Yaounde, 13 September, 2023 / 9:05 pm (ACI Africa).
Attachment to traditional culture and family ties are among “obstacles” to growth of female religious vocations in Cameroon, Catholic Nuns in the Central African nation have told ACI Africa in interviews.
In a Tuesday, September 12 interview, the Superior of the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary community in Yaounde said, “For about four years now, we have been grappling with a shortage of vocations in Cameroon.”
“Several obstacles hinder female vocations including cultural, traditional, and familial pressures,” Sr. Lylie Florette Nguening said, and added, “In Cameroon, parents exert significant pressure on their children, believing that a girl's purpose is solely for procreation.”
Sr. Nguening further said that she found it regrettable that in Cameroon, “parents often fail to acknowledge the potential for their daughters to choose their own paths and instead push them into early marriages or motherhood, even outside of wedlock.”
“Even the young girls we sponsor in secondary school with the hope of them continuing with us eventually disappoint us,” she lamented, and explained, “As soon as they obtain their certificates, they abandon their calling. Recently, one of our candidates did just that, leading us to stop sponsoring girls in secondary schools.”
