry clericalism during his December 1 homily, adding that the vice among members of the Clergy “needs to be challenged from the earliest stages of formation by ensuring close contact with the people of God and through concrete service-learning experiences among the most in need.”
